Wireless IP (WLAN) support is provided by a network plug-in and allows the use of managed and ad-hoc WLAN networks .
Features
Hardware
The plug-in discovers PCMCIA WLAN/LAN cards automatically and allows the configuration of a wide range of settings for network cards.
IP Settings
DHCP support
IP address
DNS server
Gateway (PDA only)
Subnet mask (PDA only)
Broadcast (PDA only)
Proxy Settings
The following proxy settings can be specified for each WLAN connection:
HTTP proxy (address & port)
ftp proxy (address & port)
proxy exceptions (don't use the proxy for these URLs)
auto configuration script
Wireless Network Settings
Static Configuration
A wide range of options can be configured to connect to WLAN networks including:
Network type
Network Name (ESSID)
Access Point
channel selection
bit rate selection
encryption (40bit & 128bit)
Roaming
Todays dynamic WLAN environments require the dynamic discovery of new networks. While the user is moving new networks may become available and other networks may become obsolete/out of range. Qtopia discovers network changes dynamically and presents a summary of found hot-spots that allows the manual change from one network to the next. The user can also choose to automatically change the network which assists in situations where the current network is out of range and the user moves into an area providing a known access point.
The (W)LAN plug-in uses a wireless LAN scanner to scan the immediate environment and return the following information:
ESSID (list of Access Points and Ad-hoc cells)
Access point address
Bit Rates
Link quality
Frequencies
Encryption mode
Based on this information specific configurations are created and saved. One of the most common use cases is triggered when a device returns to a familiar environment (e.g. home or office). It is possible to save and restore existing configurations.
Optional rules can be set to dynamically determine which network should be used. The minimal subset of rules/actions involves the following actions:
current network still available, if not choose new one based on rules
select a particular network based on their ESSID
select a hot spot based on its link quality and bit rate
apply a known configuration when arriving at a known location (apply configuration)
The scanning process requires Linux Wireless Extensions version 14+.
