xref: /openbsd-src/share/man/man4/an.4 (revision d09093c168a1a6df49f1ee8217bfa05a5712a645)
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4.\"	Bill Paul <wpaul@ee.columbia.edu>. All rights reserved.
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35.Dd $Mdocdate: October 24 2021 $
36.Dt AN 4
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm an
40.Nd Aironet Communications 4500/4800 IEEE 802.11FH/b wireless network device
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Cd "an* at pcmcia?"
43.Cd "an* at pci?"
44.Cd "an* at isapnp?"
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46The
47.Nm
48driver provides support for the Aironet Communications 4500, 4800
49(aka Cisco 340), and Cisco 350
50IEEE 802.11 wireless network adapters.
51This includes the ISA, PCI, and PCMCIA varieties.
52The 4500 series adapters operate at 1 and 2Mbps (FH) while
53the 4800 and 350 series can operate at 1, 2, 5.5, and 11Mbps (DS).
54The ISA, PCI,
55and PCMCIA devices are all based on the same core PCMCIA modules
56and all have the same programming interface.
57However, unlike the
58Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE cards, the ISA and PCI cards appear to the
59host as normal ISA and PCI devices and do not require any PCMCIA
60support.
61.Pp
62ISA cards can either be configured to use ISA Plug and Play
63or to use a particular I/O address and IRQ
64by properly setting the DIP switches on the board.
65(The default switch setting is for plug and play.)
66The
67.Nm
68driver has Plug and Play support and will work in either configuration,
69however when using a hard-wired I/O address and IRQ, the driver
70configuration and the NIC's switch settings must agree.
71PCI cards
72require no switch settings of any kind and will be automatically
73probed and attached.
74.Pp
75All host/device interaction with the Aironet cards is via programmed I/O.
76The
77.Nm
78driver encapsulates all IP and ARP traffic as 802.11 frames, though
79it can receive either 802.11 or 802.3 frames.
80.Pp
81These are the modes the
82.Nm
83driver can operate in:
84.Bl -tag -width "IBSS-masterXX"
85.It BSS mode
86Also known as
87.Em infrastructure
88mode, this is used when associating with an access point, through
89which all traffic passes.
90This mode is the default.
91.It IBSS mode
92Also known as
93.Em IEEE ad-hoc
94mode or
95.Em peer-to-peer
96mode.
97This is the standardized method of operating without an access point.
98Stations associate with a service set.
99However, actual connections between stations are peer-to-peer.
100.It monitor mode
101In this mode the driver is able to receive packets without
102associating with an access point.
103This disables the internal receive filter and enables the card to
104capture packets from networks which it wouldn't normally have access to,
105or to scan for access points.
106.El
107.Pp
108The
109.Nm
110driver can be configured to use hardware
111Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP).
112It is strongly recommended that WEP
113not be used as the sole mechanism
114to secure wireless communication,
115due to serious weaknesses in it.
116.Pp
117In BSS mode,
118the driver supports powersave mode,
119which can be enabled via
120.Xr ifconfig 8 .
121.Pp
122The
123.Nm
124driver can be configured at runtime with
125.Xr ifconfig 8
126or on boot with
127.Xr hostname.if 5 .
128.Sh EXAMPLES
129The following
130.Xr hostname.if 5
131example configures an0 to join network
132.Dq mynwid ,
133using WEP key
134.Dq mywepkey ,
135obtaining an IP address using DHCP:
136.Bd -literal -offset indent
137join mynwid nwkey mywepkey
138inet autoconf
139.Ed
140.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
141.Bl -diag
142.It "an0: failed to allocate N bytes on NIC"
143The driver was unable to allocate memory for transmit frames in the
144NIC's on-board RAM.
145.It "an0: device timeout"
146The Aironet card failed to generate an interrupt to acknowledge a transmit
147command.
148.El
149.Sh SEE ALSO
150.Xr arp 4 ,
151.Xr ifmedia 4 ,
152.Xr intro 4 ,
153.Xr isapnp 4 ,
154.Xr netintro 4 ,
155.Xr pci 4 ,
156.Xr pcmcia 4 ,
157.Xr hostname.if 5 ,
158.Xr ifconfig 8
159.Sh HISTORY
160The
161.Nm
162device driver first appeared in
163.Fx 4.0 .
164.Ox
165support was added in
166.Ox 2.7 .
167A version of the driver based on the one in
168.Nx
169was added in
170.Ox 3.9 .
171.Sh AUTHORS
172.An -nosplit
173The
174.Nm
175driver was written by
176.An Bill Paul Aq Mt wpaul@ee.columbia.edu
177and ported to
178.Ox
179by
180.An Michael Shalayeff Aq Mt mickey@openbsd.org .
181Later the
182.Nx
183version of the driver by
184.An Atsushi Onoe
185was subsequently ported to
186.Ox
187by
188.An Jonathan Gray Aq Mt jsg@openbsd.org .
189.Sh CAVEATS
190Scanning for access points is not currently supported.
191