Selecting a specific AP MAC address in rc.inet1.conf

Alstare · 11-10-2008, 02:00 PM

Quick question:

I want to specify which AP to connect to in my rc.inet1.conf file by MAC address to resolve the issue of multiple identically named ESSID's.

Associating by ESSID name only seems to give priority to the one of highest signal strength which is not ideal in many cases.

I know you can do a "iwconfig ap yy:xx:yy:xx:yy:xx" manually, but how do I define this in my rc.inet1.conf file?

Thanks in advance.

raconteur · 11-10-2008, 02:50 PM

In the default Slackware distribution, /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf has examples of selecting an interface or range of interfaces by MAC address.

Alien Bob · 11-10-2008, 03:05 PM

You can specify any additional iwconfig parameter not covered by the exposed keywords in rc.inet1.conf using the WLAN_IWCONFIG keyword:
For instance your "iwconfig ap y:xx:yy:xx:yy:xx" command would translate to the following line (assuming your wireless card uses index [4]):

Code:

WLAN_IWCONFIG[4]="ap y:xx:yy:xx:yy:xx"

Note: if you want to add more iwconfig settings, add all of them to the single WLAN_IWCONFIG line. Multiple WLAN_IWCONFIG lines in rc.inet1.conf are useless, because only the last one will be used.

Eric

Alstare · 11-10-2008, 03:31 PM

Quote:

In the default Slackware distribution, /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf has examples of selecting an interface or range of interfaces by MAC address.

That is for selecting which internal wireless interface you would like to use I believe. I was looking to select a specific AP not interface.

Quote:

You can specify any additional iwconfig parameter not covered by the exposed keywords in rc.inet1.conf using the WLAN_IWCONFIG keyword:
For instance your "iwconfig ap y:xx:yy:xx:yy:xx" command would translate to the following line (assuming your wireless card uses index [4]):

Code:

WLAN_IWCONFIG[4]="ap y:xx:yy:xx:yy:xx"

Note: if you want to add more iwconfig settings, add all of them to the single WLAN_IWCONFIG line. Multiple WLAN_IWCONFIG lines in rc.inet1.conf are useless, because only the last one will be used.

Eric

Thanks that was exactly what I was looking for!

I was trying "WLAN_AP[4]=" assuming the iwconfig was implied automatically. This clears up my issues. Also the information about only 1 IWCONFIG line is extremely helpful.

Thanks again guys, issue resolved!

mudflap · 11-18-2008, 11:51 AM

>> Alien Bob

This raises the question of how to similarly configure multiple wireless cards, would I then have to move to iproute ?

Alien Bob · 11-18-2008, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mudflap

>> Alien Bob

This raises the question of how to similarly configure muptiple wireless cards, would I then have to move to iproute ?

Why do you think you would need that?

Eric

mudflap · 11-19-2008, 02:20 PM

>> Alien Bob

Why?

I wish to to extend a wireless network with existing hardware. The available inventory includes various pci cards: rt2500's rt61's, a realtek and a broadcom; as well as several wireless routers. None of these pci cards (so far as I am aware) are capable of AP mode.

The anchor is an atheros pci card in master mode [stn1]. The primary client connection [stn2] is an rt61 with directional antenna.

Stn3 is a laptop and cannot be fitted with an external antenna, although antenna location is critical. Stn3 cannot see stn1, and can (almost) see but not connect with stn2.

My intention was to connect stn3 through one of the routers (to allow a sane user location), and configure stn2 with a second wireless card. Experience proves placing a wireless router too close to stn2 is a really bad idea.

To diverge slightly, I hoped a solution for this would hint at how I might provide discrete gateways for each network device via rc.inet1.conf