Wireless overview

Introduction

Linux Wireless is the source for documentation regarding the entire Linux Kernel IEEE 802.11 ("wireless") subsystem. It is a wiki like this one, so feel free to contribute there as well! Everything not OpenWrt specific, belongs there. This page is an exception, as I believe I can provide a better introduction. ;-)

IEEE 802.11 is a family of communication protocols comprising Layer 1 and Layer 2 Sublayer MAC only!
IEEE 802.11 has no official name; IEEE 802.3 is officially called "Ethernet", IEEE 1394 is unofficially called "Firewire", IEEE 802.11 has no name so most people simply call it "wireless" or "wavelan" or whatever (Wi-Fi is a brand name)
The support for IEEE 802.11 in the Linux-Kernel is fragmented, this means there are two frames (WEXT=old, nl80211=current) and multiple drivers, e.g.
- for some atheros WNICs, there are three drivers available: atheros proprietary drivers, madwifi-driver and atheros mac80211-based drivers (the ath5 and the ath9)
- for some broadcom WNICs, there are also three drivers available: broadcom proprietary drivers, broadcom mac80211-based drivers (the b43) and the brcmSmac- and brcmFmac drivers
  - to set up and configure wireless utilities are available, however on OpenWrt we rather use UCI: /etc/config/wireless and /etc/config/network.
There are two different types of WNICs to distinguish: SoftMAC and FullMAC devices; also see About mac80211.
Linux IEEE 802.11 drivers always function on one of the available Wireless Modes. Some support only one mode: STA (also called managed) other drivers support multiple modes, some even simultaneously.
Learn what the Linux 802.11 driver for your hardware can and cannot do. The Existing Linux Wireless drivers page covers the capabilities, bugs and TODOs for all the Linux FOSS drivers. You will need to go elsewhere to learn about the proprietary drivers.

Wireless Drivers and Utilities in OpenWrt

Wireless FAQ

→Wireless FAQ

Wireless Tools and Applications available in the OpenWrt repository

wireless.tool.kismet – An IEEE 802.11 network detector, sniffer and intrusion detection system.
wireless.tool.aircrack-ptw – A tool using a new method for breaking WEP Keys
wireless.tool.aircrack-ng – Aircrack-ng is the next generation of aircrack with new features
wireless.tool.horst – A scanning and analysis tool for IEEE 802.11 networks and especially IBSS (ad-hoc) mode and mesh networks (OLSR).
wireless.snort-wireless – Snort for wireless
→wireless.hotspot if you want to run a wireless hotspot on OpenWrt and read e.g. Hotspot (Wi-Fi) or Captive portal for introduction and explanation. (If you find better source of information, drop it right here. )

Wireless packages

This shall be, but is not, an exhaustive list of all packages in the OpenWrt repository regarding wireless stuff to play with. The installation is always the same opkg install <package>, for documentation regarding the configuration and utilization, search for Howtos in this wiki or in the Internet.

Name	Size	Description
airpwn	23618	Airpwn is a framework for 802.11 (wireless) packet injection. Airpwn listens to incoming wireless packets, and if the data matches a pattern specified in the config files, custom content is injected "spoofed" from the wireless access point. From the perspective of the wireless client, airpwn becomes the server.
collectd-mod-wireless	7321	wireless status input plugin
freifunk-watchdog	9546	A watchdog daemon that monitors wireless interfaces to ensure the correct BSSID and channel. The process will initiate a wireless restart as soon as it detects a BSSID or channel mismatch.
karma	8605	KARMA is a set of tools for assessing the security of wireless clients at multiple layers. Wireless sniffing tools discover clients and their preferred/trusted networks by passively listening for 802.11 Probe Request frames.
kmod-wprobe	9408	A module that exports measurement data from wireless driver to user space
mdk3	49495	Tool to exploit wireless vulnerabilities
wavemon	32209	wavemon is a ncurses-based monitoring application for wireless network devices. It currently works under Linux with devices that are supported by the wireless extensions by Jean Tourrilhes (included in Kernel 2.4 and higher), e.g. the Lucent Orinoco cards.
wireless-tools	30236	This package contains a collection of tools for configuring wireless adapters implementing the "Linux Wireless Extensions"

Wireless security

WEP (unsecure, cracked)
WPA (unsecure, cracked)
WPA2 (unsecure, cracked)
802.11X (Secure) Authentication of ldap domain credentials. Can openwrt do this? With radius ?