WaveLAN/ORiNOCO 2.4GHz 11Mbps Wireless Interface

Document revision 16-Sep-2002
This document applies to the MikroTik RouterOS V2.6

Overview

Note! MikroTik does not guarantee support for Orinocco/Wavelan

The MikroTik RouterOS supports the following WaveLAN/ORiNOCO 2.4GHz 11Mbps Wireless Adapter hardware:

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:

Contents of the Manual

The following topics are covered in this manual:

Wireless Adapter Hardware and Software Installation

Software Packages

The MikroTik Router should have the wavelan software package installed. The software package file wavelan-2.6.x.npk can be downloaded from MikroTik’s web page www.mikrotik.com. To install the package, please upload the correct version file to the router and reboot. Use BINARY mode ftp transfer. After successful installation the package should be listed under the installed software packages list, for example:

[admin@MikroTik] > /sys package print
Flags: I - invalid
  #   NAME                  VERSION              BUILD-TIME           UNINSTALL
  0   system                2.6beta4             aug/09/2002 20:22:14 no
  1   wavelan               2.6beta4             aug/09/2002 20:31:48 no
  2   ppp                   2.6beta4             aug/09/2002 20:28:01 no
  3   pppoe                 2.6beta4             aug/09/2002 20:29:18 no
  4   pptp                  2.6beta4             aug/09/2002 20:28:43 no
  5   ssh                   2.6beta4             aug/09/2002 20:25:31 no
[admin@MikroTik] >

Software License

The 2.4GHz wireless adapters require the 2.4GHz wireless feature license. One license is for one installation of the MikroTik RouterOS, disregarding how many cards are installed in one PC box. The wireless feature is not included in the Free Demo or Basic Software License. The 2.4GHz Wireless Feature cannot be obtained for the Free Demo License. It can be obtained only together with the Basic Software License.

System Resource Usage

Before installing the wireless adapter, please check the availability of free IRQ's and I/O base addresses:

[admin@MikroTik] > system resource irq print
Flags: U - unused
   IRQ OWNER
   1   keyboard
   2   APIC
 U 3
   4   sync1
   5   Wavelan 802.11
 U 6
 U 7
 U 8
 U 9
 U 10
   11  ether1
 U 12
   13  FPU
   14  IDE 1
[admin@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
 3C0-3DF           VGA
 3F6-3F6           IDE 1
 CF8-CFF           [PCI conf1]
 1000-100F         [Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE]]
 1000-1007         IDE 1
 1008-100F         IDE 2
 6000-60FF         [Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139]
 6000-60FF         [8139too]
 6100-61FF         [Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139 (#2)]
 6100-61FF         [8139too]
[admin@MikroTik] >

Installing the Wireless Adapter

Check the system BIOS settings for peripheral devices, like, Parallel or Serial communication ports. Disable them, if you plan to use IRQ's assigned to them by the BIOS.

Please note, that not all combinations of I/O base addresses and IRQ's may work on your motherboard.

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.

Loading the Driver for the Wireless Adapter

The WaveLAN / Orinoco PC (PCMCIA) cards do not require a 'manual' driver loading, since they are recognized automatically by the system and the driver is loaded at the system startup. If the driver has loaded successfully, there should be two beeps of equal tone, which should be heard through the PC's speaker while the system startup. If the second beep has a lower tone than the first one, then the driver could not be loaded, or, there is no wavelan package installed.
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:

Wireless Interface Configuration

If the driver has been loaded successfully (no error messages), and you have the required 2.4GHz Wireless Software License, then the WaveLAN/ORiNOCO 2.4GHz Wireless interface should appear under the interfaces list with the name wavelanX, where X is 1,2,... You can change the interface name to a more descriptive one using the set command. To enable the interface, use the enable command:

[admin@MikroTik] interface> print
Flags: X - disabled, D - dynamic, R - running
  #    NAME                 TYPE             MTU
  0  R Public               1500  ether
  1  R Local                1500  ether
  2 X  wavelan1             1500  wavelan
[MikroTik] interface> enable 2
[admin@MikroTik] interface> print
Flags: X - disabled, D - dynamic, R - running
  #    NAME                 TYPE             MTU
  0  R Public               1500  ether
  1  R Local                1500  ether
  2  R wavelan1             1500  wavelan
[admin@MikroTik] interface>

More configuration and statistics parameters can be found under the /interface wavelan menu:

[admin@MikroTik] interface> wavelan
[admin@MikroTik] interface wavelan> print
Flags: X - disabled, R - running
  0  R 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

[admin@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, one of the:

You can monitor the status of the wireless interface:

[admin@MikroTik] interface wavelan> moitor 0
             bssid: 44:44:44:44:44:44
         frequency: 2422MHz
         data-rate: 11Mbit/s
              ssid: tsunami
    signal-quality: 0
      signal-level: 0
             noise: 0

[admin@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:

All other parameters can be left as default. To configure the wireless interface for registering to an AP with ssid "MT_w_AP", it is enough to change the argument value of ssid to "MT_w_AP":

[admin@MikroTik] interface wavelan> set 0 ssid MT_w_AP mode infrastructure
[admin@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

[admin@MikroTik] interface wavelan>

Wireless Troubleshooting

Wireless Network Applications

Two possible wireless network configurations are discussed in the following examples:

Point-to-Multipoint Wireless LAN

Let us consider the following network setup with WaveLAN / ORiNOCO or CISCO/Aironet Wireless Access Point as a base station and MikroTik Wireless Router as a client:

Point-to-Multipoint

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:

  1. Setting the Service Set Identifier (up to 32 alphanumeric characters). In our case we use ssid "mt".
  2. Setting the allowed data rates at 1-11Mbps, and the basic rate at 1Mbps.
  3. Choosing the frequency, in our case we use 2452MHz.
  4. Setting the identity parameters: ip address/mask and gateway. These are required if you want to access the AP remotely.

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:

  1. Setting the Service Set Identifier to that of the AP, i.e., "mt"
  2. Setting the Operation Mode to infrastructure

[admin@MikroTik] interface wavelan> set wavelan1 ssid mt mode infrastructure
[admin@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

[admin@MikroTik] interface wavelan>

The channel frequency argument does not have any meaning, since the frequency of the AP is used.

IP Network Configuration

The IP addresses assigned to the wireless interface should be from the network 10.1.1.0/24, e.g.:

[admin@MikroTik] ip address> add address 10.1.1.12/24 interface wavelan1
[admin@MikroTik] ip address> add address 192.168.0.254/24 interface ether1
[admin@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
[admin@MikroTik] ip address>

The default route should be set to the gateway router 10.1.1.254 (not the AP 10.1.1.250 !):

[admin@MikroTik] ip route> add gateway 10.1.1.254
[admin@MikroTik] > ip route print
Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid, D - dynamic, J - rejected,
C - connect, S - static, R - rip, O - ospf, B - bgp
    #    DST-ADDRESS        G GATEWAY         DISTANCE INTERFACE
    0  S 0.0.0.0/0          r 10.1.1.254      1        wavelan1
    1 DC 192.168.0.0/24     r 0.0.0.0         0        ether1
    2 DC 10.1.1.0/24        r 0.0.0.0         0        wavelan1
[admin@MikroTik] ip route>

Point-to-Point Wireless LAN

Let us consider the following point-to-point wireless network setup with two MikroTik Wireless Routers:

Point-to-Point

To establish a point-to-point link, the configuration of the wireless interface should be as follows:

The following command should be issued to change the settings for the wavelan interface:

[admin@MikroTik] interface wavelan> set 0 ssid b_link mode ad-hoc frewency 2412MHz
[admin@MikroTik] interface wavelan> monitor wavelan1
             bssid: 00:02:2D:07:17:23
         frequency: 2412MHz
         data-rate: 11Mbit/s
              ssid: b_link
    signal-quality: 0
      signal-level: 154
             noise: 154
[admin@MikroTik] interface wavelan>

The other router of the point-to-point link requires the same parameters to be set:

[admin@wnet_gw] interface wavelan> set 0 ssid b_link mode ad-hoc frequency 2412MHz
[admin@wnet_gw] interface wavelan> enable 0
[admin@wnet_gw] interface wavelan> monitor 0
             bssid: 00:02:2D:07:17:23
         frequency: 2412MHz
         data-rate: 11Mbit/s
              ssid: b_link
    signal-quality: 0
      signal-level: 154
             noise: 154
[admin@wnet_gw] interface wavelan>

As we see, the MAC address under the 'bssid' parameter is the same as generated on the first router.

IP Network Configuration

If desired, IP addresses can be assigned to the wireless interfaces of the pint-to-point link routers using a smaller subnet, say 30-bit one:

[admin@MikroTik] ip address> add address 10.0.0.1/30 interface wavelan1
[admin@MikroTik] ip address> add address 192.168.0.254/24 interface ether1
[admin@MikroTik] ip address> print
  # ADDRESS         NETMASK         NETWORK         BROADCAST       INTERFACE
  0 10.0.0.1        255.255.255.252 10.0.0.1        10.0.0.3        wavelan1
  1 192.168.0.254   255.255.255.0   192.168.0.254   192.168.0.255   ether1
[admin@MikroTik] ip address> /ip route add gateway 10.0.0.2
[admin@MikroTik] > ip route print
Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid, D - dynamic, J - rejected,
C - connect, S - static, R - rip, O - ospf, B - bgp
    #    DST-ADDRESS        G GATEWAY         DISTANCE INTERFACE
    0  S 0.0.0.0/0          r 10.0.0.2        1        wavelan1
    1 DC 10.0.0.0/30        r 0.0.0.0         0        wavelan1
    2 DC 192.168.0.0/24     r 0.0.0.0         0        ether1
[admin@MikroTik] ip address>

The second router will have address 10.0.0.2, the default route to 10.1.1.254, and a static route for network 192.168.0.0/24 to 10.0.0.1:

[admin@wnet_gw] ip address> add address 10.0.0.2/30 interface wl1
[admin@wnet_gw] ip address> add address 10.1.1.12/24 interface Public
[admin@wnet_gw] ip address> print
  # ADDRESS         NETMASK         NETWORK         BROADCAST       INTERFACE
  0 10.0.0.2        255.255.255.252 10.0.0.2        10.0.0.3        wl1
  1 10.1.1.12       255.255.255.0   10.1.1.12       10.1.1.255      Public
[admin@wnet_gw] ip address> /ip route
[admin@wnet_gw] ip route> add gateway 10.1.1.254 interface Public
[admin@wnet_gw] ip route> add gateway 10.0.0.1 interface wl1 \
\... dst-address 192.168.0.0/24
[admin@MikroTik] > ip route print
Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid, D - dynamic, J - rejected,
C - connect, S - static, R - rip, O - ospf, B - bgp
    #    DST-ADDRESS        G GATEWAY         DISTANCE INTERFACE
    0 0.0.0.0/0             r 10.1.1.254      1        Public
    1 192.168.0.0/24        r 10.0.0.1        1        wl1
    2 10.0.0.0/30           r 0.0.0.0         0        wl1
    3 10.1.1.0/24           r 0.0.0.0         0        Public
[admin@wnet_gw] ip route>

Testing the Network Connectivity

The network connectivity can be tested by using ping:

[admin@MikroTik]> ping 10.0.0.2
10.0.0.2 pong: ttl=255 time=2 ms
10.0.0.2 pong: ttl=255 time=2 ms
10.0.0.2 pong: ttl=255 time=2 ms
3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 2/2.0/2 ms
[admin@MikroTik]>

Point-to-Point Wireless LAN with Windows Client

Let us consider the following point-to-point wireless network setup with one MikroTik Wireless Router and a laptop computer with Wavelan card:

Point-to-Point with Windows

It is very important, that the MikroTik Router is configured prior turning on and configuring the wireless client. The MikroTik router should be up and running, so the client could join its network.

The configuration of the wireless interface of the MikroTik Router should be as follows:

The following command should be issued to change the settings for the wavelan interface:

[admin@home_gw] interface wavelan> set wl-home frequency 2447MHz \
/... mode ad-hoc ssid home_link
[admin@home_gw] interface wavelan> enable wl-home
[admin@home_gw] interface wavelan> print
[admin@MikroTik] interface wavelan> print
Flags: X - disabled, R - running
  0  R name=wl-home mtu=1500 mac-address=00:02:2D:07:D8:44 arp=enabled
       frequency=2447MHz data-rate=11Mbit/s mode=ad-hoc ssid="home_link"
       client-name="" key1="" key2="" key3="" key4="" tx-key=key1 encryption=no

[admin@home_gw] interface wavelan> monitor 0
             bssid: 02:02:2D:07:D8:44
         frequency: 2447MHz
         data-rate: 11Mbit/s
              ssid: home_link
    signal-quality: 0
      signal-level: 154
             noise: 154
[admin@home_gw] interface wavelan>

Configure the laptop computer with the Wavelan card following the manufacturer's instructions.

Note! In Ad-Hoc (Peer-to-Peer) mode the V1.76 ORiNOCO Client Manager program allows setting only the Network Name (ssid) parameter. The channel (frequency) parameter is chosen that of the other peer. Therefore, the MikroTik Router should be configured for the ad-hoc mode operation prior turning on the laptop Wavelan client.

If the laptop Wavelan client has established the wireless link with the MikroTik router, it should report the same parameters as set on the MikroTik router's wavelan interface:

Client Manager

Here, we see the channel #8, which is 2447MHz frequency.

IP Network Configuration

The IP addresses assigned to the wireless interface of the MikroTik Router should be from the network 192.168.0.0/24:

[admin@home_gw] ip address> add interface Public address 10.1.1.12/24
[admin@home_gw] ip address> add interface wl-home address 192.168.0.254/24
[admin@home_gw] ip address> print
  # ADDRESS         NETMASK         NETWORK         BROADCAST       INTERFACE
  0 10.1.1.12       255.255.255.0   10.1.1.12       10.1.1.255      Public
  1 192.168.0.254   255.255.255.0   192.168.0.254   192.168.0.255   wl-home
[admin@home_gw] ip address> /ip route
[admin@home_gw] ip route> add gateway 10.1.1.254
[admin#home_gw] ip route> print
[admin@MikroTik] > ip route print
Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid, D - dynamic, J - rejected,
C - connect, S - static, R - rip, O - ospf, B - bgp
    #    DST-ADDRESS        G GATEWAY         DISTANCE INTERFACE
    0  S 0.0.0.0/0          r 10.1.1.254      1        Public
    1 DC 192.168.0.0/24     r 0.0.0.0         0        wl-home
    2 DC 10.1.1.0/24        r 0.0.0.0         0        Public
[admin@MikroTik] ip route>

Testing the Network Connectivity

Use the ping command to test the connectivity from the router:

[admin@home_gw] > ping 192.168.0.1
192.168.0.1 pong: ttl=32 time=3 ms
192.168.0.1 pong: ttl=32 time=2 ms
192.168.0.1 pong: ttl=32 time=2 ms
3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 2/2.3/3 ms
[admin@home_gw] >


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