WLCONFIG(8) BSD System Manager's Manual WLCONFIG(8)NAMEwlconfig — read/write wavelan config parameters
SYNOPSISwlconfig ifname [param value ...]
DESCRIPTION
The wlconfig utility can be used to read and set parameters for the
NCR/AT&T Wavelan radio LAN card. Various parameters stored in the non-
volatile Parameter Storage Area (PSA) on the card can be modified with
this program, replacing the DOS-based instconf.exe program. It can also
be used to interrogate the optional signal strength cache which may have
been compiled into the driver.
The ifname parameter specifies the wavelan interface name (eg. wl0). If
no other arguments are supplied, the current contents of the PSA are
interpreted and displayed.
The param and value arguments can be used to change the value of several
parameters. Any number of param value pairs may be supplied.
param value
irq IRQ value (used at next reset), may be one of
3,4,5,6,10,11,12,15.
mac Local MAC value (ethernet address).
macsel ‘soft’ (as set by the ‘mac’ parameter) or
‘default’ (as set at the factory).
nwid The NWID is a 2-byte parameter passed to the
card's radio modem. NWIDs allow multiple logi‐
cally discrete networks to operate independently
whilst occupying the same airspace. Packets with
a different NWID are simply ignored by the modem.
In the hardware, NWIDs are stored long-term in
non-volatile memory (called the PSA or program‐
mable storage area), and are loaded by software
into the radio modem when the driver is initial‐
ized. This sets the default NWID loaded at
startup.
currnwid This sets the current operating NWID (but does not
save it to the PSA).
cache The driver may maintain a per interface fixed size
cache of signal strength, silence, and quality
levels, which are indexed by sender MAC addresses.
Input packets are stored in the cache, and when
received, the values stored in the radio modem are
interrogated and stored. There are also two
sysctl values (iponly and multicast only) which
can be used for filtering out some input packets.
By default, the cache mechanism stores only non-
unicast IP packets, but this can be changed with
sysctl(8). Each non-filtered input packet causes
a cache update, hence one can monitor the antennae
signal strength to a remote system. There are
three commands that can be given as values: ‘raw’,
which prints out the raw signal strength data as
found in the radio modem hardware value, ‘scale’,
which scales the raw hardware values to 0..100%,
and ‘zero’ which clears out the cache in case you
want to store new samples.
Note that if the IRQ on the Wavelan card is incorrect, the interface will
be configured, but will not function. The wlconfig utility should then
be used to reconfigure the card to a sensible value.
EXAMPLES
Set the NWID to 0x1234:
# wlconfig wl0 nwid 0x1234
Show the current settings:
# wlconfig wl0
Board type : ISA
Base address options : 0x300, 0x390, 0x3c0, 0x3e0
Waitstates : 0
Bus mode : ISA
IRQ : 10
Default MAC address : 08:00:0e:20:3d:4b
Soft MAC address : 00:00:00:00:00:00
Current MAC address : Default
Adapter compatibility : PC-AT 2.4GHz
Threshold preset : 1
Call code required : NO
Subband : 2425MHz
Quality threshold : 3
Hardware version : 0 (Rel1/Rel2)
Network ID enable : YES
NWID : 0xdead
Datalink security : NO
Databus width : 16 (variable)
Configuration state : unconfigured
CRC-16 : 0x3c26
CRC status : OK
Print a scaled version of the signal strength cache:
# wlconfig wl0 cache scale
SEE ALSOwl(4), sysctl(8)HISTORY
This implementation of the wlconfig utility is completely new, written
for Hilink Internet by Michael Smith, and updated by Jim Binkley &c.
BSD December 26, 1996 BSD
