ral0 <--> wi0 (4.11) ?

[Ian Smith]

On Tue, 27 May 2008, Lystopad Oleksandr wrote:
 > Hi!
 >
 > I need to build wireless link between FreeBSD 4.11 with wi0 (adhoc)
 > interface and FreeBSD 7.0 with ral0 interface. I try many modes and
 > mediaopts, but no luck. :(
 > 
 > Please, help me build wireless network with that environment.

By omission, ral(4) implies that it won't do adhoc or hostap modes -
despite what ifconfig says below, perhaps what you told it? - so you
maybe can only use it in a BSS network, to an access point.  Boring.

That they both say 'associated' means they can 'see' each other, but
still have no common mode to talk in.  Been there, it's confusing ..

Possibly the only way these two can talk is if your wi(4) card uses a
Prism chipset, and so may work in hostap mode.  Mine's a Cabletron with
Lucent chipset, which can't, but works fine in 11b adhoc or BSS modes. 

Your best bet might be replacing one or the other with an Atheros card,
which can do all three of adhoc (IBSS), BSS client or hostap modes, so
should talk to either - or both, in hostap mode - of the others.

cheers, Ian

 > [root at pavilion /etc]# uname -rs
 > FreeBSD 7.0-STABLE
 > [root at pavilion /etc]# ifconfig ral0
 > ral0: flags=c847<UP,BROADCAST,DEBUG,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,LINK2,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
 >         ether 00:0f:66:74:8b:2b
 >         inet 192.168.126.2 netmask 0xfffffffc broadcast 192.168.126.3
 >         media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet DS/11Mbps mode 11b (DS/11Mbps <adhoc>)
 >         status: associated
 >         ssid 42bc9b channel 3 (2422 Mhz 11b) bssid 2a:05:70:ac:3f:fe
 >         authmode OPEN privacy OFF txpower 50 bmiss 7 scanvalid 60 bgscan
 >         bgscanintvl 300 bgscanidle 250 roam:rssi11b 7 roam:rate11b 1
 > [root at pavilion /etc]# grep ral /var/run/dmesg.boot
 > ral0: <Ralink Technology RT2560> mem 0xfdbfe000-0xfdbfffff irq 18 at device 10.0 on pci1
 > ral0: MAC/BBP RT2560 (rev 0x04), RF RT2525
 > ral0: Ethernet address: 00:0f:66:74:8b:2b
 > ral0: [ITHREAD]
 > [root at pavilion /etc]#
 > 
 > 
 > unix# uname -rs
 > FreeBSD 4.11-STABLE
 > unix# ifconfig wi0
 > wi0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
 >         inet 192.168.126.1 netmask 0xfffffffc broadcast 192.168.126.3
 >         ether 00:02:2d:05:77:1e
 >         media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect (DS/11Mbps <adhoc>)
 >         status: associated
 >         ssid 42bc9b 1:42bc9b
 >         stationname unix
 >         channel 3 authmode OPEN powersavemode OFF powersavesleep 100
 >         wepmode OFF weptxkey 1
 > unix#
 > 
 > PING 192.168.126.2 (192.168.126.2): 56 data bytes
 > ping: sendto: Host is down
 > ping: sendto: Host is down
 > ^C
 > --- 192.168.126.2 ping statistics ---
 > 8 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss
 > 
 > Thanks.
 > 
 > -- 
 >  Oleksandr Lystopad