xref: /openbsd-src/share/man/man4/acx.4 (revision a28daedfc357b214be5c701aa8ba8adb29a7f1c2)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: acx.4,v 1.33 2008/08/29 10:52:41 damien Exp $
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3.\" Copyright (c) 2006 Theo de Raadt.
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33.Dd $Mdocdate: August 29 2008 $
34.Os
35.Dt ACX 4
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm acx
38.Nd TI ACX100/ACX111 IEEE 802.11a/b/g wireless network device
39.Sh SYNOPSIS
40.Cd "acx* at cardbus?"
41.Cd "acx* at pci?"
42.Sh DESCRIPTION
43The
44.Nm
45driver provides support for TI TNETW1100/TNETW1100B (ACX100) and
46TNETW1130 (ACX111) based PCI/CardBus network adapters.
47.Pp
48The ACX100A and ACX100B are first generation 802.11b devices
49from TI.
50The ACX111 is a second generation device which supports 802.11b/g
51and in some cases 802.11a.
52.Pp
53These are the modes the
54.Nm
55driver can operate in:
56.Bl -tag -width "IBSS-masterXX"
57.It BSS mode
58Also known as
59.Em infrastructure
60mode, this is used when associating with an access point, through
61which all traffic passes.
62This mode is the default.
63.It IBSS mode
64Also known as
65.Em IEEE ad-hoc
66mode or
67.Em peer-to-peer
68mode.
69This is the standardized method of operating without an access point.
70Stations associate with a service set.
71However, actual connections between stations are peer-to-peer.
72.It Host AP
73In this mode the driver acts as an access point (base station)
74for other cards.
75.It monitor mode
76In this mode the driver is able to receive packets without
77associating with an access point.
78This disables the internal receive filter and enables the card to
79capture packets from networks which it wouldn't normally have access to,
80or to scan for access points.
81.El
82.Pp
83The
84.Nm
85driver can be configured to use
86Wireless Equivalent Privacy (WEP)
87in software for ACX111
88or in hardware for ACX100.
89It is strongly recommended that WEP
90not be used as the sole mechanism
91to secure wireless communication,
92due to serious weaknesses in it.
93.Pp
94The transmit speed is user-selectable or can be adapted automatically by the
95driver depending on the number of hardware transmission retries.
96.Pp
97The
98.Nm
99driver can be configured at runtime with
100.Xr ifconfig 8
101or on boot with
102.Xr hostname.if 5 .
103.Sh FILES
104The driver needs a set of firmware files which are loaded when
105an interface is brought up:
106.Pp
107.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
108.It Pa /etc/firmware/tiacx100
109.It Pa /etc/firmware/tiacx100r0D
110.It Pa /etc/firmware/tiacx100r11
111.It Pa /etc/firmware/tiacx111
112.It Pa /etc/firmware/tiacx111c16
113.It Pa /etc/firmware/tiacx111r16
114.El
115.Pp
116These firmware files are not free because TI refuses
117to grant distribution rights.
118In fact they have rebuffed thousands
119of attempts to start a dialogue on this issue.
120As a result, even though
121.Ox
122includes the driver, the firmware files cannot be included and
123users have to download these files on their own.
124.Pp
125A prepackaged version of the firmware, designed to be used with
126.Xr pkg_add 1 ,
127can be found at:
128.Bd -literal -offset indent
129http://www.nazgul.ch/acx/acx-firmware-1.4.tgz
130.Ed
131.Sh HARDWARE
132The following cards are among those supported by the
133.Nm
134driver:
135.Pp
136.Bl -column -compact "Microcom Travelcard" "ACX111" "CardBus" "a/b/g" -offset 6n
137.Em "Card	Chip	Bus	Standard"
138D-Link DWL-520+	ACX100	PCI	b
139D-Link DWL-650+	ACX100	CardBus	b
140D-Link DWL-G520+	ACX111	PCI	b/g
141D-Link DWL-G630+	ACX111	CardBus	b/g
142D-Link DWL-G650+	ACX111	CardBus	b/g
143Ergenic ERG WL-003	ACX100	CardBus	b
144Hamlet HNWP254	ACX111	CardBus	b/g
145Hawking HWP54G	ACX111	PCI	b/g
146Linksys WPC54Gv2	ACX111	CardBus	b/g
147Microcom Travelcard	ACX111	CardBus	b/g
148Netgear WG311v2	ACX111	PCI	b/g
149Sceptre SC254W+	ACX111	CardBus	b/g
150Tornado/ADT 211g	ACX111	PCI	b/g
151USR USR5410	ACX111	CardBus	b/g
152USR USR5416	ACX111	PCI	b/g
153ZyXEL G-160	ACX111	CardBus	b/g
154ZyXEL G-360 EE	ACX111	PCI	b/g
155.El
156.Sh EXAMPLES
157The following
158.Xr hostname.if 5
159example configures acx0 to join whatever network is available on boot,
160using WEP key
161.Dq 0x1deadbeef1 ,
162channel 11, obtaining an IP address using DHCP:
163.Bd -literal -offset indent
164dhcp NONE NONE NONE nwkey 0x1deadbeef1 chan 11
165.Ed
166.Pp
167The following
168.Xr hostname.if 5
169example creates a host-based access point on boot:
170.Bd -literal -offset indent
171inet 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0 NONE media autoselect \e
172	mediaopt hostap nwid my_net chan 11
173.Ed
174.Pp
175Configure acx0 for WEP, using hex key
176.Dq 0x1deadbeef1 :
177.Bd -literal -offset indent
178# ifconfig acx0 nwkey 0x1deadbeef1
179.Ed
180.Pp
181Return acx0 to its default settings:
182.Bd -literal -offset indent
183# ifconfig acx0 -bssid -chan media autoselect \e
184	nwid "" -nwkey
185.Ed
186.Pp
187Join an existing BSS network,
188.Dq my_net :
189.Bd -literal -offset indent
190# ifconfig acx0 192.168.1.1 netmask 0xffffff00 nwid my_net
191.Ed
192.Sh SEE ALSO
193.Xr arp 4 ,
194.Xr cardbus 4 ,
195.Xr ifmedia 4 ,
196.Xr intro 4 ,
197.Xr netintro 4 ,
198.Xr pci 4 ,
199.Xr hostname.if 5 ,
200.Xr hostapd 8 ,
201.Xr ifconfig 8
202.Sh HISTORY
203The
204.Nm
205driver first appeared in
206.Ox 4.0 .
207.Sh AUTHORS
208.An -nosplit
209The
210.Nm
211driver was written by
212.An Sepherosa Ziehau .
213The manual page was written by
214.An Sascha Wildner .
215Both are based on the
216.Pa http://wlan.kewl.org
217project team's original code.
218.Pp
219The hardware specification was reverse engineered by the good folks at
220.Pa http://acx100.sourceforge.net .
221Without them this driver would not have been possible.
222.Sh CAVEATS
223Host AP mode doesn't support power saving.
224Clients attempting to use power saving mode may experience significant
225packet loss (disabling power saving on the client will fix this).
226