.BI " [enc " E "] [key " K "] [power " P "] [retry " R ]
.br
.BI " [commit]
+.br
+.BI "iwconfig --help"
+.br
+.BI "iwconfig --version"
.\"
.\" DESCRIPTION part
.\"
.I Ad-hoc
(network composed of only one cell and without Access Point),
.I Managed
-(network composed of many cells, with roaming or with an Access Point),
+(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 on the air),
+(the node forward packets between other wireless nodes),
.I Secondary
-(the node act as a backup master/repeater) or
+(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
-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.
+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
.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
.I " iwconfig eth0 frag off"
.TP
.BR key / enc [ryption]
-Used to manipulate encryption or scrambling keys and encryption mode.
+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, append
+To set a key other than the current key, prepend or append
.I [index]
-to the key itself. You can also enter the key as an ASCII string by
-using the
+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.
+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,
+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
-set the system in open mode (accept non-encrypted packets) and
+mode no authentication is used and the card may also accept
+non-encrypted sessions, whereas in
.I restricted
-discard non-encrypted packets.
+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 [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 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). This command (when available) force
-the card to apply all pending changes.
+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.
.br
See above for explanations of what these parameters mean.
.br
-If the label for bitrate is followed by
+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
.I /proc/net/wireless
exists,
.I iwconfig
-will also display its content :
+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
-Quality of the link or the modulation (what is the level of contention
-or interference, or how good the received signal is).
+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 (how strong the received signal is).
+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).
+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 invalid nwid
-Number of packets received with a different NWID. Used to detect
-configuration problems or adjacent network existence.
+.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 invalid crypt
-Number of packets that the hardware was unable to decrypt.
+.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 invalid misc
+.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
.\"
.BR ifconfig (8),
.BR iwspy (8),
.BR iwlist (8),
+.BR iwevent (8),
.BR iwpriv (8),
-.BR wavelan (4),
-.BR wavelan_cs (4),
-.BR wvlan_cs (4),
-.BR netwave_cs (4).
+.BR wireless (7).