WLCONFIG(8)

NAME
wlconfig - read/write wavelan config parameters

SYNOPSIS
wlconfig ifname [param value ...]

DEPRECATION NOTICE
The wlconfig utility will be removed in FreeBSD 12.0.

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 logically 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 programmable storage area), and are loaded by software into the radio modem when the driver is initialized. 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 ALSO
wl(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.