This section contains tasks for establishing and monitoring WiFi connections for a laptop or desktop computer that runs the Solaris OS.
The following procedure assumes that you have followed the instructions in How to Prepare a System for WiFi Communications.
Assume the Primary Administrator role, or become superuser.
The Primary Administrator role includes the Primary Administrator profile. To create the role and assign the role to a user, see Chapter 2, Working With the Solaris Management Console (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.
Check for available links.
# dladm show-link LINK CLASS MTU STATE OVER ath0 phys 1500 up -- e1000g0 phys 1500 up -- |
In this example, the output indicates that two links are available. The ath0 link supports WiFi communications beginning with the Solaris Express, Developer Edition 2/07release. The e1000g link is for attaching the system to a wired network.
Configure the WiFi interface.
Use the following steps to configure the interface:
Plumb the link that supports WiFi:
# ifconfig ath0 plumb |
Verify that the link has been plumbed:
# ifconfig -a lo0: flags=2001000849<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4,VIRTUAL> mtu 8232 index 1 inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000 e1000g: flags=2001004802<BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,DHCP,IPv4,CoS> mtu 1500 index 2 inet 0.0.0.0 netmask 0 ether 0:e:6:4:8:1 ath0: flags=201000803<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4,CoS> mtu 1500 index 3 inet 0.0.0.0 netmask ff000000 ether 0:b:6:e:f:18 |
# dladm scan-wifi LINK ESSID BSSID/IBSSID SEC STRENGTH MODE SPEED ath0 net1 00:0e:38:49:01:d0 none good g 54Mb ath0 net2 00:0e:38:49:02:f0 none very weak g 54Mb ath0 net3 00:0d:ed:a5:47:e0 none very good g 54Mb |
The example output of the scan-wifi command displays information about the available WiFi networks at the current location. The information in the output includes:
Link name to be used in the WiFi connection.
Extended Service Set ID. The ESSID is the name of the WiFi network, such as net1, net2, and net3 in the example output.
Basic Service Set ID, the unique identifier for a particular ESSID. The BSSID is the 48-bit MAC address of the nearby access point that serves the network with a particular ESSID.
Type of security that is needed to access the network. The values are none or WEP. For information about WEP, refer to Secure WiFi Communications.
Strength of the radio signals from the WiFi networks that are available at your location.
Version of the 802 .11 protocol that is run by the network. The modes are a, b, or g, or these modes in combination.
Speed in megabits per second of the particular network.
Connect to a WiFi network.
Connect to the unsecured WiFi network with the strongest signal.
# dladm connect-wifi |
Connect to an unsecured network by specifying its ESSID.
# dladm connect-wifi -e ESSID |
The connect-wifi subcommand of dladm has several more options for connecting to a WiFi network. For complete details, refer to the dladm(1M) man page.
Configure an IP address for the interface.
Do either of the following:
Obtain an IP address from a DHCP server.
# ifconfig interface dhcp start |
If the WiFi network does not support DHCP, you receive the following message:
ifconfig: interface: interface does not exist or cannot be managed using DHCP |
Configure a static IP address:
Use this option if you have a dedicated IP address for the system.
# ifconfig interface IP-address/CIDR-mask | netmask |
Check the status of the WiFi network to which the system is connected.
# dladm show-wifi LINK STATUS ESSID SEC STRENGTH MODE SPEED ath0 connected net3 none very good g 36Mb |
In this example, the output indicates that the system is now connected to the net3 network. The earlier scan-wifi output indicated that net3 had the strongest signal among the available networks. The dladm show-wifi command automatically chooses the WiFi network with strongest signal, unless you directly specify a different network.
Access the Internet through the WiFi network.
Do either of the following, depending on the network to which the system is connected:
If the access point offers free service, you can now run a browser or an application of your choice.
If the access point is in a commercial hot spot that requires a fee, follow the instructions provided at the current location. Typically, you run a browser, supply a key, and give credit card information to the network provider.
Conclude the session.
Terminate the WiFi session but leave the system running.
# dladm disconnect-wifi |
Terminate a particular WiFi session when more than one session is currently running.
# dladm disconnect-wifi link |
where link represents the interface that was used for the session.
Cleanly shut down the system while the WiFi session is running.
# shutdown -g0 -i5 |
You do not need to explicitly disconnect the WiFi session prior to turning off the system through the shutdown command.
The following example shows a typical scenario that you might encounter when using a laptop that runs the Solaris Express, Developer Edition 2/07 or later Developer releases in an Internet coffee house.
Learn whether a WiFi link is available.
# dladm show-wifi ath0 type: non-vlan mtu: 1500 device: ath0 |
The ath0 link is installed on the laptop. Configure the ath0 interface, and verify that it is up.
# ifconfig ath0 plumb # ifconfig -a lo0: flags=2001000849<LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4,VIRTUAL> mtu 8232 index 1 inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000 ath0: flags=201000803<BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4,CoS> mtu 1500 index 3 inet 0.0.0.0 netmask ff000000 ether 0:b:6b:4e:8f:18 |
Display the available WiFi links at your location.
# dladm scan-wifi LINK ESSID BSSID/IBSSID SEC STRENGTH MODE SPEED ath0 net1 00:0e:38:49:01:d0 none weak g 54Mb ath0 net2 00:0e:38:49:02:f0 none very weak g 54Mb ath0 net3 00:0d:ed:a5:47:e0 wep very good g 54Mb ath0 citinet 00:40:96:2a:56:b5 none good b 11Mb |
The output indicates that net3 has the best signal. net3 requires a key, for which the provider for the coffee house charges a fee. citinet is a free network provided by the local town.
Connect to the citinet network.
# dladm connect-wifi -e citinet |
The -e option of connect-wifi takes the ESSID of the preferred WiFi network as its argument. The argument in this command is citinet, the ESSID of the free local network. The dladm connect-wifi command offers several options for connecting to the WiFi network. For more information, refer to the dladm(1M) man page.
Configure an IP address for the WiFi interface.
# ifconfig ath0 10.192.16.3/24 up # ifconfig -a lo0: flags=2001000849<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4,VIRTUAL> mtu 8232 index 1 inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000 e1000g0: flags=201004843<UP,,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,DHCP,IPv4,CoS> mtu 1500 index 3 inet 129.146.69.34 netmask fffffe00 broadcast 129.146.69.255 ether 0:e:7b:b5:64:a4 ath0: flags=201004843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,DHCP,IPv4,CoS> mtu 1500 index 4 inet 10.192.16.3 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 10.255.255.255 ether 0:b:6b:4e:8f:18 |
This example assumes that you have the static IP address 10.192.16.3/24 configured on your laptop.
# dladm show-wifi LINK STATUS ESSID SEC STRENGTH MODE SPEED ath0 connected citinet none good g 11Mb |
The output indicates that the laptop is now connected to network citinet.
# firefox |
The home page for the Firefox browser displays.
Run a browser or other application to commence your work over the WiFi network.
# dladm disconnect-wifi # dladm show-wifi LINK STATUS ESSID SEC STRENGTH MODE SPEED ath0 disconnected -- -- -- -- -- |
The output of show-wifi verifies that you have disconnected the ath0 link from the WiFi network.
This procedure shows how to monitor the status of a WiFi link through standard networking tools, and change link properties through the linkprop subcommand.
Assume the Primary Administrator role, or become superuser.
The Primary Administrator role includes the Primary Administrator profile. To create the role and assign the role to a user, see Chapter 2, Working With the Solaris Management Console (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.
Connect to the WiFi network, as described in How to Connect to a WiFi Network.
View the properties of the link.
Use the following syntax:
# dladm show-linkprop interface |
For example, you would use the following syntax to show the status of the connection established over the ath0 link:
# dladm show-linkprop ath0 PROPERTY VALUE DEFAULT POSSIBLE channel 5 -- -- powermode off off off,fast,max radio ? on on,off speed 36 -- 1,2,5.5,6,9,11,12,18,24,36,48,54 |
Set a fixed speed for the link.
The Solaris OS automatically chooses the optimal speed for the WiFi connection. Modifying the initial speed of the link might cause reduced performance or prevent the establishment of certain WiFi connections.
You can modify the link speed to one of the possible values for speed that is listed in the show-linkprop output.
# dladm set-linkprop -p speed=value link |
Check the packet flow over the link.
# netstat -I ath0 -i 5 input ath0 output input (Total) output packets errs packets errs colls packets errs packets errs colls 317 0 106 0 0 2905 0 571 0 0 14 0 0 0 0 20 0 0 0 0 7 0 0 0 0 16 0 1 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 9 0 0 0 0 304 0 10 0 0 631 0 316 0 0 338 0 9 0 0 722 0 381 0 0 294 0 7 0 0 670 0 371 0 0 306 0 5 0 0 649 0 338 0 0 289 0 5 0 0 597 0 301 0 0 |
This example shows how to set the speed of a link after you have connected to a WiFi network
# dladm show-linkprop -p speed ath0 PROPERTY VALUE DEFAULT POSSIBLE speed 24 -- 1,2,5,6,9,11,12,18,24,36,48,54 # dladm set-linkprop -p speed=36 ath0 # dladm show-linkprop -p speed ath0 PROPERTY VALUE DEFAULT POSSIBLE speed 36 -- 1,2,5,6,9,11,12,18,24,36,48,54 |