NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     rln - device driver  for  RangeLAN2-based  wireless  network
cards

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     rln0 at isa? port 0x270 irq ? flags 0x00
     rln* at pcmcia? function ? flags 0x00

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     The rln device driver supports at least the following cards:
     +o   Proxim RangeLAN2 7100 ISA Card
     +o   Symphony PC Cards
     +o   Proxim RangeLAN2 7200 Two Piece PC Card
     +o   Proxim RangeLAN2 7400 One Piece PC Card
     +o   Digital RoamAbout FH 2400 PC-Card
     +o   AMP Wireless PC-Card

     The Proxim RangeLAN2 air protocol is incompatible  with  the
older RangeLAN(1)  cards,  Lucent Technologies' WaveLan cards, and with
the newer
     802.11 cards in general.

     The RangeLAN2 cards communicate using an Ethernet-like  protocol over the
     2.4--2.483GHz  part of the spectrum.  This frequency happens
to coincide
     with that of strong harmonics emitted by common consumer microwave ovens.
     You can guess the rest.  Depending on the channel condition,
the NICs operate
 in one of two modes:  1.6Mb/s  or  0.8Mb/s  signalling
rate.

     In  the  event of errors, the card can be reset by using ifconfig(8) to
     bring the card down, then up.

MEDIA SELECTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     Not supported.  The medium used by the device is always air.

DIAGNOSTICS    [Toc]    [Back]

     rln0:  hardware  fault   The  card reported a hardware fault
condition.
     Check the antenna.  The interface  is  automatically  marked
down.

     rln0:  synchronised  to ? (?) channel ?/?  The card has successfully synchronised
 with a nearby unit.  Packets are only  transmitted
when the unit
     has synchronised with another.

     rln0:  lost  sync   Synchronisation was lost.  Check for microwave ovens being
 used.

     rln0: nothing to sync to; now master  The  card  was  unsuccessful in
     (re-)synchronising  with  any other unit, and was configured
as an alternate
 master.

     rln0: packet too big (? > ?)  The card generated  a  message
bigger than
     the maximum size allowable for Ethernet.

     rln0:  command  error  0x?? command ??  The card reported an
error condition
     in the host-card protocol.

     rln0: reset timeout  An  attempt  to  hard  reset  the  card
failed.  This is
     either a serious hardware fault, or a bus conflict.

     rln0:  tx_request  timed  out, status 0x??  The host-to-card
message transfer
 protocol timed out.  This could mean a  duplex  transfer
is in progress
     and  the  interrupt  service routine has not run.  Check the
CPU load.

     rln0: lost message ?? seq ?  An  expected  response  to  the
command did not
     appear within a reasonable time.

     rln0: unknown RangeLAN2 wireless network card  The card model was not
     matched in the known-card tables.

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

     cnw(4), intro(4),  isa(4),  netintro(4),  pcmcia(4),  ifconfig(8)
     http://www.proxim.com/

AUTHORS    [Toc]    [Back]

     David  Leonard,  Dept  Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, University
 of Queensland <[email protected]>.

     Information and  ideas  gleaned  from  disassembly  of  Dave
Koberstein's
     <[email protected]>  Linux  driver  (which  apparently  uses
Proxim code),
     from Yoichi Shinoda's <[email protected]> BSDI driver, and Geoff
     Voelker's  <[email protected]>  Linux  port  of  the
same.

BUGS    [Toc]    [Back]

     This driver has not been tested with lots of cards, so there
are bound to
     be  subtle  timing  problems  with  different  hardware.  It
should also work
     with the Symphony PC cards.

     I couldn't figure out how to make roaming work, nor  how  to
interpret the
     RSSI link quality values.

     There  is no way to change the channel or security ID on the
card, or to
     make it a master, except through source code.  This  is  because it is currently
  impossible  under  OpenBSD  to  trigger such changes
through calls to
     ioctl(2) on the interface.

     Oh, and transmit doesn't seem to work.

OpenBSD     3.6                           April      2,      1999