From: "Michael Warmuth" <os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com>
Message-ID: <449E2B80.9060307@warmuth.at>
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 08:21:52 +0200
Organization: Michael Warmuth - EDV-Dienstleistungen
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To: OS/2 Wireless Users Mailing List <os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com>
Subject: Re: xwlan 2.14
References: <list-182295@2rosenthals.com>
In-Reply-To: <list-182295@2rosenthals.com>
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Hi everyone,

Before you read the following please keep in mind, that I appreciate the
work you guys do in your spare time for the sake of us. It is a great
help. And even if XWLAN is not perfect it is a very useful tool for
operating a WLAN card.

Dave Saville wrote:
> I upgraded to 2.14 because of the new bits for switching wired/wireless but it
> seems worse than before, maybe 2.10.  This is with the generic PRISM driver -
> My Artem card is not supported by Genmac.
[...]

Yes, I played around with 2.14 some days ago, just to find out that it
has a big design problem: Deleting an interface (e.g. LAN) when it is in
the same subnet a the other (e.g. WLAN) is just wrong. Because:

+) In my situation (never using both interfaces at the same time) it is
necessary to have them configured to make TCPBEUI work. So it should be
possible to turn this feature off.

+) Even if it is necessary to delete one of the interfaces it makes the
TCP/IP-stack unusable because if it turns off the previously configured
interface it does not update the routes - so no interface does work:

-) Let's say lan0 is LAN, lan1 is WLAN, lan0 is configured
-) We turn on WLAN - XWLAN gets configuration for lan1 using DHCP
-) Routes are configured for lan0, so the ones for lan1 aren't there
-) XWLAN detects the "conflict" and deletes lan0
-) The routes for lan0 are still there - nothing does work
-) XWLAN "thinks" it has completed it's work

The correct behavior would be:

1) XWLAN configures WLAN interface (either statically or with DHCP)
2) XWLAN detects the "conflict"
3) If the LAN interface should be deleted (one of three options: "Delete
LAN if", "Delete WLAN if", "Do nothing"): do the following:
4) Delete WLAN interface (yes!)
5) Flush all routes and arp table (route flush or route -fh and arp -f)
6) Delete the LAN interface
7) Configure WLAN interface (statically or using DHCP)
7a) (Now the routes should be OK.)
8) Set "hostid" to the address of the newly configured if (WLAN)
9) Run rfcaddr for TCPBEUI

Off course this does take a longer time (two times waiting for the DHCP
lease), but the result is that it does actually work.

Greetings
Michael

P.S. All the time I spent to get XWLAN working correctly was more or
less useless as my mini-PCI "IBM High Rate ..." still chocks up when
sending more than just a few KB (XWLAN shows "No Card"). But this is a
driver problem...

-- 
Michael Warmuth, Manager IT, michael@warmuth.at
Michael Warmuth - EDV-Dienstleistungen, www.warmuth.at
Waldegghofgasse 27, A-1170 Wien, Austria - EUROPE
Tel: +43-676-3863440, Fax: +43-1-4892728-99

Austria -- The place in the heart of Europe
where no kangaroos are hopping around.