WaveLAN/ORiNOCO 2.4GHz 11Mbps Wireless Interface
Document revision 22-Mar-2002
This document applies to the MikroTik RouterOS V2.4 and V2.5
For more information about the WaveLAN / ORiNOCO adapter hardware please see the relevant
User’s Guides and Technical Reference Manuals in .pdf format from the manufacturer:
Information about configuring the ORiNOCO wireless access point can be found there:
[MikroTik] > system package print # NAME VERSION BUILD-TIME UNINSTALL 0 wavelan 2.4 sep/25/2001 05:08:09 no 1 routing 2.4 sep/25/2001 05:06:07 no 2 ssh 2.4 sep/25/2001 05:08:11 no 3 system 2.4 sep/25/2001 05:05:48 no 4 ppp 2.4 sep/25/2001 05:06:35 no 5 pppoe 2.4 sep/25/2001 05:06:45 no 6 pptp 2.4 sep/25/2001 05:06:44 no [MikroTik] >
[MikroTik] > system resource irq print IRQ USED OWNER 1 yes keyboard 2 yes APIC 3 no 4 yes serial port 5 yes Wavelan 802.11 6 no 7 no 8 no 9 no 10 yes Public 11 yes Local 12 no 13 yes FPU 14 yes IDE 1 15 yes PCMCIA service [MikroTik] > system resource io print PORT-RANGE OWNER 20-3F APIC 40-5F timer 60-6F keyboard 80-8F DMA A0-BF APIC C0-DF DMA F0-FF FPU 100-13F Wavelan 802.11 1F0-1F7 IDE 1 2F8-2FF serial port 3C0-3DF VGA 3E0-3E1 PCMCIA service 3F6-3F6 IDE 1 3F8-3FF serial port 4000-4007 IDE 1 4008-400F IDE 2 6300-631F Local 6700-67FF Public [MikroTik] >
Special Notice for PCMCIA-PCI adapter users! The IRQ is not being reported back correctly on some MB for PCMCIA-PCI adapters. As a result, the wireless interface appears to be operational, but there can be no data transmitted over the wireless link. For example, when pinging the AP or GW form the router, there is no response to the ping, although the other end gets the MAC address of the WaveLAN interface of the router. To solve this, try using another MB, or use PCMCIA-ISA adapter.
Note! The PC card can be inserted in the PCMCIA-ISA or PCI adapter when the system is running. The wavelan driver is not listed under the list of loaded drivers.
There can be several reasons for a failure to load the driver:
[MikroTik] interface> print Flags: X - disabled, D - dynamic # NAME MTU TYPE 0 Public 1500 ether 1 Local 1500 ether 2 X wavelan1 1500 wavelan [MikroTik] interface> enable 2 [MikroTik] interface> print Flags: X - disabled, D - dynamic # NAME MTU TYPE 0 Public 1500 ether 1 Local 1500 ether 2 wavelan1 1500 wavelan [MikroTik] interface>
More configuration and statistics parameters can be found under the '/interface wavelan' menu:
[MikroTik] interface> wavelan
[MikroTik] interface wavelan> print
Flags: X - disabled
0 name=wavelan1 mtu=1500 mac-address=00:02:2D:07:D8:44 arp=enabled
frequency=2412MHz data-rate=11Mbit/s mode=ad-hoc ssid="" client-name=""
key1="" key2="" key3="" key4="" tx-key=key1 encryption=no
[MikroTik] interface wavelan>
Argument description:
number - Interface number in the list
name - Interface name
mtu - Maximum Transmit Unit (256...2296 bytes). The default value is 1500 bytes.
mac-address - MAC address of the card. Cannot be changed.
frequency - Channel frequency (2412MHz / 2422MHz / ... / 2484MHz)
data-rate - Data rate (11Mbit/s / 1Mbit/s / 2Mbit/s / 5.5Mbit/s / auto)
mode - Operation mode of the card (infrastructure / ad-hoc)
ssid - Service Set Identifier
client-name - Client name
key1 - Encryption key #1
key2 - Encryption key #2
key3 - Encryption key #3
key4 - Encryption key #4
tx-key - Transmit key (key1 / key2 / key3 / key4)
encryption - Encryption (no / yes)
arp - Address Resolution Protocol (disabled / enabled / proxy-arp)
You can monitor the status of the wireless interface:
[MikroTik] interface wavelan>
bssid: 44:44:44:44:44:44
frequency: 2422MHz
data-rate: 11Mbit/s
ssid: tsunami
signal-quality: 0
signal-level: 0
noise: 0
[MikroTik] interface wavelan>
To set the wireless interface for working with an IEEE 802.11b access point (register to the AP), you should set the following parameters:
[MikroTik] interface wavelan> set 0 ssid MT_w_AP mode infrastructure
[MikroTik] interface wavelan> monitor wavelan1
bssid: 00:40:96:42:0C:9C
frequency: 2437MHz
data-rate: 11Mbit/s
ssid: MT_w_AP
signal-quality: 65
signal-level: 228
noise: 163
[MikroTik] interface wavelan>
Two possible wireless network configurations are discussed in the following examples:
The access point is connected to the wired network's HUB and has IP address from the network 10.1.1.0/24. The minimum configuration required for the AP is:
Reminder! Please note, that the AP is not a router! It has just one network address, and is just like any host on the network. It resembles a wireless-to-Ethernet HUB or bridge. The AP does not route the IP traffic!
The minimum configuration for the MikroTik router's wavelan wireless interface is:
[MikroTik] interface wavelan> set wavelan1 ssid mt mode infrastructure
[MikroTik] interface wavelan>
bssid: 00:40:96:42:0C:9C
frequency: 2437MHz
data-rate: 11Mbit/s
ssid: mt
signal-quality: 64
signal-level: 228
noise: 163
[MikroTik] interface wavelan>
The channel frequency argument does not have any meaning, since the frequency of the AP is used.
[MikroTik] ip address> add address 10.1.1.12/24 interface wavelan1 [MikroTik] ip address> add address 192.168.0.254/24 interface ether1 [MikroTik] ip address> print Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid, D - dynamic # ADDRESS NETWORK BROADCAST INTERFACE 0 192.168.0.254/24 192.168.0.0 192.168.0.255 ether1 1 10.1.1.12/24 10.1.1.0 10.1.1.255 wavelan1 [MikroTik] ip address>
The default route should be set to the gateway router 10.1.1.254 (not the AP 10.1.1.250 !):
[MikroTik] ip route> add gateway 10.1.1.254 [MikroTik] ip route> print Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid, D - dynamic, R - rejected # TYPE DST-ADDRESS NEXTHOP-S... GATEWAY DISTANCE INTERFACE 0 static 0.0.0.0/0 A 10.1.1.254 1 wavelan1 1 D connect 192.168.0.0/24 A 0.0.0.0 0 ether1 2 D connect 10.1.1.0/24 A 0.0.0.0 0 wavelan1 [MikroTik] ip route>
