ANCONTROL(8) OpenBSD System Manager's Manual ANCONTROL(8)
NAME
ancontrol - configure Aironet 4500/4800 devices
SYNOPSIS
ancontrol -i iface -A
ancontrol -i iface -N
ancontrol -i iface -S
ancontrol -i iface -I
ancontrol -i iface -T
ancontrol -i iface -C
ancontrol -i iface -t 0|1|2|3|4
ancontrol -i iface -s 0|1|2|3
ancontrol -i iface -a AP [-v 1|2|3|4]
ancontrol -i iface -b beacon period
ancontrol -i iface -d 0|1|2|3 [v 0|1]
ancontrol -i iface -j netjoin timeout
ancontrol -i iface -l station name
ancontrol -i iface -m mac address
ancontrol -i iface -n SSID [-v 1|2|3]
ancontrol -i iface -o 0|1
ancontrol -i iface -p tx power
ancontrol -i iface -c channel number
ancontrol -i iface -f fragmentation threshold
ancontrol -i iface -r RTS threshold
ancontrol -h
DESCRIPTION
The ancontrol command controls the operation of Aironet wireless network-
ing devices via the an(4) driver. Most of the parameters that can be
changed relate to the IEEE 802.11 protocol which the Aironet cards imple-
ment. This includes the station name, whether the station is operating
in ad-hoc (point to point) or infrastructure mode, and the network name
of a service set to join. ancontrol can also be used to view the current
NIC status, configuration and to dump out the values of the card's
statistics counters.
The iface argument given to ancontrol should be the logical interface
name associated with the Aironet device (e.g., an0, an1, etc...).
The options are as follows:
-i iface -A
Display the preferred access point list. The AP list can be
used by stations to specify the MAC address of access points
with which it wishes to associate. If no AP list is speci-
fied (the default) then the station will associate with the
first access point that it finds which serves the SSID(s)
specified in the SSID list. The AP list can be modified with
the -a option.
-i iface -N
Display the SSID list. This is a list of service set IDs
(i.e., network names) with which the station wishes to asso-
ciate. There may be up to three SSIDs in the list: the sta-
tion will go through the list in ascending order and associ-
ate with the first matching SSID that it finds.
-i iface -S
Display NIC status information. This includes the current
operating status, current BSSID, SSID, channel, beacon peri-
od, and currently associated access point. The operating
mode indicates the state of the NIC, MAC status and receiver
status. When the ``synced'' keyword appears, it means the
NIC has successfully associated with an access point, associ-
ated with an ad-hoc ``master'' station, or become a
``master'' itself. The beacon period can be anything between
20 and 976 milliseconds. The default is 100.
-i iface -I
Display NIC capability information. This shows the device
type, frequency, speed, and power level capablities and
firmware revision levels.
-i iface -T
Display the NIC's internal statistics counters.
-i iface -C
Display current NIC configuration. This shows the current
operation mode, receive mode, MAC address, power save set-
tings, various timing settings, channel selection, diversity,
transmit power, and transmit speed.
-i iface -t 0|1|2|3|4
Select transmit speed. The available settings are as fol-
lows:
TX rate NIC speed
0 Auto -- NIC selects optimal speed
1 1Mbps fixed
2 2Mbps fixed
3 5.5Mbps fixed
4 11Mbps fixed
Note that the 5.5 and 11Mbps settings are only supported on
the 4800 series adapters: the 4500 series adapters have a
maximum speed of 2Mbps.
-i iface -s 0|1|2|3
Set power save mode. Valid selections are as follows:
Selection Power save mode
0 None - power save disabled
1 Constantly awake mode (CAM)
2 Power Save Polling (PSP)
3 Fast Power Save Polling (PSP-CAM)
Note that for IBSS (ad-hoc) mode, only PSP mode is supported,
and only if the ATIM window is non-zero.
-i iface -a AP [-v 1|2|3|4]
Set preferred access point. The AP is specified as a MAC ad-
dress consisting of 6 hexadecimal values separated by colons.
By default, the -a option only sets the first entry in the AP
list. The -v modifier can be used to specify exactly which
AP list entry is to be modified. If the -v flag is not used,
the first AP list entry will be changed.
-i iface -b beacon period
Set the ad-hoc mode beacon period. The becon period is spec-
ified in milliseconds. The default is 100ms.
-i iface -d 0|1|2|3 -v 0|1
Select the antenna diversity. Aironet devices can be config-
ured with up to two antennas, and transmit and receive diver-
sity can be configured accordingly. Valid selections are as
follows:
Selection Diversity
0 Select factory default diversity
1 Antenna 1 only
2 Antenna 2 only
3 Antenna 1 and 2
The receive and transmit diversity can be set independently.
The user must specify which diversity setting is to be modi-
fied by using the -v option: selection 0 sets the receive di-
versity and 1 sets the transmit diversity.
-i iface -j netjoin timeout
Set the ad-hoc network join timeout. When a station is first
activated in ad-hoc mode, it will search out a 'master' sta-
tion with the desired SSID and associate with it. If the
station is unable to locate another station with the same
SSID after a suitable timeout, it sets itself up as the 'mas-
ter' so that other stations may associate with it. This
timeout defaults to 10000 milliseconds (10 seconds) but may
be changed with this option. The timeout should be specified
in milliseconds.
i iface -l station name
Set the station name used internally by the NIC. The station
name can be any text string up to 16 characters in length.
The default name is set by the driver to "OpenBSD".
-i iface -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.
-i iface -n SSID [-v 1|2|3]
Set the desired SSID (network name). There are three SSIDs
which allows the NIC to work with access points at several
locations without needing to be reconfigured. The NIC checks
each SSID in sequence when searching for a match. The SSID
to be changed can be specified with the -v modifier option.
If the -v flag isn't used, the first SSID in the list is set.
-i iface -o 0|1
Set the operating mode of the Aironet interface. Valid se-
lections are 0 for ad-hoc mode and 1 for infrastructure mode.
The default driver setting is for ad-hoc mode.
-i iface -p tx power
Set the transmit power level in milliwatts. Valid power set-
tings vary depending on the actual NIC and can be viewed by
dumping the device capabilities with the -I flag. Typical
values are 1, 5, 20, 50, and 100mW. Selecting 0 sets the
factory default.
-i iface -c channel
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 - -
2 2417 2417 - -
3 2422 2422 - -
4 2427 2427 - -
5 2432 2432 - -
6 2437 2437 - -
7 2442 2442 - -
8 2447 2447 - -
9 2452 2452 - -
10 2457 2457 2457 -
11 2462 2462 2462 -
12 - 2467 2467 -
13 - 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 only
available channel is 14. Note that two stations must be set
to the same channel in order to communicate.
-i iface -f fragmentation threshold
Set the fragmentation threshold in bytes. This threshold
controls the point at which outgoing packets will be split
into multiple fragments. If a single fragment is not sent
successfully, only that fragment will need to be retransmit-
ted instead of the whole packet. The fragmentation threshold
can be anything from 64 to 2312 bytes. The default is 2312.
-i iface -r RTS threshold
Set the RTS/CTS threshold for a given interface. This con-
trols the number of bytes used for the RTS/CTS handhake
boundary. The RTS threshold can be any value between 0 and
2312. The default is 2312.
-h Prints a list of available options and sample usage.
SEE ALSO
an(4), ifconfig(8)
AUTHORS
The ancontrol command was written by Bill Paul <wpaul@ee.columbia.edu>
and ported to OpenBSD by Michael Shalayeff <mickey@openbsd.org> .
HISTORY
The ancontrol command first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0 and OpenBSD 2.7.
BUGS
The statistics counters do not seem to show the amount of transmit and
received frames as increasing. This is likely due to the fact that the
an(4) driver uses unmodified packet mode instead of letting the NIC per-
form 802.11/Ethernet encapsulation itself.
Setting the channel does not seem to have any effect.
OpenBSD 2.7 September 10, 1999 4