ACX(4)                    OpenBSD Programmer's Manual                   ACX(4)

NAME
     acx - TI ACX100/ACX111 IEEE 802.11a/b/g wireless network device

SYNOPSIS
     acx* at cardbus?
     acx* at pci?

DESCRIPTION
     The acx driver provides support for TI TNETW1100/TNETW1100B (ACX100) and
     TNETW1130 (ACX111) based PCI/Cardbus network adapters.

     The ACX100A and ACX100B are first generation 802.11b devices from TI.
     The ACX111 is a second generation device which supports 802.11b/g and in
     some cases 802.11a.

     These are the modes the acx driver can operate in:

     BSS mode       Also known as infrastructure mode, this is used when asso-
                    ciating with an access point, through which all traffic
                    passes.  This mode is the default.

     IBSS mode      Also known as IEEE ad-hoc mode or peer-to-peer mode.  This
                    is the standardized method of operating without an access
                    point.  Stations associate with a service set.  However,
                    actual connections between stations are peer-to-peer.

     Host AP        In this mode the driver acts as an access point (base sta-
                    tion) for other cards.

     acx supports software WEP for ACX111 and hardware WEP for ACX100.  Wired
     Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is the de facto encryption standard for wireless
     networks.  It can be typically configured in one of three modes: no en-
     cryption; 40-bit encryption; or 104-bit encryption.  Unfortunately, due
     to serious weaknesses in WEP protocol it is strongly recommended that it
     not be used as the sole mechanism to secure wireless communication.  WEP
     is not enabled by default.

     The transmit speed is user-selectable or can be adapted automatically by
     the driver depending on the number of hardware transmission retries.

CONFIGURATION
     The acx driver can be configured at runtime with ifconfig(8) or on boot
     with hostname.if(5) using the following parameters:

     bssid bssid
             Set the desired BSSID.

     -bssid  Unset the desired BSSID.  The interface will automatically select
             a BSSID in this mode, which is the default.

     chan n  Set the channel (radio frequency) to be used by the driver based
             on the given channel ID n.

     -chan   Unset the desired channel to be used by the driver.  The driver
             will automatically select a channel in this mode, which is the
             default.

     media media
             The acx driver supports the following media types:

             autoselect  Enable autoselection of the media type and options.
             DS1         Set 802.11b DS 1Mbps operation.
             DS2         Set 802.11b DS 2Mbps operation.
             DS5         Set 802.11b DS 5.5Mbps operation.
             DS11        Set 802.11b DS 11Mbps operation.
             OFDM6       Set 802.11a/g OFDM 6Mbps operation.
             OFDM9       Set 802.11a/g OFDM 9Mbps operation.
             OFDM12      Set 802.11a/g OFDM 12Mbps operation.
             OFDM18      Set 802.11a/g OFDM 18Mbps operation.
             OFDM24      Set 802.11a/g OFDM 24Mbps operation.
             OFDM36      Set 802.11a/g OFDM 36Mbps operation.
             OFDM48      Set 802.11a/g OFDM 48Mbps operation.
             OFDM54      Set 802.11a/g OFDM 54Mbps operation.

     mediaopt opts
             The acx driver supports the following media options:

             hostap   Select Host AP operation.
             ibss     Select IBSS operation.

     -mediaopt opts
             Disable the specified media options on the driver and return it
             to the default mode of operation (BSS).

     mode mode
             The acx driver supports the following modes:

             11a  Force 802.11a operation.
             11b  Force 802.11b operation.
             11g  Force 802.11g operation.

     nwid id
             Set the network ID.  The id can either be any text string up to
             32 characters in length, or a series of hexadecimal digits up to
             64 digits.  An empty id string allows the interface to connect to
             any available access points.  By default the acx driver uses an
             empty string.  Note that network ID is synonymous with Extended
             Service Set ID (ESSID).

     -nwid   Set the network ID to the empty string to allow the interface to
             connect to any available access point.

     nwkey key
             Enable WEP encryption using the specified key.  The key can ei-
             ther be a string, a series of hexadecimal digits (preceded by
             `0x'), or a set of keys of the form ``n:k1,k2,k3,k4'', where `n'
             specifies which of the keys will be used for transmitted packets,
             and the four keys, ``k1'' through ``k4'', are configured as WEP
             keys.  If a set of keys is specified, a comma (`,') within the
             key must be escaped with a backslash.  Note that if multiple keys
             are used, their order must be the same within the network.  acx
             is capable of using both 40-bit (5 characters or 10 hexadecimal
             digits) or 104-bit (13 characters or 26 hexadecimal digits) keys.

     -nwkey  Disable WEP encryption.  This is the default mode of operation.

FILES
     The driver needs a set of firmware files which are loaded when an inter-
     face is brought up:

           /etc/firmware/tiacx100
           /etc/firmware/tiacx100r0D
           /etc/firmware/tiacx100r11
           /etc/firmware/tiacx111
           /etc/firmware/tiacx111c16
           /etc/firmware/tiacx111r16

     These firmware files are not free because TI refuses to grant distribu-
     tion rights.  In fact they have rebuffed thousands of attempts to start a
     dialogue on this issue.  As a result, even though OpenBSD includes the
     driver, the firmware files cannot be included and users have to download
     these files on their own.

     A prepackaged version of the firmware, designed to be used with
     pkg_add(1), can be found at:

           http://www.nazgul.ch/acx/acx-firmware-1.3.tgz

HARDWARE
     The following cards are among those supported by the acx driver:

           Card                   Chip      Bus        Standard
           D-Link DWL-520+        ACX100    PCI        b
           D-Link DWL-650+        ACX100    CardBus    b
           D-Link DWL-G520+       ACX111    PCI        b/g
           D-Link DWL-G630+       ACX111    CardBus    b/g
           D-Link DWL-G650+       ACX111    CardBus    b/g
           Ergenic ERG WL-003     ACX100    CardBus    b
           Hamlet HNWP254         ACX111    CardBus    b/g
           Hawking HWP54G         ACX111    PCI        b/g
           Linksys WPC54Gv2       ACX111    CardBus    b/g
           Microcom Travelcard    ACX111    CardBus    b/g
           Netgear WG311v2        ACX111    PCI        b/g
           Sceptre SC254W+        ACX111    CardBus    b/g
           Tornado/ADT 211g       ACX111    PCI        b/g
           USR USR5410            ACX111    CardBus    b/g
           USR USR5416            ACX111    PCI        b/g
           Zyxel G-160            ACX111    Cardbus    b/g
           Zyxel G-360 EE         ACX111    PCI        b/g

EXAMPLES
     The following hostname.if(5) example configures acx0 to join whatever
     network is available on boot, using WEP key ``0x1deadbeef1'', channel 11,
     obtaining an IP address using DHCP:

           dhcp NONE NONE NONE nwkey 0x1deadbeef1 chan 11

     The following hostname.if(5) example creates a host-based access point on
     boot:

           inet 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0 NONE media autoselect \
                   mediaopt hostap nwid my_net chan 11

     Configure acx0 for WEP, using hex key ``0x1deadbeef1'':

           # ifconfig acx0 nwkey 0x1deadbeef1

     Return acx0 to its default settings:

           # ifconfig acx0 -bssid -chan media autoselect \
                   nwid "" -nwkey

     Join an existing BSS network, ``my_net'':

           # ifconfig acx0 192.168.1.1 netmask 0xffffff00 nwid my_net

SEE ALSO
     arp(4), cardbus(4), ifmedia(4), intro(4), netintro(4), pci(4),
     hostname.if(5), hostapd(8), ifconfig(8)

HISTORY
     The acx driver first appeared in OpenBSD 4.0.

AUTHORS
     The acx driver was written by Sepherosa Ziehau.  The manual page was
     written by Sascha Wildner.  Both are based on the http://wlan.kewl.org
     project team's original code.

     The hardware specification was reverse engineered by the good folks at
     http://acx100.sourceforge.net.  Without them this driver would not have
     been possible.

OpenBSD 4.1                     March 24, 2006                               4
