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List:       openbsd-mobile
Subject:    Re: OpenBSD-mobile: 802.11b BSS vs IBSS
From:       "Richard Johnson" <rdump () river ! com>
Date:       2001-09-02 19:54:11
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At 10:13 -0600 on 8/31/01, Jim Rees wrote:
> I've been trying to make some sense of the various modes of operation for
> 802.11b.  My immediate goal is to get a Macintosh on to our local net.
>
> What I've read so far leads me to believe there are three possible modes of
> operation.  Ad-hoc mode is peer-to-peer but is older and somewhat
> proprietary, maybe only supported by Wavelan.  Windows calls this "ad-hoc
> demo mode."  This mode is enabled by "wicontrol -p 3".
>
> IBSS mode is a newer, standard peer-to-peer mode.  The wicontrol man page
> talks about "IBSS" but I think it means something completely different.  I
> think it uses this as a synonym for SSID, or network name.  I don't see any
> way to enable IBSS mode on OpenBSD.
>
> BSS mode is mobile-to-base mode and is enabled by "wicontrol -p 1".  This
> mode is uninteresting because you can't use OpenBSD as a base station.
>
> So my question is, can I either run the Macintosh in Ad-hoc mode, or run
> OpenBSD and the Macintosh in IBSS mode?  How?


You appear to be confused about ad-hoc (-p 3) and infrastructure (-p 1) modes.

Reread the man page for wicontrol for more details about setting up a base
station (-c 1) with which other clients can associate.

As for your Mac questions, read the help for the Airport control
application for details.

In particular, see the "Software Base Station..." button and the "Choose
Network:" pop-up menu's item, "Create Computer to Computer network...".

Good luck!


Richard

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