xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man4/wi.4 (revision 08c81a9c2dc8c7300e893321eb65c0925d60871c)
1.\"     $NetBSD: wi.4,v 1.28 2002/08/21 04:08:06 onoe Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1997, 1998, 1999
4.\"	Bill Paul <wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu>. All rights reserved.
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33.\"	$Id: wi.4,v 1.28 2002/08/21 04:08:06 onoe Exp $
34.\"
35.Dd January 11, 2001
36.Dt WI 4
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm wi
40.Nd
41WaveLAN/IEEE and PRISM-II 802.11 wireless network driver
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.Cd "wi* at pcmcia? function ?"
44.Cd "wi* at pci? dev ? function ?"
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46The
47.Nm
48driver provides support for Lucent Technologies WaveLAN/IEEE PCCARD adapters
49(also known as WaveLAN II cards) and various PCCARD adapters which use
50Intersil PRISM-II and PRISM-2.5 chipsets.
51Note that while Lucent sells both ISA and PCMCIA WaveLAN/IEEE devices,
52the ISA product is actually a PCMCIA card in an ISA to PCMCIA bridge adapter.
53Consequently, the
54.Nm
55driver is required for both the ISA and PCMCIA NICs.
56Also note that some of the PRISM-II adapters works only at 3.3V, hence
57.Xr cardbus 4
58support is required for those cards to set VCC correctly,
59even they are 16bit cards.
60.Pp
61The core of the WaveLAN/IEEE is the Lucent Hermes controller.
62All host/device interaction is via programmed I/O with the Hermes.
63The Hermes supports 802.11 and 802.3 frames, power management, BSS, WDS
64and ad-hoc operation modes.  The Silver and the Gold cards of the
65WaveLAN/IEEE also support WEP.  Unlike the other IEEE 802.11 network cards,
66the WaveLAN Gold cards accept 104 bits key (13 characters) for WEP
67encryption.  The Intersil PRISM-II controller supports WEP as well.
68.Pp
69The
70.Nm
71driver encapsulates all IP and ARP traffic as 802.11 frames, however
72it can receive either 802.11 or 802.3 frames.
73Transmit speed is selectable between 1Mbps fixed,
742Mbps fixed or 2Mbps with auto fallback.
75For WaveLAN/IEEE Turbo adapters, speeds up to 6Mbps are available.
76For WaveLAN/IEEE Turbo 11Mbps adapters and PRISM-II adapters, speeds up to
7711Mbps are available.
78.Pp
79The
80.Nm
81driver supports configuration of Lucent cards for special ad-hoc operation.
82In this mode, the nwid is ignored and stations can communicate among each
83other without the aid of an access point.  Note that this mode is specific
84to Lucent chips, and not in the IEEE 802.11 specification.  Due to changes
85in the implementation of this special ad-hoc mode, Lucent-based cards with
86different firmware revisions may not interoperate in this mode.  This mode
87is no longer the default and must be selected using the
88.Xr ifconfig 8
89.Pq media option Dq adhoc,flag0
90or
91.Xr wiconfig 8
92utilities.
93.Pp
94Recent versions of Lucent and PRISM-II firmware support IBSS creation.
95IBSS is the standard IEEE 802.11 ad-hoc mode.  In this mode, the nwid
96should be specified.  At least one node must be able to create IBSS.
97The IBSS mode is enabled by
98.Dq adhoc
99or
100.Dq ibss
101media option.
102The IBSS creation is automatically enabled if supported.
103.Pp
104Recent versions of PRISM-II firmware support operating as an 802.11
105Access Point.  In this mode, the Access Point station should set the
106nwid.  This will create a standard 802.11 network, and the Access Point
107station will show up in an Access Point scan.  This mode is enabled
108using the
109.Dq hostap
110media option.
111.Pp
112For more information on configuring this device, see
113.Xr ifconfig 8
114and
115.Xr ifmedia 4 .
116.Sh HARDWARE
117Cards supported by the
118.Nm
119driver include:
120.Pp
121.Bl -item -offset indent -compact
122.It
123Lucent Wavelan/IEEE 2.0Mb Bronze
124.It
125Lucent Wavelan/IEEE 2.0Mb Silver
126.It
127Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE Turbo
128.It
129Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE Turbo 11Mbps
130.It
131Melco AIR CONNECT WLI-PCM-L11, WLI-PCM-L11G
132.It
133Melco AIR CONNECT WLI-CF-S11G
134.It
135Compaq WL100 11Mbps Wireless
136.It
137Corega Wireless LAN PCC-11, PCCA_11, PCCB_11
138.It
139DEC/Cabletron RoamAbout 802.11 DS High Rate
140.It
141D-Link DWL-650 11Mbps WLAN Card, DCF-650W CF Card
142.It
143ELECOM Air@Hawk LD-WL11
144.It
145ELSA AirLancer MC-11
146.It
147Ericsson Wireless LAN
148.It
149Farallon Skyline 11Mbps Wireless
150.It
151Intel PRO/Wireless 2011 LAN PC Card
152.It
153ICOM SL-1100
154.It
155IO-DATA WN-B11/PCM
156.It
157Intersil PRISM Mini-PCI
158.It
159Linksys Group, Inc. Instant Wireless Network PC Card, CF Card
160.It
161NCR WaveLAN/IEEE
162.It
163NEC Wireless Card CMZ-RT-WP, PK-WL001, PC-WL/11C
164.It
165PLANEX GeoWave/GW-NS110
166.It
167Symbol Spectrum24 Wireless Networker PC Card, CF Card
168.It
169TDK LAK-CD011WL
170.El
171.Pp
172The original PRISM-I chipset is supported by the
173.Xr awi 4
174driver.
175.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
176.Bl -diag
177.It "wi%d: init failed"
178The WaveLAN failed to come ready after an initialization command was
179issued.
180.It "wi%d: failed to allocate %d bytes on NIC"
181The driver was unable to allocate memory for transmit frames in the
182NIC's on-board RAM.
183.It "wi%d: device timeout"
184The WaveLAN failed to generate an interrupt to acknowledge a transmit
185command.
186One reason can be that the board is mis-configured, see
187.Xr wiconfig 8 .
188.El
189.Sh SEE ALSO
190.Xr arp 4 ,
191.Xr ifmedia 4 ,
192.Xr netintro 4 ,
193.Xr pci 4 ,
194.Xr pcmcia 4 ,
195.Xr ifconfig 8 ,
196.Xr wiconfig 8
197.Rs
198.%T HCF Light programming specification
199.%O http://www.wavelan.com
200.Re
201.Sh HISTORY
202The
203.Nm
204device driver first appeared in
205.Nx 1.5 .
206.Sh AUTHORS
207The
208.Nm
209driver was written by
210.An Bill Paul Aq wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu .
211.Sh BUGS
212WEP does not work in Access Point mode.
213.Pp
214The execution of
215.Xr wiconfig 8
216while the interface is down can produce some error messages.
217