On Sun, 2004-05-16 at 13:27, Keith Lofstrom wrote: > Scot L. Harris <webid@xxxxxxxxxx> writes: > > Since I am not having much luck with the D-link DWL-G650 or the Linksys > > WPC54G wireless cards with FC1 I figure I should get a recommendation > > for something that works. > > > > Was looking at the Proxima Orinoco 802.11a/b/g gold combocard. Has > > anyone used this with FC1? Does it have any restrictions? (will it > > work with monitoring software?) > > The best B wireless card is the Senao NL-2511CD 200mW card, IMHO. > This works well with the hostap driver ( http://hostap.epitest.fi/ ) > in client mode. I have no recommendations on G cards, as range and > applicability for G is limited, but look at the madwifi drivers being > developed for Atheros ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/madwifi/ ). > > Linux drivers for WIFI chipsets are rare. The cheapest chipsets, > Admtek, Atmel, Realtek, Broadcom, TI, and others, are either unsupported > or incompletely supported under Linux. So any random card chosen, > especially the cheaper ones, are likely NOT to work. The chipsets > that are more likely to work are Cisco, Orinoco, PRISM (2, 2.5, 3) > and Atheros, from mediocre to best. The Atheros "best" is hearsay, > based on good reports and a good team, I have no personal experience. > > This spotty driver support is compounded by the fact that "manufacturers" > (that is, branded resellers of Taiwan gear) like D-Link, Netgear, and > Linksys are fond of changing hardware and chipsets without changing > model numbers. So if you had good luck with a card bought last week, > you may not have good luck with the "same" card next week. The only > thing you can be sure about is the FCCID, which you can use at > https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/cf/eas/reports/GenericSearch.cfm > ... to find out things about the card. Sometimes you end up reading > chipset info off a card photo at that site. > > You can find out more about compatability at these sites: > > http://www.linux-wlan.org/docs/wlan_adapters.html.gz > http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/HardwareComparison > http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/ > > On a related note, if you are looking for a Wireless Access Point, > consider the Linksys WRT54G . This is G, and runs about $100, but > the cool thing about it is that it runs embedded Linux, most of > the code is GPL and available, and there is a growing community of > hackers that are replacing the code in these boxes with all sorts > of replacement functionality. So, you can reprogram the box as a > cybercafe access point, or a bridge, or a IPTABLES firewall, or ... > For more info, look at http://www.portless.net/ewrt/ or > http://docs.sveasoft.com/SV-WRT54GHardware.html . As always, make > sure you buy the correct version of the hardware. > > Keith Thanks Keith. I have been using a Linksys WRT54G for some time now. Has performed well. Have had less luck getting Linux to use wireless however. Been wanting to switch from Windows 2000 to Linux on my laptop for some time. I will read through the sites you listed. Would be nice to get one of the two wireless cards I have working but I am willing to get yet another one. From the replies so far it sounds like this is part of linux is still a black art and some luck. Guess that explains why I did not find much in the archives. -- Scot L. Harris <webid@xxxxxxxxxx>
