Subject: Re: [PATCH] ipw2200: Change driver default policies
From: Dan Williams <dcbw@redhat.com>
To: timg@tpi.com
Cc: linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org
In-Reply-To: <48F4C7E8.4020201@tpi.com>
References: <20081014145708.CAF215A1D8@sepang.rtg.net>
	 <1223998992.3936.28.camel@localhost.localdomain> <48F4C7E8.4020201@tpi.com>
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Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:35:37 -0400
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Sender: linux-wireless-owner@vger.kernel.org

On Tue, 2008-10-14 at 10:25 -0600, Tim Gardner wrote:
> Dan Williams wrote:
> > On Tue, 2008-10-14 at 08:57 -0600, Tim Gardner wrote:
> >> From 41804698de6f2ce121c1452943b9ad2b8a54988b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> >> From: Tim Gardner <tim.gardner@canonical.com>
> >> Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:16:09 -0600
> >> Subject: [PATCH] ipw2200: change default policies for auto-associate, auto-create, and auto-roaming
> >>
> >> We now have applications available to set policy. This patch changes the driver defaults to:
> >>
> >> 1) associate=0 - do not automatically associate to an SSID.
> > 
> > This one is fine.
> > 
> >> 2) auto_create=0 - do not automatically create an ad-hoc network
> > 
> > This will break adhoc network creation, thus NAK.  I think we should
> > just remove the module parameter and default to 1 anyway.  This is the
> > way adhoc _should_ work in the first place, if the adhoc network you're
> > attempting to join does not yet exist, the driver should create that
> > network.  This is the way it works for all other drivers as well.
> > 
> > Disabling this effectively means you can only join existing adhoc
> > networks, not start your own.
> > 
> 
> Agreed - I missed the part where its qualified by IW_MODE_ADHOC.
> 
> >> 3) roaming=0 - do not automatically roam to another AP with the same SSID.
> > 
> > Not really sure why this should be changed?  Were there reported issues
> > with this behavior?
> > 
> 
> Its been my expereince that wireless drivers rarely make the correct
> decision about when or where to roam. It also seems like a policy
> decision that ought to be made elsewhere.
> 
> Frankly, I'm not that concerned about the roaming option. The default
> for 'associate' was the one I _really_ wanted changed. I'll submit a v2
> patch with just that change.

Sure.  That's something I've wanted to turn off for quite a while, it's
sort of a security problem.  Nothing should be auto-associating until
told to do so to a specific SSID or SSID/BSSID combination.

Dan