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diff --git a/share/man/man4/man4.i386/wl.4 b/share/man/man4/man4.i386/wl.4 new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..2f8fdc520693 --- /dev/null +++ b/share/man/man4/man4.i386/wl.4 @@ -0,0 +1,191 @@ +.\" +.\" Copyright (c) 1997, Jim Binkley +.\" All rights reserved. +.\" +.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without +.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions +.\" are met: +.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright +.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. +.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright +.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the +.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. +.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software +.\" must display the following acknowledgement: +.\" This product includes software developed by Jim Binkley +.\" 4. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products +.\" derived from this software without specific prior written permission. +.\" +.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND +.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE +.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE +.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE +.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL +.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS +.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) +.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT +.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY +.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF +.\" SUCH DAMAGE. +.\" +.\" $FreeBSD$ +.Dd September 29, 2006 +.Dt WL 4 i386 +.Os +.Sh NAME +.Nm wl +.Nd T1 speed ISA/radio lan card +.Sh SYNOPSIS +.Cd "device wl0 at isa? port 0x300 irq 5" +.Sh DESCRIPTION +The +.Nm +driver controls a radio lan card system made originally by +NCR, then ATT, now Lucent. +The system is spread-spectrum radio +at around 915 MHz (or 2.4 GHz). +With the supplied omni-directional antennae, +about 400 feet (indoors, more outdoors) can be covered in circumference. +This card can talk to the companion (wlp0) pccard. +Speeds vary +from 1 megabit to theoretically 2 megabits (roughly T1 in speed). +.Pp +The card has three fundamental hardware +units, a so-called PSA or programmable storage area, a radio modem, +and a Ethernet lan controller. +The latter component is the +ancient (and not very honorable) Intel 82586 Ethernet chip. +Fundamentally it appears to the operating system as an Ethernet system, +and speaks IEEE MAC addresses. +The radio modem simply translates +Ethernet packets to/from radio packets, that are either at 2.4 GHz +or 915 MHz depending on the radio modem. +It supports a collision +avoidance scheme. +The lan controller +supports promiscuous mode, broadcast, and multicasting +(although there is a glitch +in the latter). +"It thinks it is Ethernet". +.Pp +How it is used +depends on the kind of antennae deployed with it. +Point to point +applications are possible as are Ethernet-like lan use. +The vendor +ships an omni-directional antennae that works in the +vicinity of 400 feet (indoors). +Point to point antennae can be purchased that will go miles. +.Sh SETUP +The card can either be initialized with the vendor supplied DOS setup software. +Typically minimally an IRQ, port, and Network ID must be supplied. +Michael Smith's +.Xr wlconfig 8 +utility can now be used to do this work from +the UNIX side. +The card is "not" plug and play. +The network id controls whether one set of cards can hear another. +If different, cards will read physical packets, but they will be discarded +by the radio modem. +.Sh CONTROL +In addition to the config utility, there are several sysctl +switches that can be used to modify runtime parameters. +The +.Xr sysctl 8 +variables are as follows: +.Bl -diag +.It "machdep.wl_xmit_delay <useconds>" +This variable will cause the driver to insert a delay on transmit. +250 is the default. +The delay should probably be a bit longer +on faster cpus and less on slower cpus. +It exists because the 82586 +was not designed to work with Pentium-speed cpu systems and if overdriven +will have copious xmit side errors. +.It machdep.wl_ignore_nwid <0 | 1> +This switch defaults to 0; i.e., the nwid is not ignored. +It can +be set to 1 to cause the nwid to not be used. +This may be useful +when the device is in promiscuous mode as one can watch for all +packets and ignore nwid differences. +.It machdep.wl_xmit_watch <milliseconds> +This switch is not currently useful. +.It machdep.wl_gather_snr <milliseconds> +This switch is not currently useful. +.Pp +There is also a signal strength cache in the driver. +It may be interrogated +with +.Xr wlconfig 8 . +Incoming packets +are checked for certain hardware radio-modem values including signal +strength, silence, and quality, which range fro 0..63, 0..63, and 0..15 +respectively. +Thus one can read out signal strenth values to see +how close/far peer nodes are. +The signal strength cache is indexed by +sender MAC address. +There are two sysctls that change how it filters packets. +Both are on +by default. +.It machdep.wl_wlcache_mcastonly <0 | 1> +By default this switch is on. +It forces the cache to filter out +unicast packets. +Only broadcast or multicast packets are accepted. +.It machdep.wl_wlcache_iponly <0 | 1> +By default this switch is on. +It forces the driver to discard non-IP +packets and also stores the IP src address. +ARP packets are ignored, +as are any other network protocol barring IPv4 packets. +.El +.Sh CAVEATS +The 82586 has numerous defects. +It may experience transmit-side +errors when modern faster cpus send packets at it faster than it can handle. +The driver (and probably the chip) does not support an all multicast mode. +As a result, it can be used with applications like +.Xr mrouted 8 Pq Pa ports/net/mrouted , +but it must go into promiscuous mode for that to work. +The driver +is slow to change modes from "normal" to promiscuous mode, presumably +due to delays in the configuration code. +.Sh SEE ALSO +.Xr sysctl 8 , +.Xr wlconfig 8 +.Pp +.Pa http://www.wavelan.com +.Sh HISTORY +The +.Nm +driver was written by +.An Anders Klemets +(thousands of years ago?) and +appears to be based on an even older Intel 82586 driver. +The 82586 +controller was one of the first (if not the first?) integrated lan +controller on the block. +That does not mean it was the best either. +Anders ported and or created a driver for the ISA wavelan and PCCARD +wavelan system too (wlp). +.An Robert T. Morris, Jr. +ported the Mach drivers to BSDI. +.An Jim Binkley +ported them to +.Fx 2.1 . +.An Michael Smith +ported the wl driver only to 2.2.2. +Jim and Michael have been +maintaining them. +The current state of the driver is NOT ANYONE'S +FAULT. +Thanks to +.An Bernie Doehner +and +.An Robert Buaas +for contributions. +.Sh AUTHORS +Too numerous to mention. +See above. |