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NAME

       irnet - IrNET protocol device

DESCRIPTION

       File /dev/irnet is used to access and configure the IrNET protocol part
       of the Linux-IrDA stack.

       IrNET is a protocol allowing to create TCP/IP connections  between  two
       IrDA  peers  in  an efficient fashion, and generally to enable standard
       networking over IrDA. It is a thin layer, passing PPP packets to  IrTTP
       and  vice versa. It uses PPP in synchronous mode, because IrTTP offer a
       reliable sequenced packet service (as opposed to  a  byte  stream).  In
       fact,  you  could  see IrNET as carrying TCP/IP in a IrDA socket, using
       PPP to provide the glue.

       The main difference with traditional PPP over IrCOMM is that it  avoids
       the framing and serial emulation which are a performance bottleneck. It
       also allows  multipoint  communications  in  a  sensible  fashion.  And
       finally,  it  can  automatically  handle  incomming connections through
       irnetd.

       The main difference with  IrLAN  is  that  we  use  PPP  for  the  link
       management, which is more standard, interoperable and flexible than the
       IrLAN protocol.  For  example,  PPP  adds  authentication,  encryption,
       compression,  header  compression  and automated routing setup. And, as
       IrNET let PPP do the hard work, the implementation is much simpler than
       IrLAN.

       IrNET  connections  are  initiated  and  managed  with  pppd(8).   File
       /dev/irnet also offer a control channel.  Reads  from  /dev/irnet  will
       return  various  IrNET  events.  Write to /dev/irnet allow to configure
       the IrNET connection.

CONFIGURATION

       If your system does not have /dev/irnet  created  already,  it  can  be
       created with the following commands:

               mknod -m 644 /dev/irnet c 10 187
               chown root:root /dev/irnet

       You  will  also  need to have IrNET support in your kernel or as module
       and the Linux-IrDA stack installed and configured (see irattach(8)).

       File /dev/irnet  is  supposed  to  only  be  used  with  the  PPP  line
       discipline  or  for  accessing  the  control  channel,  other  use  are
       unsupported.  IrNET support multiple concurent connections (limited  by
       the  IrDA  stack),  all  those  connections are multiplexed on a single
       /dev/irnet device (as  opposed  to  IrCOMM  which  as  one  device  per
       connection).

PARAMETERS

       Writing  commands to /dev/irnet allow to configure the IrNET connection
       being made. This need  to  be  done  through  pppd(8)  (see  below  for
       examples). Commands are separated by comas.

       name <peer>
              Connect  to  the IrDA device which IrDA nickname is <peer>.  The
              IrDA nickname is a string up to 31 characters.

       daddr <peer>
              Connect to the IrDA device which IrDA address  is  <peer>.   The
              IrDA address is a 32 bits hexadecimal number.

       raddr <port>
              Restrict  connections  to  the  local  IrDA interface which IrDA
              address is <port>.  The IrDA address is a  32  bits  hexadecimal
              number.

DISPLAY

       Reading  from  /dev/irnet  will  show  various  IrNET  events.  This is
       usually done with the command cat /dev/irnet.

       Found  Dump of the current IrNET discovery log.

       Discovered
              New IrNET device discovered.

       Expired
              Previously discovered IrNET device no longer present.

       Connected to
              This computer successfully established an IrNET connection to  a
              peer.

       Connection from
              A  peer  successfully  established  an  IrNET connection to this
              computer.

       Request from
              A peer attempted to connect  to  this  computer,  but  no  IrNET
              connection was waiting for it.

       No-answer from
              This  computer  attempted  to  connect  to  a peer, but no IrNET
              connection was waiting for it.

       Blocked link with
              The IrDA link of the IrNET connection is currently blocked.

       Disconnection from
              A peer successfully terminated an  IrNET  connection  with  this
              computer.

       Disconnected to
              This computer successfully terminated an IrNET connection with a
              peer.

       File /proc/net/irda/irnet will also  show  the  current  state  of  the
       various IrNET connections.

EXAMPLE

       Start a IrNET server accepting any incomming connection:
            pppd /dev/irnet 9600 local noauth nolock passive

       Start a IrNET client connecting to any IrDA peer:
            pppd /dev/irnet 9600 local noauth nolock

       Start a IrNET client connecting to the IrDA peer called MyIrDANode:
            pppd  /dev/irnet  9600  local  noauth  nolock  connect  "echo name
       MyIrDANode"

       Start a IrNET server accepting incomming connection from peer with IrDA
       address 0x12345678 only on IrDA port 0x87654321:
            pppd  /dev/irnet  9600  local  noauth nolock passive connect "echo
       daddr 0x12345678 , saddr 0x87654321"

AUTHOR

       Jean Tourrilhes - jt@hpl.hp.com

FILES

       /dev/irnet
       /proc/net/irda/irnet

SEE ALSO

       irda(7), irnetd(8), pppd(8), irattach(8), irdadump(8).