Devices                                                   ath(7D)

NAME

     ath - Atheros AR52xx 802.11b/g wireless NIC driver

SYNOPSYS
     /dev/ath*

DESCRIPTION
     The ath 802.11b/g wireless NIC driver is  a  multi-threaded,
     loadable, clonable, GLD-based STREAMS driver supporting  the
     Data Link Provider Interface, dlpi(7P),  on  Atheros  AR52xx
     (AR5210/5211/5212) chipset-based wireless NICs.

     The ath driver functions include controller  initialization,
     connecting to wireless 802.11b/g infrastructure network, WEP,
     frame transmit and receive, and  promiscuous  and  multicast
     support.

DRIVER CONFIGURATION
     By default, the ath driver will automatically choose a WLAN
     and connect to it using the following heuristics:

     o Unencrypted WLANs have higher priority.
     o WLANs with higher transmit rates have higher priority.
     o WLANs with stronger signal strength have higher priority.

     The ath driver performs auto-negotiation selecting 802.11b
     or 802.11g mode with the best data rates.

     Supported 802.11b data rates (Mbit/s) are:
         1, 2, 5.5, 11
     Supported 802.11g data rates (Mbit/s) are:
         1, 2, 5.5, 11, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54

     Alternatively, you can configure ath device with  a  set  of
     ANSI/IEEE 802.11 compliant parameters using  wificonfig(1M).
     The parameters include:

         bssid          [read-only] MAC address of the  associated
                        access point.
         essid          Network name.
         bsstype        [read-only] Wireless network type.
                        The ath driver only supports
                        BSS (Access point) at this time.
         rates          [read-only] Current data rate.
         authmode       [read-only] Authentication type.
                        Valid values: OPENSYSTEM or SHARED_KEY.
                        The ath driver only supports OPENSYSTEM
                        at this time.
         encryption     Encryption algorithm.
                        Valid values:  NONE or WEP
         wepkeyindex    Index of WEP key. Valid values: 1 - 4
         wepkey[1-4]    [write-only] WEP keys 1 through 4. Valid  values:
                        5 chars or 10 hex-string for 40bit wepkey,
                        or 13 chars or 26 hex-string for 128bit
                        wepkey
         signal         [read-only] Signal strength. Valid values:
                        0 - 15

     To configure the ath driver, first load the driver and plumb
     the interface

         # ifconfig <interface> plumb

     Then use wificonfig(1M) to configure wireless parameters.

     o Check current parameters
         # wificonfig -i <interface> getparam
         bssid: ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
         essid:
         bsstype: BSS(AP)
         rates: 6
         authmode: opensystem
         encryption: none
         wepkeyindex: 1
         signal: 0

     o Scan and list the currently available WLANs
         # wificonfig -i <interface> scan
         essid   bssid             type         encryption signallevel
         linksys 00:0f:66:12:aa:e5 access point WEP        1
         ap7-2   00:0f:24:19:09:70 access point WEP        10
         ap7-3   00:0f:24:19:0b:60 access point WEP        3

     o Connect to a WLAN
         # wificonfig createprofile home essid=ap7-2 \
           encryption=wep wepkey1=1234567890
         # wificonfig -i <interface> connect home
    
     o Check link status
         # wificonfig -i <interface> showstatus
         linkstatus: connected
         active profile: [home]
         essid: ap7-2
         encryption: WEP
         signal strength: medium(7)

     o Configure IP address
         # ifconfig <interface> dhcp
    
FILES
    /dev/ath*                 ath special character device
    /kernel/drv/ath           32-bit ELF kernel module(x86)
    /kernel/drv/amd64/ath     64-bit ELF kernel module(x86)

ATTRIBUTES
    See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following att-
    ributes:

     ______________________________________________________
    |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE       |      ATTRIBUTE VALUE     |
    |___________________________|__________________________|
    | Architecture              | x86                      |
    |___________________________|__________________________|

SEE ALSO
    wificonfig(1M), gld(7P)