WICONTROL(8)            OpenBSD System Manager's Manual           WICONTROL(8)

NAME
     wicontrol - configure WaveLAN/IEEE devices

SYNOPSIS
     wicontrol [interface] [-o] [-e 0|1] [-k key [-v 1|2|3|4]] [-t tx rate]
               [-n network name] [-s station name] [-c 0|1] [-q SSID] [-p port
               type] [-a access point density] [-m MAC address] [-d max data
               length] [-r RTS threshold] [-f frequency] [-P 0|1] [-S max
               sleep duration] [-T 1|2|3|4]

DESCRIPTION
     The wicontrol command controls the operation of WaveLAN/IEEE wireless
     networking devices via the wi(4) and awi(4) drivers.  Most of the parame-
     ters that can be changed relate to the IEEE 802.11 protocol which the
     WaveLAN implements.  This includes the station name, whether the station
     is operating in ad-hoc (point to point) or BSS (service set) mode, and
     the network name of a service set to join (IBSS) if BSS mode is enabled.

     The iface argument given to wicontrol should be the logical interface
     name associated with the WaveLAN/IEEE device (wi0, wi1, etc...).

     The wicontrol command given without any additional flags retrieves the
     current card settings from the driver and prints them out.

OPTIONS
     The options are as follows:

     -o          Display the statistics counters for the specified Wave-
                 LAN/IEEE interface.

     -e 0|1      Enable or disable WEP encryption.  Permitted values are 0
                 (encryption disabled) or 1 (encryption enabled).  Encryption
                 is off by default.

     -k key [ -v 1|2|3|4 ]
                 Set WEP encryption keys.  There are four default encryption
                 keys that can be programmed.  A specific key can be set using
                 the -v flag.  If the -v flag is not specified, the first key
                 will be set.  Encryption keys can either be normal text
                 (i.e., "hello") or a series of hexadecimal digits (i.e.,
                 "0x1234512345").  For WaveLAN Silver cards, the key is re-
                 stricted to 40 bits, hence the key can be either a 5-charac-
                 ter text string or 10 hexadecimal digits.  For WaveLAN Gold
                 cards, the key can be up to 128 bits, which means the key can
                 be specified as either a 16-character text string or 32 hex-
                 adecimal digits.

     -T 1|2|3|4  Specify which of the four WEP encryption keys will be used to
                 encrypt transmitted packets.

     -t tx rate  Set the transmit rate of the specified interface.  The legal
                 values for the transmit rate vary depending on whether the
                 interface is a standard WaveLAN/IEEE or a WaveLAN/IEEE Turbo
                 adapter.  The standard NICs support a maximum transmit rate
                 of 2Mbps while the turbo NICs support a maximum speed of
                 6Mbps.  The following table shows the legal transmit rate
                 settings and the corresponding transmit speeds:


                       TX rate     NIC speed
                       1           Fixed Low (1Mbps)
                       2           Fixed Standard (2Mbps)
                       3           Auto Rate Select (High)
                       4           Fixed Medium (4Mbps)
                       5           Fixed High (6Mbps)
                       6           Auto Rate Select (Standard)
                       7           Auto Rate Select (Medium)

                 The standard NICs support only settings 1 through 3.  Turbo
                 NICs support all the above listed speed settings.  The de-
                 fault driver setting is 3 (auto rate select).

     -n network name
                 Set the name of the service set (IBSS) that this station
                 wishes to join.  The network name can be any text string up
                 to 30 characters in length.  The default name is the empty
                 string which should allow the station to connect to the first
                 available access point.  The interface should be set for BSS
                 mode using the -p flag in order for this to work.

     -s station name
                 Sets the station name for the specified interface.  The
                 station name is used for diagnostic purposes.  The Lucent
                 WaveMANAGER sofware can poll the names of remote hosts.

     -c 0|1      Allow the station to create a service set (IBSS).  Permitted
                 values are 0 (don't create IBSS) and 1 (enable creation of
                 IBSS).  The default is 0.

                 Note: this option is provided for experimental purposes only:
                 enabling the creation of an IBSS on a host system doesn't ap-
                 pear to actually work.

     -q SSID     Specify the name of an IBSS (SSID) to create on a given in-
                 terface.  The SSID can be any text string up to 30 characters
                 long.

                 Note: this option is provided for experimental purposes only:
                 enabling the creation of an IBSS on a host system doesn't ap-
                 pear to actually work.

     -p port type
                 Set the port type for a specified interface.  The legal val-
                 ues for port type are 1 (BSS mode) and 3 (ad-hoc) mode.  In
                 ad-hoc mode, the station can communicate directly with any
                 other stations within direct radio range (provided that they
                 are also operating in ad-hoc mode).  In BSS mode, hosts must
                 associate with a service set controlled by an access point,
                 which relays traffic between end stations.  The default set-
                 ting is 3 (ad-hoc mode).

     -a access_point_density
                 Specify the access point density for a given interface.  Le-
                 gal values are 1 (low), 2 (medium) and 3 (high).  This set-
                 ting influences some of the radio modem threshold settings.

     -m MAC address
                 Set the station address for the specified interface.  The MAC
                 address is specified as a series of six hexadecimal values
                 separated by colons, e.g.: 00:60:1d:12:34:56.  This programs
                 the new address into the card and updates the interface as
                 well.

     -d max_data_length
                 Set the maximum receive and transmit frame size for a speci-
                 fied interface.  The max data length can be any number from
                 350 to 2304.  The default is 2304.

     -r RTS threshold
                 Set the RTS/CTS threshold for a given interface.  This con-
                 trols the number of bytes used for the RTS/CTS handshake
                 boundary.  The RTS threshold can be any value between 0 and
                 2047.  The default is 2047.

     -f frequency
                 Set the radio frequency of a given interface.  The frequency
                 should be specified as a channel ID as shown in the table be-
                 low.  The list of available frequencies is dependent on radio
                 regulations specified by regional authorities.  Recognized
                 regulatory authorities include the FCC (United States), ETSI
                 (Europe), France and Japan.  Frequencies in the table are
                 specified in Mhz.


                       Channel ID    FCC    ETSI    France    Japan
                       1             2412   2412    -         2412
                       2             2417   2417    -         2417
                       3             2422   2422    -         2422
                       4             2427   2427    -         2427
                       5             2432   2432    -         2432
                       6             2437   2437    -         2437
                       7             2442   2442    -         2442
                       8             2447   2447    -         2447
                       9             2452   2452    -         2452
                       10            2457   2457    2457      2457
                       11            2462   2462    2462      2462
                       12            -      2467    2467      2467
                       13            -      2472    2472      2472
                       14            -      -       -         2484

                 If an illegal channel is specified, the NIC will revert to
                 its default channel.  For NICs sold in the United States and
                 Europe, the default channel is 3.  For NICs sold in France,
                 the default channel is 11.  For NICs sold in Japan, the de-
                 fault channel is 14, and it is the only available channel for
                 pre-11Mbps NICs.  Note that two stations must be set to the
                 same channel in order to communicate.

     -P 0|1      Enable or disable power management on a given interface.  En-
                 abling power management uses an alternating sleep/wake proto-
                 col to help conserve power on mobile stations, at the cost of
                 some increased receive latency.  Power management is off by
                 default.  Note that power management requires the cooperation
                 of an access point in order to function; it is not functional
                 in ad-hoc mode.  Also, power management is only implemented
                 in Lucent WavePOINT firmware version 2.03 or later, and in
                 WaveLAN PCMCIA adapter firmware 2.00 or later.  Older revi-
                 sions will silently ignore the power management setting.  Le-
                 gal values for this parameter are 0 (off) and 1 (on).

     -S max sleep interval
                 Specify the sleep interval to use when power management is
                 enabled.  The is specified in milliseconds.  The default is
                 100.

SEE ALSO
     awi(4), an(4), ancontrol(8), wi(4), hostname.if(8), ifconfig(8)

HISTORY
     The wicontrol command first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0.

AUTHOR
     The wicontrol command was written by Bill Paul <wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu>.

OpenBSD 2.8                     April 21, 1999                               3
