iwconfig.8

iwconfig iwlist iwpriv

.\" Jean II - HPLB - 96
.\" iwconfig.8
.\"
.TH IWCONFIG 8 "31 October 1996" "net-tools" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
.\"
.\" NAME part
.\"
.SH NAME
iwconfig \- configure a wireless network interface
.\"
.\" SYNOPSIS part
.\"
.SH SYNOPSIS
.BI "iwconfig [" interface ]
.br
.BI "iwconfig " interface " [essid " X "] [nwid " N "] [freq " F "] [channel " C ]
.br
.BI "                   [sens " S "] [mode " M "] [ap " A "] [nick " NN ]
.br
.BI "                   [rate " R "] [rts " RT "] [frag " FT "] [txpower " T ]
.br
.BI "                   [enc " E "] [key " K "] [power " P "] [retry " R ]
.br
.BI "                   [commit]
.br
.BI "iwconfig --help"
.br
.BI "iwconfig --version"
.\"
.\" DESCRIPTION part
.\"
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B Iwconfig
is similar to
.IR ifconfig (8),
but is dedicated to the wireless interfaces. It is used to set the
parameters of the network interface which are specific to the wireless
operation (for example : the frequency).
.B Iwconfig
may also be used to display those parameters, and the wireless
statistics (extracted from
.IR /proc/net/wireless ).
.PP
All these parameters and statistics are device dependant. Each driver
will provide only some of them depending on the hardware support, and
the range of value may change. Please refer to the man page of each
device for details.
.\"
.\" PARAMETER part
.\"
.SH PARAMETERS
.TP
.B essid
Set the ESSID (or Network Name - in some products it may also called
Domain ID). The ESSID is used to identify cells which are part of the
same virtual network.
.br
As opposed to the NWID which defines a single cell, the ESSID defines
a group of cell connected via repeaters or infrastructure, where the
user may roam.  With some card, you may disable the ESSID checking
(ESSID promiscuous) with
.IR off " or " any " (and " on
to reenable it).
.br
.B Examples :
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 essid any"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 essid ""My Network""
.TP
.BR nwid / domain
Set the Network ID (in some products it is also called Domain ID). As
all adjacent wireless networks share the same medium, this parameter
is used to differenciate them (create logical colocated networks) and
identify nodes belonguing to the same cell. With some card, you may
disable the Network ID checking (NWID promiscuous) with
.IR off " (and " on
to reenable it).
.br
.B Examples :
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 nwid AB34
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 nwid off"
.TP
.BR freq / channel
Set the operating frequency or channel in the device. Value below 1000
are the channel number, value over this is the frequency in Hz. You
must append the suffix k, M or G to the value (for example, "2.46G"
for 2.46 GHz frequency), or add enough '0'.
.br
Channels are usually numbered starting at 1,
and you may use
.IR iwpriv (8)
to get the total number of channels and list the available
frequencies. Depending on regulations, some frequencies/channels may
not be available.
.br
.B Examples :
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 freq 2.422G"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 channel 3"
.TP
.B sens
Set the sensitivity threshold. This is the lowest signal level for
which we attempt a packet reception, signal lower than this are not
received. This is used to avoid receiving background noise, so you
should set it according to the average noise level. Positive values
are assumed to be the raw value used by the hardware or a percentage,
negative values are assumed to be dBm.
.br
With some hardware, this parameter also control the defer threshold
(lowest signal level for which we consider the channel busy) and the
handover threshold (lowest signal level where we stay associated with
the current access point).
.br
.B Example :
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 sens -80"
.TP
.B mode
Set the operating mode of the device, which depends on the network
topology. The mode can be
.I Ad-hoc
(network composed of only one cell and without Access Point),
.I Managed
(node connects to a network composed of many Access Points, with roaming),
.I Master
(the node is the synchronisation master or act as an Access Point),
.I Repeater
(the node forward packets between other wireless nodes),
.I Secondary
(the node act as a backup master/repeater),
.I Monitor
(the node act as a passive monitor and only receives packets) or
.IR Auto .
.br
.B Example :
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 mode Managed"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 mode Ad-Hoc"
.TP
.B ap
Force the card to register to the Access Point given by the address,
if it is possible. When the quality of the connection goes too low,
the driver may revert back to automatic mode (the card finds the best
Access Point in range).
.br
You may also use
.I off
to re-enable automatic mode without changing the current Access Point,
or you may use
.I any
or
.I auto
to force the card to reassociate with the current best Access Point.
.br
.B Example :
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 ap 00:60:1D:01:23:45"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 ap any"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 ap off"
.TP
.BR nick [name]
Set the nickname, or the station name. Most 802.11 products do define
it, but this is not used as far as the protocols (MAC, IP, TCP) are
concerned and completely accessory as far as configuration goes. In
fact only some diagnostic tools may use it.
.br
.B Example :
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 nickname ""My Linux Node""
.TP
.BR rate / bit [rate]
For cards supporting multiple bit rates, set the bit-rate in b/s. The
bit-rate is the speed at which bits are transmitted over the medium,
the user speed of the link is lower due to medium sharing and
overhead.
.br
You must append the suffix k, M or G to the value (decimal multiplier
: 10^3, 10^6 and 10^9 b/s), or add enough '0'. Values below 1000 are
card specific, usually an index in the bit-rate list. Use
.I auto
to select the automatic bit-rate mode (fallback to lower rate on noisy
channels), which is the default for most cards, and
.I fixed
to revert back to fixed setting. If you specify a bit-rate value and append
.IR auto ,
the driver will use all bit lower and equal than this value.
.br
.B Examples :
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 rate 11M"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 rate auto"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 rate 5.5M auto"
.TP
.BR rts [_threshold]
RTS/CTS adds a handshake before each packet transmission to make sure
that the channel is clear. This adds overhead, but increase
performance in case of hidden nodes or large number of active
nodes. This parameters set the size of the smallest packet for which
the node sends RTS, a value equal to the maximum packet size disable
the scheme. You may also set this parameter to
.IR auto ", " fixed " or " off .
.br
.B Examples :
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 rts 250"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 rts off"
.TP
.BR frag [mentation_threshold]
Fragmentation allow to split a IP packet in a burst of smaller
fragments transmitted on the medium. In most cases this adds overhead,
but in very noisy environment this reduce the error penalty. This
parameter set the maximum fragment size, a value equal to the maximum
packet size disable the scheme. You may also set this parameter to
.IR auto ", " fixed " or " off .
.br
.B Examples :
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 frag 512"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 frag off"
.TP
.BR key / enc [ryption]
Used to manipulate encryption or scrambling keys and security mode.
.br
To set the current encryption key, just enter the key in hex digits as
.IR XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX " or " XXXXXXXX .
To set a key other than the current key, prepend or append
.I [index]
to the key itself (this won't change which is the active key). You can
also enter the key as an ASCII string by using the
.I s:
prefix. Passphrase is currently not supported.
.br
To change which key is the current active key, just enter
.I [index]
(without entering any key value).
.br
.IR off " and " on
disable and reenable encryption.
.br
The security mode may be
.I open
or
.IR restricted ,
and its meaning depend on the card used. With most card, in
.I open
mode no authentication is used and the card may also accept
non-encrypted sessions, whereas in
.I restricted
mode only encrypted sessions are accepted and the card will use
authentication if available.
.br
If you need to set multiple keys, or set a key and change the active
key, you need to use multiple
.B key
directives. Arguments can be put in any order, the last one will take
precendence.
.br
.B Examples :
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 key 0123-4567-89"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 key s:password [2]"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 key [2] open"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 key off"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 key restricted [3] 0123456789"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 key 01-23 key 45-67 [4] key [4]"
.TP
.BR power
Used to manipulate power management scheme parameters and mode.
.br
To set the period between wake up, enter
.IR "period `value'" .
To set the timeout before going back to sleep, enter
.IR "timeout `value'" .
You can also add the
.IR min " and " max
modifiers. By defaults, those values are in seconds, append the
suffix m or u to specify values un milliseconds or
microseconds. Sometimes, those values are without units (number of
dwell or the like).
.br
.IR off " and " on
disable and reenable power management. Finally, you may set the power
management mode to
.I all
(receive all packets),
.I unicast
(receive unicast packets only, discard multicast and broadcast) and
.I multicast
(receive multicast and broadcast only, discard unicast packets).
.br
.B Examples :
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 power period 2"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 power 500m unicast"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 power timeout 300u all"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 power off"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 power min period 2 power max period 4"
.TP
.BR txpower
For cards supporting multiple transmit powers, set the transmit power in dBm. If 
.I W
is the power in Watt, the power in dBm is
.IR "P = 30 + 10.log(W)" .
If the value is postfixed by
.IR mW ,
it will be automatically converted to dBm.
.br
In addition, 
.IR on " and " off
enable and disable the radio, and
.IR auto " and " fixed
enable and disable power control (if those features are available).
.br
.B Examples :
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 txpower 15"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 txpower 30mW"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 txpower auto"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 txpower off"
.TP
.BR retry
Most cards have MAC retransmissions, and some allow to set the
behaviour of the retry mechanism.
.br
To set the maximum number of retries, enter
.IR "limit `value'" .
This is an absolute value (without unit).
The set the maximum length of time the MAC should retry, enter
.IR "lifetime `value'" .
By defaults, this value in in seconds, append the suffix m or u to
specify values un milliseconds or microseconds.
.br
You can also add the
.IR min " and " max
modifiers. If the card support automatic mode, they define the bounds
of the limit or lifetime. Some other cards define different values
depending on packet size, for example in 802.11
.I min limit
is the short retry limit (non RTS/CTS packets).
.br
.B Examples :
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 retry 16"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 retry lifetime 300m"
.br
.I "	iwconfig eth0 retry min limit 8"
.TP
.BR commit
Some cards may not apply changes done through Wireless Extensions
immediately (they may wait to agregate the changes or apply it only
when the card is brought up via ifconfig). This command (when
available) force the card to apply all pending changes.
.br
This is normally not needed, because the card will eventually apply
the changes, but can be usefull for debugging.
.\"
.\" DISPLAY part
.\"
.SH DISPLAY
For each device which support wireless extensions,
.I iwconfig
will display the name of the
.B MAC protocol
used (name of device for proprietary protocols), the
.B ESSID
(Network Name), the
.BR NWID ,
the
.B frequency
(or channel), the
.BR sensitivity ,
the
.B mode
of operation, the
.B Access Point
address, the
.B bit-rate
the
.BR "RTS threshold" ", the " "fragmentation threshold" ,
the
.B encryption key
and the
.B power management
settings (depending on availability).
.br
See above for explanations of what these parameters mean.
.br
If the label for some values (such as bitrate) is followed by
.RB ` = ',
it means that the parameter is fixed and forced to that value, if it
is followed by
.RB ` : '
it is only the current value (device in normal auto mode).
.PP
If
.I /proc/net/wireless
exists,
.I iwconfig
will also display its content. Note that those values will depend on
the driver and the hardware specifics, so you need to refer to your
driver documentation for proper interpretation of those values.
.TP
.B Link quality
Overall quality of the link. May be based on the level of contention
or interference, the bit or frame error rate, how good the received
signal is, some timing synchronisation, or other hardware metric. This
is an aggregate value, and depend totally on the driver and hardware.
.TP
.B Signal level
Received signal strength (RSSI - how strong the received signal
is). May be arbitrary units or dBm,
.I iwconfig
uses driver meta information to interpret the raw value given by
.I /proc/net/wireless
and display the proper unit or maximum value (using 8 bit arithmetic). In
.I Ad-Hoc
mode, this may be undefined and you should use
.IR iwspy .
.TP
.B Noise level
Background noise level (when no packet is transmited). Similar
comments as for
.BR "Signal level" .
.TP
.B Rx invalid nwid
Number of packets received with a different NWID or ESSID. Used to
detect configuration problems or adjacent network existence (on the
same frequency).
.TP
.B Rx invalid crypt
Number of packets that the hardware was unable to decrypt. This can be
used to detect invalid encryption settings.
.TP
.B Rx invalid frag
Number of packets for which the hardware was not able to properly
re-assemble the link layer fragments (most likely one was missing).
.TP
.B Tx excessive retries
Number of packets that the hardware failed to deliver. Most MAC
protocol will retry the packet a number of time before giving up.
.TP
.B Invalid misc
Other packets lost in relation with specific wireless operations.
.TP
.B Missed beacon
Number of periodic beacons from the Cell or the Access Point we have
missed. Beacons are sent at regular interval to maintain the cell
coordination, failure to receive them usually indicate that we are out
of range.
.\"
.\" AUTHOR part
.\"
.SH AUTHOR
Jean Tourrilhes \- [e-mail]
.\"
.\" FILES part
.\"
.SH FILES
.I /proc/net/wireless
.\"
.\" SEE ALSO part
.\"
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR ifconfig (8),
.BR iwspy (8),
.BR iwlist (8),
.BR iwevent (8),
.BR iwpriv (8),
.BR wireless (7).