xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man4/wi.4 (revision 220b5c059a84c51ea44107ea8951a57ffaecdc8c)
1.\"     $NetBSD: wi.4,v 1.21 2001/11/18 06:38:23 mrg Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1997, 1998, 1999
4.\"	Bill Paul <wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu>. All rights reserved.
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16.\"	This product includes software developed by Bill Paul.
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33.\"	$Id: wi.4,v 1.21 2001/11/18 06:38:23 mrg 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 WaveLAN card for special ad-hoc operation.
82In this mode, the nwid is ignored and
83stations can communicate among each other without the aid of an access
84point.
85Note that this mode is not in the IEEE 802.11 specification and the driver
86may interoperate with other cards. This mode is no longer the default
87and must be selected using the
88.Xr ifconfig 8
89or
90.Xr wiconfig 8
91utilities.
92.Pp
93For more information on configuring this device, see
94.Xr ifconfig 8
95and
96.Xr ifmedia 4 .
97.Sh HARDWARE
98Cards supported by the
99.Nm
100driver include:
101.Pp
102.Bl -item -offset indent -compact
103.It
104Lucent Wavelan/IEEE 2.0Mb Bronze
105.It
106Lucent Wavelan/IEEE 2.0Mb Silver
107.It
108Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE Turbo
109.It
110Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE Turbo 11Mbps
111.It
112Melco AIR CONNECT WLI-PCM-L11
113.It
114DEC/Cabletron RoamAbout 802.11 DS High Rate
115.It
116Corega Wireless LAN PCC-11
117.It
118Melco AIR CONNECT WLI-PCM-L11 cards [*] [+]
119.It
120DEC/Cabletron RoamAbout 802.11 DS High Rate cards [*] [+]
121.It
122Corega Wireless LAN PCC-11 cards [*] [+]
123.It
124ELSA AirLancer MC-11
125.It
126Intersil PRISM Mini-PCI
127.It
128Linksys Group, Inc. Instant Wireless Network PC Card (Prism2)
129.El
130.Pp
131The original PRISM-I chipset is supported by the
132.Xr awi 4
133driver.
134.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
135.Bl -diag
136.It "wi%d: init failed"
137The WaveLAN failed to come ready after an initialization command was
138issued.
139.It "wi%d: failed to allocate %d bytes on NIC"
140The driver was unable to allocate memory for transmit frames in the
141NIC's on-board RAM.
142.It "wi%d: device timeout"
143The WaveLAN failed to generate an interrupt to acknowledge a transmit
144command.
145One reason can be that the board is mis-configured, see
146.Xr wiconfig 8 .
147.El
148.Sh SEE ALSO
149.Xr arp 4 ,
150.Xr ifmedia 4 ,
151.Xr netintro 4 ,
152.Xr pci 4 ,
153.Xr pcmcia 4 ,
154.Xr ifconfig 8 ,
155.Xr wiconfig 8
156.Rs
157.%T HCF Light programming specification
158.%O http://www.wavelan.com
159.Re
160.Sh HISTORY
161The
162.Nm
163device driver first appeared in
164.Nx 1.5 .
165.Sh AUTHORS
166The
167.Nm
168driver was written by
169.An Bill Paul Aq wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu .
170.Sh BUGS
171The IBSS mode is not supported.
172PRISM chipset does not have IBSS mode.
173.Pp
174The execution of
175.Xr wiconfig 8
176while the interface is down can produce some error messages.
177