Subject: Experiences with the Aironet/Wavelan drivers

From: Theo PAGTZIS <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 14:22:22 +0000

Howdy,

 Just to save the frustration from anyone, I have tried to test the Aironet 
drivers in infra mode under FreeBSD3.2, only to discover that it cannot do 
infra mode. The sync and association did ok with the BS but no packets could 
be forwarded or sent. Although it worked fine in adhoc mode between nodes, I 
could not get it to work on infra mode and route packets onto a fixed wire 
net..

Unfortunately for the Aironet people the Wavelan card gains more momentum than 
the Aironet interface, simply because there are no _fully functional drivers 
for FreeBSD.

I have, however, to appreciate the effort of Bill Paul in actually producing 
something that works for free. I also appreciate the statement in his README 
that he did not have the chance to test with a BS, but that leaves loads of 
space for the inexperienced to assume he is doing something wrong on his side, 
not that the driver cannot do it.

Also to clarify something in my understanding about the wavelan drivers, the 
(lately renovated) Columbia Cellular IP page states that the wavelan driver 
can use the full 11 Mbps signalling rate. However within the driver 
(http://www.freebsd.org/~wpaul/) it states explicitly that it can only reach 6 
Mbps. On top of that I do not get Tput of more than 2.2 Mbps (TCP), 3.7 (UDP). 
This looks more to me like a signalling b/width of 6 Mbps, not 11 Mbps.

Could it be that the page has added 'by mistake' (the old one did not have it) 
the 11 Mbps figure. I have triple checked the driver and it is exactly the one 
I am using now (same date). If this is the case could you please correct what 
the page states since it mislead the reader about what the driver can do. If 
not, I would appreciate some explanation.

I would love to be false in my statement but I think the driver instructions 
should be amended to say that the aironet drivers will only work in adhoc mode.

If anyone did have different experiences with Aironet in infrastructure mode I 
would appreciate any correction.

Regards

Theodore

-----------------------------------------

Theodore Pagtzis         
Networked Mmedia & Mobile Systems Group   
Dept of Computer Science 
University College London  

-----------------------------------------

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From: Francis Dupont <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 17:50:17 +0100

In your previous mail you wrote:

   infra mode.

=> I've tried an Aironet 4800 with WaveLAN IEEE (bronze turbo used at
2Mbits/s standard/common speed) with a WaveLAN Access Point II.
Adhoc modes are incompatible but infrastructure modes work together
in some cases: I have got some traffic between an Aironet and a WaveLAN
with the AP as a level 2 relay. A ping between the AP and an Aironet
always failed... then this infrastructure mode is just an adhoc one
with an extra box in the middle and no new facility (:-)!

Regards

[email-masked]

PS: I haven't yet tried new gold 11Mbits/s WaveLANs.