Reference

rtw(4)

Realtek RTL8180L IEEE 802.11b wireless network device

NAME

rtw – Realtek RTL8180L IEEE 802.11b wireless network device

SYNOPSIS

rtw* at cardbus? rtw* at pci?

DESCRIPTION

The rtw driver supports PCI/CardBus 802.11b wireless adapters based on the Realtek RTL8180L.

A variety of radio transceivers can be found in these devices, including the Philips SA2400A, Maxim MAX2820, and GCT GRF5101.

These are the modes the rtw driver can operate in:

BSS mode

Also known as infrastructure mode, this is used when associating with an access point, through which all traffic passes. This mode is the default.

IBSS mode

Also known as IEEE ad-hoc mode or peer-to-peer mode. This is the standardized method of operating without an access point. Stations associate with a service set. However, actual connections between stations are peer-to-peer.

Host AP

In this mode the driver acts as an access point (base station) for other cards.

monitor mode

In this mode the driver is able to receive packets without associating with an access point. This disables the internal receive filter and enables the card to capture packets from networks which it wouldn't normally have access to, or to scan for access points.

The rtw driver can be configured to use software Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). It is strongly recommended that WEP not be used as the sole mechanism to secure wireless communication, due to serious weaknesses in it.

The rtw driver can be configured at runtime with ifconfig(8) or on boot with hostname.if(5).

HARDWARE

The following adapters should work:

CardRadioBus
Allnet ALL0182SA2400CardBus
Belkin F5D6020 V3SA2400CardBus
Buffalo WLI-CB-B11SA2400CardBus
Corega CG-WLCB11V3SA2400CardBus
D-Link DWL-610?CardBus
Edimax EW-7106SA2400CardBus
GigaFast WF721-AEX (R* serial)GRF5101CardBus
Jensen AirLink 6011GRF5101CardBus
Level-One WPC-0101SA2400CardBus
Linksys WPC11 v4MAX2820CardBus
Netgear MA521SA2400CardBus
Ovislink AirLive WL-1120PCMSA2400CardBus
Planet WL-3553SA2400CardBus
Q-Tec 770WCSA2400CardBus
Q-Tec 775WCSA2400CardBus
Roper FreeLan 802.11bSA2400CardBus
SAFECOM SWLCR-1100SA2400CardBus
TRENDnet TEW-226PC?CardBus
VCTnet PC-11B1SA2400CardBus
Winstron CB-200BSA2400CardBus
Zonet ZEW1000GRF5101CardBus

EXAMPLES

The following example scans for available networks:

# ifconfig rtw0 scan

The following hostname.if(5) example configures rtw0 to join network “mynwid”, using WEP key “mywepkey”, obtaining an IP address using DHCP:

nwid mynwid nwkey mywepkey
inet autoconf

The following hostname.if(5) example creates a host-based access point on boot:

mediaopt hostap
nwid mynwid nwkey mywepkey
inet 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0

SEE ALSO

arp(4), cardbus(4), ifmedia(4), intro(4), netintro(4), pci(4), hostname.if(5), hostapd(8), ifconfig(8) Realtek, https://www.realtek.com/en.

HISTORY

The rtw device driver first appeared in OpenBSD 3.7.

AUTHORS

The rtw driver was written by David Young ⟨[email protected]⟩ and ported to OpenBSD by Jonathan Gray ⟨[email protected]⟩.

CAVEATS

GCT refuse to release any documentation on their GRF5101 RF transceiver.

While PCI devices will attach, most of them are not able to transmit.

Host AP mode doesn't support power saving. Clients attempting to use power saving mode may experience significant packet loss (disabling power saving on the client will fix this).

History