IPW(4) | Device Drivers Manual | IPW(4)

# NAME

`ipw` — Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 IEEE 802.11b wireless network device

# SYNOPSIS

`ipw* at pci?`

# DESCRIPTION

The `ipw` driver provides support for the Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 Mini PCI network adapter.

These are the modes the `ipw` 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.
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 `ipw` driver can be configured to use Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA1 and WPA2). WPA2 is currently the most secure encryption standard for wireless networks supported by OpenBSD. It is strongly recommended that neither WEP nor WPA1 are used as the sole mechanism to secure wireless communication, due to serious weaknesses. WPA1 is disabled by default and may be enabled using the option "`wpaprotos` wpa1,wpa2". For standard WPA networks which use pre-shared keys (PSK), keys are configured using the "`wpakey`" option. WPA-Enterprise networks require use of the wpa_supplicant package. The `ipw` driver relies on the software 802.11 stack for both encryption and decryption of data frames.

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

# FILES

The driver needs at least version 1.3 of the following firmware files, which are loaded when an interface is brought up:

/etc/firmware/ipw-bss
/etc/firmware/ipw-ibss
/etc/firmware/ipw-monitor

These firmware files are not free because Intel refuses to grant distribution rights without contractual obligations. As a result, even though OpenBSD includes the driver, the firmware files cannot be included and users have to find these files on their own. The official person to state your views to about this issue is majid.awad@intel.com.

A prepackaged version of the firmware can be installed using fw_update(8).

# EXAMPLES

The following example scans for available networks:

`# ifconfig ipw0 scan`

The following hostname.if(5) example configures ipw0 to join network “mynwid”, using WPA key “mywpakey”, obtaining an IP address using DHCP:

    join mynwid wpakey mywpakey
    inet autoconf

# DIAGNOSTICS

ipw0: device timeout
  The driver will reset the hardware. This should not happen.
ipw0: error N, could not read firmware ...
  For some reason, the driver was unable to read the firmware image from the filesystem. The file might be missing or corrupted.

# SEE ALSO

arp(4), ifmedia(4), intro(4), netintro(4), pci(4), hostname.if(5), ifconfig(8)

# HISTORY

The `ipw` driver first appeared in OpenBSD 3.7.

# AUTHORS

The `ipw` driver was written by Damien Bergamini <damien.bergamini@free.fr>.

March 27, 2025 | Debian