[NullSpin]

Hi everyone,
Your favorite question monkey has yet another. In prior rev's of Freebsd I used wicontrol to set the variables on my wifi card. (Which is a standard 802.11b intersil based card) Now in 5.2.1 when I try to use wicontrol I get the generic message. Please migrate to ifconfig.
I'm looking to set the card to bss mode, change the channel frequency, etc. I tried to use sysinstall but i'm getting no joy. I go to network interfaces set up for dhcp but it's giving me the settings from the last thing it was connected to.
I checked the handbook but it was a little light on bss configs.
Any help would be appreciated.
ns

[Kernel_Killer]

Just use ifconfig.

ifconfig wi0 ssid <Station ID>
ifconfig wi0 channel <channel>

It should be set to BSS by default.

[NullSpin]

Yes I found a faq on ifconfig. Looks like i'm having larger problems. This is a netgear MA401RA card. I googled around and found people were having various problems with it....over time. Weird thing is it worked fine in 5.2.1 rc1 and all the revs previous. Now it just sits there and scans.
I set ssid and channel still no luck.
I had to set my resolv.conf manually since I started using a d-link wireless router. So I thought that was the source of my problems. Changed it to my current settings and still no good.
I tried just your basic ifconfig wi0 up and I still get no solid link light. Maybe the card died?
if anyone has any additional ideas let me know.
ns

[Kernel_Killer]

Just to verify, did you set the IP for the interface? I had the same issue with 5.2, and for some reason it didn't like connecting to the AP without an IP.

[NullSpin]

How is this for strange. I came back home and booted up the laptop. Was ready to go in and set an ip and it found the card/frequency/ssid right off the bat. I was at a friends house when I wrote the original post.
Here's the thing I was at the same friends house 2 weeks ago with rc1 and it found his ap without issue. I thought it just might be a weak signal so I ran bsd airtools to see if it registered a signal and no dice. Just sat there and scanned. This was next to a windows pc that picked up a fair signal.
We are running different types of ap's but I can't imagine that would make much of a difference.
Something strange is afoot at the circle k.
ns

[Kernel_Killer]

Something strange is afoot at the circle k.

Sure is Ted. :D

Is it possible that his AP allows him to turn off broadcasting? If so, that could raise a lot of issues. A Win system can have the config memorized to where it can pick it back up when rebooted or re-enabled. In such a manner, all things have to be manually set in FreeBSD since the perameters are not broadcasted.

[NullSpin]

The ssid was being broadcast. It was a linksys g router. No wep. Maybe it was signal strength. But I don't get why it would work 1 week and not the next.
I guess I wil figure it out eventually. Is there a link you know of that shows a side by side comparison of ifconfig and wicontrol commands? Also have you seen the port wiconf? Looks like it would be a useful little app.

http://www.csh.rit.edu/~psionic/projects/wiconf/

ns

[Kernel_Killer]

Ahhhhhhhh. An 802.11b NIC isn't going to communicate with an 802.11g AP unless the AP allows 802.11b devices to be contacted. Maybe it was disabled during that time?