wicontrol(8)
NAME
- wicontrol - configure Lucent, Intersil, and Atheros wireless
- devices
SYNOPSIS
wicontrol [-i] iface [-o]
wicontrol [-i] iface -l (dump associated stations)
wicontrol [-i] iface -L (list available access points)
wicontrol [-i] iface -t tx_rate
wicontrol [-i] iface -n network_name
wicontrol [-i] iface -s station_name
wicontrol [-i] iface -c 0 | 1
wicontrol [-i] iface -q SSID
wicontrol [-i] iface -p port_type
wicontrol [-i] iface -a access_point_density
wicontrol [-i] iface -m mac_address
wicontrol [-i] iface -d max_data_length
wicontrol [-i] iface -e 0 | 1
wicontrol [-i] iface -k key [-v 1 | 2 | 3 | 4]
wicontrol [-i] iface -T 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
wicontrol [-i] iface -r RTS_threshold
wicontrol [-i] iface -f frequency
wicontrol [-i] iface -P 0 | 1
wicontrol [-i] iface -S max_sleep_duration
wicontrol [-i] iface -Z (zero signal cache)
wicontrol [-i] iface -C (display signal cache)
DESCRIPTION
- The wicontrol utility controls the operation of Lucent, In
- tersil, and
Atheros-based wireless networking devices via wi(4) or - ath(4) driver.
- You should not use this program to configure IEEE 802.11 pa
- rameters. Use
ifconfig(8) instead to do those tasks (i.e., set SSID, WEP - key, etc.).
- The wicontrol utility can also be used to view the current
- settings of
these parameters, dump out the values of the card's statis - tics counters,
list associated stations (in HostAP mode), and scan for - available access
points. - The iface argument given to wicontrol should be the logical
- interface
name associated with the Lucent, Intersil, and Atheros de - vice (wi0, wi1,
ath0, etc.). If none is specified then ``wi0'' is used as - default.
OPTIONS
The options are as follows:
- [-i] iface [-o]
- Display the current settings of the specified wire
- less interface.
This retrieves the current card settings from the - driver and
prints them out. Using the additional -o flag will - cause
wicontrol to print out the statistics counters in - stead of the
card settings. Encryption keys are only displayed - if wicontrol
is run as root. - [-i] iface -a access_point_density
- Specify the access point density for a given inter
- face. Legal
values are 1 (low), 2 (medium) and 3 (high). This - setting influences some of the radio modem threshold settings.
- [-i] iface -m mac_address
- Set the station address for the specified interface.
- The
mac_address is specified as a series of six hexadec - imal values
separated by colons, e.g., ``00:60:1d:12:34:56''. - This programs
the new address into the card and updates the inter - face as well.
- [-i] iface -d max_data_length
- Set the maximum receive and transmit frame size for
- a specified
interface. The max_data_length can be any number - from 350 to
2304. The default is 2304. - [-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 2347. - The default
is 2347. - [-i] iface -Z
Clear the signal strength cache maintained internal - ly by the
wi(4) driver. - [-i] iface -C
Display the cached signal strength information main - tained by the
wi(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. The signal quality value is pro - duced by subtracting the noise level from the signal strength
- (i.e., less
noise and better signal yields better signal quali - ty).
DEPRECATED AND OBSOLETE OPTIONS
- The wicontrol utility has a number of options that are now
- deprecated or
obsolete, as they have been overtaken by extensions to if - config(8) and
changes to the driver. The deprecated and obsolete options - are as follows:
- [-i] iface -t tx_rate
This flag is deprecated. Use ifconfig(8) mediaopt - instead.
- 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 cor - responding
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 default driver setting is 3 (auto rate select).
- The numbers
vary from card to card. - [-i] iface -n network_name
This flag is deprecated. Use ifconfig(8) ssid or - nwid instead.
- 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 string
- ``ANY'' which
should allow the station to connect to the first - available access
point. The interface should be set for BSS mode us - ing the -p
flag in order for this to work. - Note: the WaveLAN manual indicates that an empty
- string will
allow the host to connect to any access point, how - ever I have
also seen a reference in another driver which indi - cates that the
``ANY'' string works as well. - [-i] iface -s station_name
This flag is deprecated. Use ifconfig(8) - stationname or station
instead. - Sets the station name for the specified interface.
- The
station_name is used for diagnostic purposes. The - Lucent
WaveMANAGER software can poll the names of remote - hosts.
- [-i] iface -c 0 | 1
This flag is deprecated. IBSS networks are automat - ically created
on those cards whose firmware supports it while in - IBSS mode.
- Allow the station to create a service set (IBSS).
- Permitted values are 0 (do not create IBSS) and 1 (enable cre
- ation of IBSS).
The default is 0. - Only newer versions of the Lucent firmware support
- this.
- [-i] iface -q SSID
This flag is deprecated. The ssid setting from if - config(8) is
the current preferred way of setting this parameter. - Specify the name of an IBSS (SSID) to create on a
- given interface. The SSID can be any text string up to 30
- characters long.
- Note: this option is provided for experimental pur
- poses only:
enabling the creation of an IBSS on a host system - does not appear
to actually work. - [-i] iface -p port_type
This flag is deprecated. It should never be used. - Do not use
this flag. Its meaning depends on the type of card - you are
using, as well as the firmware you have installed in - the card in
some cases. Beware. Danger. Do not use. Instead, - use the
ifconfig(8) media and mediaopt commands. - Set the port type for a specified interface. The
- legal values
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 setting - is 1 (BSS
mode). Lucent cards have one set of meanings. - Prism cards have
another. Symbol cards have a third. Do not use - this flag.
- [-i] iface -e 0 | 1
This flag is deprecated. It has been replaced by - the ifconfig(8)
wepmode option. - Enable or disable WEP encryption. Permitted values
- are 0
(encryption disabled) or 1 (encryption enabled). - Encryption is
off by default. - Both 128-bit and 64-bit WEP have been broken. See
- the BUGS section for details.
- [-i] iface -k key [-v 1 | 2 | 3 | 4] This flag is obsolete. The ifconfig(8) wepkey
- should be used
instead. - Set WEP encryption keys. There are four default en
- cryption 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 Turbo Silver cards, the key is restricted to - 40 bits,
hence the key can be either a 5 character text - string or 10 hex
digits. For WaveLAN Turbo Gold cards, the key can - also be 104
bits, which means the key can be specified as either - a 13 character text string or 26 hex digits in addition to the
- formats supported by the Silver cards.
- For maximum portability, hex keys are recommended;
- the mapping of
text keys to WEP encryption is usually driver-spe - cific. In particular, the Windows drivers do this mapping differ
- ently to
FreeBSD. - Note: Both 128-bit and 64-bit WEP encryption have
- been broken.
See the BUGS section for details. - [-i] iface -T 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
This flag is obsolete. The ifconfig(8) weptxkey - should be used
instead. - Specify which of the four WEP encryption keys will
- be used to
encrypt transmitted packets. - Note: Both 128-bit and 64-bit WEP have been broken.
- See the BUGS
section for details. - [-i] iface -f frequency
This flag is deprecated. Use ifconfig(8) channel - instead.
- 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 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 re
- vert 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 default - channel is
14, and it is the only available channel for - pre-11Mbps NICs.
Note that two stations must be set to the same chan - nel in order
to communicate. - [-i] iface -P 0 | 1
This flag is obsolete. The ifconfig(8) powersave - should be used
instead. - Enable or disable power management on a given inter
- face.
Enabling power management uses an alternating - sleep/wake protocol
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 PCM - CIA adapter
firmware 2.00 or later. Older revisions will - silently ignore the
power management setting. Legal values for this pa - rameter are 0
(off) and 1 (on). - [-i] iface -S max_sleep_interval This flag is obsolete. The ifconfig(8) powersleep
- should be used
instead. - Specify the sleep interval to use when power manage
- ment is
enabled. The max_sleep_interval is specified in - milliseconds.
The default is 100.
SEE ALSO
ath(4), awi(4), ipsec(4), wi(4), ifconfig(8)
HISTORY
The wicontrol utility first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0.
AUTHORS
- The wicontrol utility was written by Bill Paul
- <wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu>.
BUGS
- There are deprecated flags here that duplicate functionality
- of
ifconfig(8). These flags were deprecated in FreeBSD 5.1 and - will be
removed in a future release. - The WEP encryption method has been broken so that third par
- ties can
recover the keys in use relatively quickly at distances that - are surprising to most people. Do not rely on WEP for anything but the
- most basic,
remedial security. IPSEC will give you a higher level of - security and
should be used whenever possible. Do not trust access - points or wireless
machines that connect through them as they can provide no - assurance that
the traffic is legitimate. MAC addresses can easily be - forged and should
therefore not be used as the only access control. - The attack on WEP is a passive attack, requiring only the
- ability to
sniff packets on the network. The passive attack can be - launched at a
distance larger, up to many miles, than one might otherwise - expect given
a specialized antenna used in point to point applications. - The attacker
can recover the keys from a 128-bit WEP network with only - 5,000,000 to
6,000,000 packets. While this may sound like a large number - of packets,
empirical evidence suggests that this amount of traffic is - generated in a
few hours on a partially loaded network. Once a key has - been compromised, the only remedial action is to discontinue it and use
- a new key.
- See http://www.cs.rice.edu/~astubble/wep/wep_attack.html for
- details of
the attack. Many programs to assist in cracking WEP keys - are widely
available. - If you must use WEP, you are strongly encouraged to pick
- keys whose bytes
are random and not confined to ASCII characters. Brute - force attacks on
WEP keys are also possible. Experience has showns that - ASCII keys can be
cracked in less than a day. Even random bytes can be - cracked in less
than two weeks. - Signal cache is broken right now.
- BSD March 4, 2003