This will cover the installation and setup of an ISA, PnP Proxim Symphony card.
Insert the Symphony card into an open ISA bus slot in your computer. You may need to first setup the card using the hideous Windows operating system. Select cancel when the Hardware Wizard comes up after finding the newly installed hardware. Next, insert the Symphony's included CD-ROM and follow the instructions on the screen, and also follow along in the user's manual.
After the Symphony's setup is complete, go to, ahh Control Panel, then, umm... christ this is stupid. Somehow get the Symphony's IRQ and port range by selecting Device Manager -> Properties. Try to resolve any problems there might be while under Windows.
You may also want to setup the Symphony's security ID while in Windows. Standard practices for choosing passwords will apply in this process. The ID will get changed into a 20 bit hash, and that will be used for the actual network link verification. You can also change or set the security ID under Linux using proxcfg [dev {ifname}] secid {password}. All the nodes you want in your network will need to have the same security ID.
Boot into Linux and watch for any errors or hardware conflicts. Follow these next few steps exactly, execpt replace the IRQ, port range, and paths as needed.
In our example, 192.168.3.1 will be the master station's IP address and it will have the name MASTER. The station will have the IP address 192.168.3.2 and have the name STATION1. Other network parameters are: network = 192.168.3.0, netmask = 255.255.255.0, and broadcast = 192.168.3.255
Note: The following commands (unfortunately) will most likely be Red Hat specific. You may need to change the eth1 device name to correspond with your own system's device name. Also, don't type the ' ' in the given commands, unless you really want to. The proxcfg command output messages will be sent to syslogd (KERN_*). So check /var/log/messages or type dmesg to view those.
Refer to the proxcfg(1) man page for more information.
(This will cover RangeLAN2 driver 1.5.3)
Master Station Setup
rlmod.o: v1.5.3, 1/15/00, Dave Koberstein ([email protected]) rlmod.o: Linux port by Paul Chinn ([email protected]). eth1: Proxim Symphony 4100 PnP ISA Card, buffers enabled, fw: V2.3EL. eth1: 00:20:a6:36:00:ce, IO: 0x200-7, irq 15. eth1: Wireless extensions enabledIf not successful, go to Step 1 and check with the README files included with the driver source.
eth1: Node type changed: Master. eth1: Domain changed: 0. eth1: Channel changed: 1. eth1: Subchannel changed: 1. eth1: Master name changed: MASTER.Check that everything is configured right using the command 'proxcfg dev eth1 info'. The output will look like this:
eth1 Card:Proxim Symphony 4100 PnP ISA Card Protocol Mode:OpenAir Versions: Driver:1.5.3 f/w:V2.3EL MAC:00:20:a6:36:00:ce CC:80-01 Domain:0 Node Type:Master Master Name:MASTER Channel:1 Subchannel:1 MAC Optimize:very light Hop Period:200 ms Debugging:disabled Bridging:disabled
Or, by hand type 'ifconfig eth1 192.168.3.1 broadcast 192.168.3.255 netmask 255.255.255.0' to configure the card.
Some ifconfig and route output examples are shown below.
# ifconfig eth1 eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:20:A6:36:00:CE inet addr:192.168.3.1 Bcast:192.168.3.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:32522 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:24560 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:100 Interrupt:15 Base address:0x200 # route Kernel IP routing table Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface 192.168.3.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth1 192.168.1.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0 127.0.0.0 * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo default core 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0
Regular Station Setup
Station setup is exactly same as the master, except type 'proxcfg dev eth1 sta domain 0 channel 1 sub 1 name STATION1' to set the Symphony to station mode. You'll only need to change the msta parameter to sta. Be sure you set the same domain for all the nodes you want on your network.
Here is the message output for a station setup:
rlmod.o: v1.5.3, 1/15/00, Dave Koberstein ([email protected]) rlmod.o: Linux port by Paul Chinn ([email protected]). eth1: Proxim Symphony 4100 PnP ISA Card, buffers enabled, fw: V2.3EL. eth1: 00:20:a6:36:a2:c7, IO: 0x200-7, irq 15. eth1: Wireless extensions enabled eth1: Node type changed: Station. eth1: Domain changed: 0. eth1: Channel changed: 1. eth1: Subchannel changed: 1. eth1: Master name changed: STATION1.Check that everything is configured right using the command 'proxcfg dev eth1 info'. The output will look like this:
eth1 Card:Proxim Symphony 4100 PnP ISA Card Protocol Mode:OpenAir Versions: Driver:1.5.3 f/w:V2.3EL MAC:00:20:a6:36:a2:c7 CC:80-01 Domain:0 Node Type:Station Sync'd Master: Name:MASTER MAC:00:20:a6:36:00:ce Channel:13 Subchannel:1 Peer-to-Peer:enabled Inactivity Timeout:0 Roam configuration:normal Roaming:enabled Debugging:disabled Bridging:disabledMake sure all your stations are synced to the master node in your network.
Some ifconfig and route output examples are shown below.
# ifconfig eth1 eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:20:A6:36:A2:C7 inet addr:192.168.3.2 Bcast:192.168.3.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:5 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:5 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:100 Interrupt:15 Base address:0x200 # route Kernel IP routing table Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface 192.168.3.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth1 192.168.1.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0 127.0.0.0 * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo default core 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0
Test the setup by pinging each of the nodes on your network in a controlled enviroment (i.e. close together with known good antennas):
# ping 192.168.3.1 PING 192.168.3.1 (192.168.3.1): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 192.168.3.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=10.8 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.3.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=20.0 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.3.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=10.6 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.3.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=19.9 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.3.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=255 time=13.1 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.3.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=255 time=10.7 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.3.1: icmp_seq=6 ttl=255 time=12.0 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.3.1: icmp_seq=7 ttl=255 time=10.7 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.3.1: icmp_seq=8 ttl=255 time=12.0 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.3.1: icmp_seq=9 ttl=255 time=20.0 ms ...The newer RangeLAN drivers even include a utility called proxnet. This will allow you to do a MAC layer ping to your other machines. You can then check the wireless links independent of any IP configuration and verify your cards are indeed working properly.
# proxnet dev eth1 ping ffffffffffff ... eth1: Ping response from: 00:20:a6:36:a2:c7You can now treat the Symphonies just like regular Ethernet devices. If your distribution doesn't automatically configure them on boot up, by hand type 'modprobe rlmod' and 'ifup eth1' after editing the proper configuration files. You will need to add these commands to your rc.local file.
You may want to experiment with different MTU sizes, window sizes or other device parameters. For instance, try the options peer-to-peer disable and roam disable on your stations to help improve your link performace. Also, you can use the ipchains(8) command to setup firewall rules or tweak the priority on certain network traffic. Refer to the route(8) and ifconfig(8) man pages, or the Linux networking NET3-4 How-To for more information if you have networking problems.