ANCONTROL(8) FreeBSD System Manager's Manual ANCONTROL(8)
NAME
ancontrol - configure Aironet 4500/4800 devices
SYNOPSIS
ancontrol -i iface -A
ancontrol -i iface -N
ancontrol -i iface -S
ancontrol -i iface -I
ancontrol -i iface -T
ancontrol -i iface -C
ancontrol -i iface -Q
ancontrol -i iface -Z
ancontrol -i iface -R
ancontrol -i iface -t 0-4
ancontrol -i iface -s 0-3
ancontrol -i iface [-v 1-4] -a AP
ancontrol -i iface -b beacon_period
ancontrol -i iface [-v 0 | 1] -d 0-3
ancontrol -i iface -e 0-4
ancontrol -i iface [-v 0-8] -k key
ancontrol -i iface -K 0-2
ancontrol -i iface -W 0-2
ancontrol -i iface -L user_name
ancontrol -i iface -j netjoin_timeout
ancontrol -i iface -l station_name
ancontrol -i iface -m mac_address
ancontrol -i iface [-v 1-3] -n SSID
ancontrol -i iface -o 0 | 1
ancontrol -i iface -p tx_power
ancontrol -i iface -c frequency
ancontrol -i iface -f fragmentation_threshold
ancontrol -i iface -r RTS_threshold
ancontrol -i iface -M 0-15
ancontrol -h
DESCRIPTION
The ancontrol utility controls the operation of Aironet wireless
networking devices via the an(4) driver. Most of the parameters that can
be changed relate to the IEEE 802.11 protocol which the Aironet cards
implement. This includes such things as the station name, whether the
station is operating in ad-hoc (point to point) or infrastructure mode,
and the network name of a service set to join. The ancontrol utility can
also be used to view the current NIC status, configuration and to dump
out the values of the card's statistics counters.
The iface argument given to ancontrol should be the logical interface
name associated with the Aironet device (an0, an1, etc.). If one is not
specified the device "an0" will be assumed.
The ancontrol utility is not designed to support the combination of
arguments from different SYNOPSIS lines in a single ancontrol invocation,
and such combinations are not recommended.
OPTIONS
The options are as follows:
-i iface -A
Display the preferred access point list. The AP list can be used
by stations to specify the MAC address of access points with
which it wishes to associate. If no AP list is specified (the
default) then the station will associate with the first access
point that it finds which serves the SSID(s) specified in the
SSID list. The AP list can be modified with the -a option.
-i iface -N
Display the SSID list. This is a list of service set IDs (i.e.,
network names) with which the station wishes to associate. There
may be up to three SSIDs in the list: the station will go through
the list in ascending order and associate with the first matching
SSID that it finds.
-i iface -S
Display NIC status information. This includes the current
operating status, current BSSID, SSID, channel, beacon period and
currently associated access point. The operating mode indicates
the state of the NIC, MAC status and receiver status. When the
"synced" keyword appears, it means the NIC has successfully
associated with an access point, associated with an ad-hoc
"master" station, or become a "master" itself. The beacon period
can be anything between 20 and 976 milliseconds. The default is
100.
-i iface -I
Display NIC capability information. This shows the device type,
frequency, speed and power level capabilities and firmware
revision levels.
-i iface -T
Display the NIC's internal statistics counters.
-i iface -C
Display current NIC configuration. This shows the current
operation mode, receive mode, MAC address, power save settings,
various timing settings, channel selection, diversity, transmit
power and transmit speed.
-i iface -Q
Display the cached signal strength information maintained by the
an(4) driver. The driver retains information about signal
strength and noise level for packets received from different
hosts. The signal strength and noise level values are displayed
in units of dBms by default. The hw.an.an_cache_mode sysctl(8)
variable can be set to raw, dbm or per.
-i iface -Z
Clear the signal strength cache maintained internally by the
an(4) driver.
-i iface -R
Display RSSI map that converts from the RSSI index to percent and
dBm.
-i iface -t 0-4
Select transmit speed. The available settings are as follows:
TX rate NIC speed
0 Auto -- NIC selects optimal speed
1 1Mbps fixed
2 2Mbps fixed
3 5.5Mbps fixed
4 11Mbps fixed
Note that the 5.5 and 11Mbps settings are only supported on the
4800 series adapters: the 4500 series adapters have a maximum
speed of 2Mbps.
-i iface -s 0-3
Set power save mode. Valid selections are as follows:
Selection Power save mode
0 None - power save disabled
1 Constantly awake mode (CAM)
2 Power Save Polling (PSP)
3 Fast Power Save Polling (PSP-CAM)
Note that for IBSS (ad-hoc) mode, only PSP mode is supported, and
only if the ATIM window is non-zero.
-i iface [-v 1-4] -a AP
Set preferred access point. The AP is specified as a MAC address
consisting of 6 hexadecimal values separated by colons. By
default, the -a option only sets the first entry in the AP list.
The -v modifier can be used to specify exactly which AP list
entry is to be modified. If the -v flag is not used, the first
AP list entry will be changed.
-i iface -b beacon_period
Set the ad-hoc mode beacon period. The beacon_period is
specified in milliseconds. The default is 100ms.
-i iface [-v 0 | 1] -d 0-3
Select the antenna diversity. Aironet devices can be configured
with up to two antennas, and transmit and receive diversity can
be configured accordingly. Valid selections are as follows:
Selection Diversity
0 Select factory default diversity
1 Antenna 1 only
2 Antenna 2 only
3 Antenna 1 and 2
The receive and transmit diversity can be set independently. The
user must specify which diversity setting is to be modified by
using the -v option: selection 0 sets the receive diversity and 1
sets the transmit diversity.
-i iface -e 0-4
Set the transmit WEP key to use. Note that until this command is
issued, the device will use the last key programmed. The
transmit key is stored in NVRAM. Currently set transmit key can
be checked via -C option. Selection 4 sets the card in "Home
Network Mode" and uses the home key.
-i iface [-v 0-8] -k key
Set a WEP key. For 40 bit prefix 10 hex character with 0x. For
128 bit prefix 26 hex character with 0x. Use "" as the key to
erase the key. Supports 4 keys; even numbers are for permanent
keys and odd number are for temporary keys. For example, -v 1
sets the first temporary key. (A "permanent" key is stored in
NVRAM; a "temporary" key is not.) Note that the device will use
the most recently-programmed key by default. Currently set keys
can be checked via -C option, only the sizes of the keys are
returned. The value of 8 is for the home key. Note that the
value for the home key can be read back from firmware.
-i iface -K 0-2
Set authorization type. Use 0 for none, 1 for "Open", 2 for
"Shared Key".
-i iface -W 0-2
Enable WEP. Use 0 for no WEP, 1 to enable full WEP, 2 for mixed
cell.
-i iface -L user_name
Enable LEAP and query for password. It will check to see if it
has authenticated for up to 60s. To disable LEAP, set WEP mode.
-i iface -j netjoin_timeout
Set the ad-hoc network join timeout. When a station is first
activated in ad-hoc mode, it will search out a "master" station
with the desired SSID and associate with it. If the station is
unable to locate another station with the same SSID after a
suitable timeout, it sets itself up as the "master" so that other
stations may associate with it. This timeout defaults to 10000
milliseconds (10 seconds) but may be changed with this option.
The timeout should be specified in milliseconds.
-i iface -l station_name
Set the station name used internally by the NIC. The
station_name can be any text string up to 16 characters in
length. The default name is set by the driver to "FreeBSD".
-i iface -m mac_address
Set the station address for the specified interface. The
mac_address is specified as a series of six hexadecimal values
separated by colons, e.g.: 00:60:1d:12:34:56. This programs the
new address into the card and updates the interface as well.
-i iface [-v 1-3] -n SSID
Set the desired SSID (network name). There are three SSIDs which
allows the NIC to work with access points at several locations
without needing to be reconfigured. The NIC checks each SSID in
sequence when searching for a match. The SSID to be changed can
be specified with the -v modifier option. If the -v flag is not
used, the first SSID in the list is set.
-i iface -o 0 | 1
Set the operating mode of the Aironet interface. Valid
selections are 0 for ad-hoc mode and 1 for infrastructure mode.
The default driver setting is for infrastructure mode.
-i iface -p tx_power
Set the transmit power level in milliwatts. Valid power settings
vary depending on the actual NIC and can be viewed by dumping the
device capabilities with the -I flag. Typical values are 1, 5,
20, 50 and 100mW. Selecting 0 sets the factory default.
-i iface -c frequency
Set the radio frequency of a given interface. The frequency
should be specified as a channel ID as shown in the table below.
The list of available frequencies is dependent on radio
regulations specified by regional authorities. Recognized
regulatory authorities include the FCC (United States), ETSI
(Europe), France and Japan. Frequencies in the table are
specified in MHz.
Channel ID FCC ETSI France Japan
1 2412 2412 - -
2 2417 2417 - -
3 2422 2422 - -
4 2427 2427 - -
5 2432 2432 - -
6 2437 2437 - -
7 2442 2442 - -
8 2447 2447 - -
9 2452 2452 - -
10 2457 2457 2457 -
11 2462 2462 2462 -
12 - 2467 2467 -
13 - 2472 2472 -
14 - - - 2484
If an illegal channel is specified, the NIC will revert to its
default channel. For NICs sold in the United States and Europe,
the default channel is 3. For NICs sold in France, the default
channel is 11. For NICs sold in Japan, the only available
channel is 14. Note that two stations must be set to the same
channel in order to communicate.
-i iface -f fragmentation_threshold
Set the fragmentation threshold in bytes. This threshold
controls the point at which outgoing packets will be split into
multiple fragments. If a single fragment is not sent
successfully, only that fragment will need to be retransmitted
instead of the whole packet. The fragmentation threshold can be
anything from 64 to 2312 bytes. The default is 2312.
-i iface -r RTS_threshold
Set the RTS/CTS threshold for a given interface. This controls
the number of bytes used for the RTS/CTS handshake boundary. The
RTS_threshold can be any value between 0 and 2312. The default
is 2312.
-i iface -M 0-15
Set monitor mode via bit mask, meaning:
Bit Meaning
0 to not dump 802.11 packet.
1 to enable 802.11 monitor.
2 to monitor any SSID.
4 to not skip beacons, monitor beacons produces a
high system load.
8 to enable full Aironet header returned via BPF.
Note it appears that a SSID must be set.
-h Print a list of available options and sample usage.
SECURITY NOTES
WEP ("wired equivalent privacy") is based on the RC4 algorithm, using a
24 bit initialization vector.
RC4 is supposedly vulnerable to certain known plaintext attacks,
especially with 40 bit keys. So the security of WEP in part depends on
how much known plaintext is transmitted.
Because of this, although counter-intuitive, using "shared key"
authentication (which involves sending known plaintext) is less secure
than using "open" authentication when WEP is enabled.
Devices may alternate among all of the configured WEP keys when
transmitting packets. Therefore, all configured keys (up to four) must
agree.
EXAMPLES
ancontrol -i an0 -v 0 -k 0x12345678901234567890123456
ancontrol -i an0 -K 2
ancontrol -i an0 -W 1
ancontrol -i an0 -e 0
Sets a WEP key 0, enables "Shared Key" authentication, enables full WEP
and uses transmit key 0.
SEE ALSO
an(4), ifconfig(8)
HISTORY
The ancontrol utility first appeared in FreeBSD 4.0.
AUTHORS
The ancontrol utility was written by Bill Paul <wpaul@ee.columbia.edu>.
BUGS
The statistics counters do not seem to show the amount of transmit and
received frames as increasing. This is likely due to the fact that the
an(4) driver uses unmodified packet mode instead of letting the NIC
perform 802.11/ethernet encapsulation itself.
Setting the channel does not seem to have any effect.
FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6 September 10, 1999 FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6
man2web Home...