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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 -Q
     ancontrol -i iface -Z
     ancontrol -i iface -R
     ancontrol -i iface -t 0-4
     ancontrol -i iface -s 0-3
     ancontrol -i iface [-v 1-4] -a AP
     ancontrol -i iface -b beacon_period
     ancontrol -i iface [-v 0 | 1] -d 0-3
     ancontrol -i iface -e 0-4
     ancontrol -i iface [-v 0-8] -k key
     ancontrol -i iface -K 0-2
     ancontrol -i iface -W 0-2
     ancontrol -i iface -L user_name
     ancontrol -i iface -j netjoin_timeout
     ancontrol -i iface -l station_name
     ancontrol -i iface -m mac_address
     ancontrol -i iface [-v 1-3] -n SSID
     ancontrol -i iface -o 0 | 1
     ancontrol -i iface -p tx_power
     ancontrol -i iface -c frequency
     ancontrol -i iface -f fragmentation_threshold
     ancontrol -i iface -r RTS_threshold
     ancontrol -i iface -M 0-15
     ancontrol -h

DESCRIPTION

     The ancontrol utility 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 such things as 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.  The ancontrol utility 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 (an0, an1, etc.).	If one isn't
     specified the device ``an0'' will be assumed.

     The ancontrol utility is not designed to support the combination of argu-
     ments from different SYNOPSIS lines in a single ancontrol invocation, and
     such combinations are not recommended.

OPTIONS

     The options are as follows:

     -i iface -A
	     Display the SSID list.  This is a list of service set IDs (i.e.,
	     network names) with which the station wishes to associate.  There
	     may be up to three SSIDs in the list: the station will go through
	     the list in ascending order and associate with the first matching
	     SSID that it finds.

     -i iface -S
	     Display NIC status information.  This includes the current oper-
	     ating status, current BSSID, SSID, channel, beacon period 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 asso-
	     ciated with an access point, associated 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 capabilities and firmware revi-
	     sion levels.

     -i iface -T
	     Display the NIC's internal statistics counters.

     -i iface -C
	     Display current NIC configuration.  This shows the current opera-
	     tion mode, receive mode, MAC address, power save settings, vari-
	     ous timing settings, channel selection, diversity, transmit power
	     and transmit speed.

     -i iface -Q
	     Display the cached signal strength information maintained by the
	     an(4) driver.  The driver retains information about signal
	     strength and noise level for packets received from different
	     hosts.  The signal strength and noise level values are displayed
	     in units of dBms by default.  The hw.an.an_cache_mode sysctl(8)
	     variable can be set to raw, dbm or per.

     -i iface -Z
	     Clear the signal strength cache maintained internally by the
	     an(4) driver.

     -i iface -R
	     Display RSSI map that converts from the RSSI index to percent and
	     dBm.

     -i iface -t 0-4
	     Select transmit speed.  The available settings are as follows:

		   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

		   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 [-v 1-4] -a AP
	     Set preferred access point.  The AP is specified as a MAC address
	     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 beacon_period is speci-
	     fied in milliseconds.  The default is 100ms.

     -i iface [-v 0 | 1] -d 0-3
	     Select the antenna diversity.  Aironet devices can be configured
	     with up to two antennas, and transmit and receive diversity 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 modified by
	     using the -v option: selection 0 sets the receive diversity and 1
	     sets the transmit diversity.

     -i iface -e 0-4
	     Set the transmit WEP key to use.  Note that until this command is
	     issued, the device will use the last key programmed.  The trans-
	     mit key is stored in NVRAM.  Currently set transmit key can be
	     checked via -C option.  Selection 4 sets the card in ``Home
	     Network Mode'' and uses the home key.

     -i iface [-v 0-8] -k key
	     Set a WEP key.  For 40 bit prefix 10 hex character with 0x.  For
	     128 bit prefix 26 hex character with 0x.  Use "" as the key to
	     erase the key.  Supports 4 keys; even numbers are for permanent
	     keys and odd number are for temporary keys.  For example, -v 1
	     sets the first temporary key.  (A ``permanent'' key is stored in
	     NVRAM; a ``temporary'' key is not.)  Note that the device will
	     use the most recently-programmed key by default.  Currently set
	     keys can be checked via -C option, only the sizes of the keys are
	     returned.	The value of 8 is for the home key.  Note that the
	     value for the home key can be read back from firmware.

     -i iface -K 0-2
	     Set authorization type.  Use 0 for none, 1 for ``Open'', 2 for
	     ``Shared Key''.

     -i iface -W 0-2
	     Set the ad-hoc network join timeout.  When a station is first
	     activated in ad-hoc mode, it will search out a ``master'' station
	     with the desired SSID and associate with it.  If the station is
	     unable to locate another station with the same SSID after a suit-
	     able timeout, it sets itself up as the ``master'' 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 ``FreeBSD''.

     -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 [-v 1-3] -n SSID
	     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 selec-
	     tions are 0 for ad-hoc mode and 1 for infrastructure mode.  The
	     default driver setting is for infrastructure mode.

     -i iface -p tx_power
	     Set the transmit power level in milliwatts.  Valid power settings
	     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 frequency
	     Set the radio frequency of a given interface.  The frequency
	     should be specified as a channel ID as shown in the table below.
	     The list of available frequencies is dependent on radio regula-
	     tions 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     -
	     channel is 11.  For NICs sold in Japan, the only available chan-
	     nel is 14.  Note that two stations must be set to the same chan-
	     nel in order to communicate.

     -i iface -f fragmentation_threshold
	     Set the fragmentation threshold in bytes.	This threshold con-
	     trols the point at which outgoing packets will be split into mul-
	     tiple fragments.  If a single fragment is not sent successfully,
	     only that fragment will need to be retransmitted 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 controls
	     the number of bytes used for the RTS/CTS handshake boundary.  The
	     RTS_threshold can be any value between 0 and 2312.  The default
	     is 2312.

     -i iface -M 0-15
	     Set monitor mode via bit mask, meaning:

		   Bit	   Meaning
		   0	   to not dump 802.11 packet.
		   1	   to enable 802.11 monitor.
		   2	   to monitor any SSID.
		   4	   to not skip beacons, monitor beacons produces a
			   high system load.
		   8	   to enable full Aironet header returned via BPF.
			   Note it appears that a SSID must be set.

     -h      Print a list of available options and sample usage.

SECURITY NOTES

     WEP (``wired equivalent privacy'') is based on the RC4 algorithm, using a
     24 bit initialization vector.

     RC4 is supposedly vulnerable to certain known plaintext attacks, espe-
     cially with 40 bit keys.  So the security of WEP in part depends on how
     much known plaintext is transmitted.

     Because of this, although counter-intuitive, using ``shared key'' authen-
     tication (which involves sending known plaintext) is less secure than
     using ``open'' authentication when WEP is enabled.

     Devices may alternate among all of the configured WEP keys when transmit-
     ting packets.  Therefore, all configured keys (up to four) must agree.

EXAMPLES

	   ancontrol -i an0 -v 0 -k 0x12345678901234567890123456
	   ancontrol -i an0 -K 2
	   ancontrol -i an0 -W 1
	   ancontrol -i an0 -e 0

     Sets a WEP key 0, enables ``Shared Key'' authentication, enables full WEP
     and uses transmit key 0.

SEE ALSO

     an(4), ifconfig(8)
     form 802.11/ethernet encapsulation itself.

     Setting the channel does not seem to have any effect.

AUTHORS

     The ancontrol utility was written by Bill Paul <wpaul@ee.columbia.edu>.

FreeBSD 5.4		      September 10, 1999		   FreeBSD 5.4

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