path: root/share/man/man4/acx.4

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.Dd $Mdocdate: December 10 2007 $
.Os
.Dt ACX 4
.Sh NAME
.Nm acx
.Nd TI ACX100/ACX111 IEEE 802.11a/b/g wireless network device
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Cd "acx* at cardbus?"
.Cd "acx* at pci?"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
driver provides support for TI TNETW1100/TNETW1100B (ACX100) and
TNETW1130 (ACX111) based PCI/CardBus network adapters.
.Pp
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.
.Pp
These are the modes the
.Nm
driver can operate in:
.Bl -tag -width "IBSS-masterXX"
.It BSS mode
Also known as
.Em infrastructure
mode, this is used when associating with an access point, through
which all traffic passes.
This mode is the default.
.It IBSS mode
Also known as
.Em IEEE ad-hoc
mode or
.Em 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.
.It Host AP
In this mode the driver acts as an access point (base station)
for other cards.
.It monitor mode
In this mode the driver is able to receive packets without
associating with an access point.
This disables the internal receive filter and enables the card to
capture packets from networks which it wouldn't normally have access to,
or to scan for access points.
.El
.Pp
.Nm
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 encryption; 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.
.Pp
The transmit speed is user-selectable or can be adapted automatically by the
driver depending on the number of hardware transmission retries.
.Sh CONFIGURATION
The
.Nm
driver can be configured at runtime with
.Xr ifconfig 8
or on boot with
.Xr hostname.if 5
using the following parameters:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Cm bssid Ar bssid
Set the desired BSSID.
.It Fl bssid
Unset the desired BSSID.
The interface will automatically select a BSSID in this mode, which is
the default.
.It Cm chan Ar n
Set the channel (radio frequency) to be used by the driver based on
the given channel ID
.Ar n .
.It Fl 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.
.It Cm media Ar media
The
.Nm
driver supports the following
.Ar media
types:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width autoselect -compact
.It Cm autoselect
Enable autoselection of the media type and options.
.It Cm DS1
Set 802.11b DS 1Mbps operation.
.It Cm DS2
Set 802.11b DS 2Mbps operation.
.It Cm DS5
Set 802.11b DS 5.5Mbps operation.
.It Cm DS11
Set 802.11b DS 11Mbps operation.
.It Cm OFDM6
Set 802.11a/g OFDM 6Mbps operation.
.It Cm OFDM9
Set 802.11a/g OFDM 9Mbps operation.
.It Cm OFDM12
Set 802.11a/g OFDM 12Mbps operation.
.It Cm OFDM18
Set 802.11a/g OFDM 18Mbps operation.
.It Cm OFDM24
Set 802.11a/g OFDM 24Mbps operation.
.It Cm OFDM36
Set 802.11a/g OFDM 36Mbps operation.
.It Cm OFDM48
Set 802.11a/g OFDM 48Mbps operation.
.It Cm OFDM54
Set 802.11a/g OFDM 54Mbps operation.
.El
.It Cm mediaopt Ar opts
The
.Nm
driver supports the following media options:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width monitor -compact
.It Cm hostap
Select Host AP operation.
.It Cm ibss
Select IBSS operation.
.It Cm monitor
Select monitor mode.
.El
.It Fl mediaopt Ar opts
Disable the specified media options on the driver and return it to the
default mode of operation (BSS).
.It Cm mode Ar mode
The
.Nm
driver supports the following modes:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width 11b -compact
.It Cm 11a
Force 802.11a operation.
.It Cm 11b
Force 802.11b operation.
.It Cm 11g
Force 802.11g operation.
.El
.It Cm nwflag Ar flag
Set a specified flag for the wireless network interface.
The flag name can be either
.Ql hidenwid
or
.Ql nobridge .
The
.Ql hidenwid
flag will hide the network ID (ESSID) in beacon frames when operating
in Host AP mode.
It will also prevent responses to probe requests with an unspecified
network ID.
The
.Ql nobridge
flag will disable the direct bridging of frames between associated
nodes when operating in Host AP mode.
Setting this flag will block and filter direct inter-station
communications.
.Pp
Note that the
.Ql hidenwid
and
.Ql nobridge
options do not provide any security.
The hidden network ID will be sent in clear text by associating
stations and can be easily discovered with tools like
.Xr tcpdump 8
and
.Xr hostapd 8 .
.It Fl nwflag Ar flag
Remove a specified flag for the wireless network interface.
.It Cm nwid Ar id
Set the network ID.
The
.Ar 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
.Ar id
string allows the interface to connect to any available access points.
By default the
.Nm
driver uses an empty string.
Note that network ID is synonymous with Extended Service Set ID (ESSID).
.It Fl nwid
Set the network ID to the empty string to allow the interface to connect
to any available access point.
.It Cm nwkey Ar key
Enable WEP encryption using the specified
.Ar key .
The
.Ar key
can either be a string, a series of hexadecimal digits (preceded by
.Sq 0x ) ,
or a set of keys of the form
.Dq n:k1,k2,k3,k4 ,
where
.Sq n
specifies which of the keys will be used for transmitted packets,
and the four keys,
.Dq k1
through
.Dq k4 ,
are configured as WEP keys.
If a set of keys is specified, a comma
.Pq Sq \&,
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.
.Nm
is capable of using both 40-bit (5 characters or 10 hexadecimal digits)
or 104-bit (13 characters or 26 hexadecimal digits) keys.
.It Fl nwkey
Disable WEP encryption.
This is the default mode of operation.
.El
.Sh FILES
The driver needs a set of firmware files which are loaded when
an interface is brought up:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
.It Pa /etc/firmware/tiacx100
.It Pa /etc/firmware/tiacx100r0D
.It Pa /etc/firmware/tiacx100r11
.It Pa /etc/firmware/tiacx111
.It Pa /etc/firmware/tiacx111c16
.It Pa /etc/firmware/tiacx111r16
.El
.Pp
These firmware files are not free because TI refuses
to grant distribution rights.
In fact they have rebuffed thousands
of attempts to start a dialogue on this issue.
As a result, even though
.Ox
includes the driver, the firmware files cannot be included and
users have to download these files on their own.
.Pp
A prepackaged version of the firmware, designed to be used with
.Xr pkg_add 1 ,
can be found at:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
http://www.nazgul.ch/acx/acx-firmware-1.4.tgz
.Ed
.Sh HARDWARE
The following cards are among those supported by the
.Nm
driver:
.Pp
.Bl -column -compact "Microcom Travelcard" "ACX111" "CardBus" "a/b/g" -offset 6n
.Em "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
.El
.Sh EXAMPLES
The following
.Xr hostname.if 5
example configures acx0 to join whatever network is available on boot,
using WEP key
.Dq 0x1deadbeef1 ,
channel 11, obtaining an IP address using DHCP:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
dhcp NONE NONE NONE nwkey 0x1deadbeef1 chan 11
.Ed
.Pp
The following
.Xr hostname.if 5
example creates a host-based access point on boot:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
inet 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0 NONE media autoselect \e
	mediaopt hostap nwid my_net chan 11
.Ed
.Pp
Configure acx0 for WEP, using hex key
.Dq 0x1deadbeef1 :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
# ifconfig acx0 nwkey 0x1deadbeef1
.Ed
.Pp
Return acx0 to its default settings:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
# ifconfig acx0 -bssid -chan media autoselect \e
	nwid "" -nwkey
.Ed
.Pp
Join an existing BSS network,
.Dq my_net :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
# ifconfig acx0 192.168.1.1 netmask 0xffffff00 nwid my_net
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr arp 4 ,
.Xr cardbus 4 ,
.Xr ifmedia 4 ,
.Xr intro 4 ,
.Xr netintro 4 ,
.Xr pci 4 ,
.Xr hostname.if 5 ,
.Xr hostapd 8 ,
.Xr ifconfig 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
driver first appeared in
.Ox 4.0 .
.Sh AUTHORS
.An -nosplit
The
.Nm
driver was written by
.An Sepherosa Ziehau .
The manual page was written by
.An Sascha Wildner .
Both are based on the
.Pa http://wlan.kewl.org
project team's original code.
.Pp
The hardware specification was reverse engineered by the good folks at
.Pa http://acx100.sourceforge.net .
Without them this driver would not have been possible.