On Sun, 2004-12-19 at 07:31, cjlesh wrote: > Hey all: > > I've been searching on google all day, and not finding the answer I'm looking for. > > Is there a list of wireless pcmcia cards that 'just work' in Fedora core 3? > > No downloads, kernel recompiles, ndiswrappers, etc...I want to plug it into my laptop, and have it work. > > If you have a card that 'just works', please post the name, model number, and revision in this thread. Maybe if there are enough responses this could become a FAQ? > I think this has been asked many times in this list. It _is_ a FAQ, but apparently not _in_ the FAQ. FWIW, here's my experience: I tried a couple of WiFi cards under FC2, and while I finally got them to work (kinda, sorta, d/l voodoo binaries, yuck!), I finally went out and bought two that were "recommended". Of these two, I have tried one under FC2, and I can report that it "just works". The card? "Orinoco Classic Gold PC Card"; it is mf'd by Agere Systems, and the P/N is "026258/A". I found a vendor through pricegrabber.com. Just so there's no confusion, here's a URL with several vendors listed: http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=923071/search=orinoco Other valuable resources you may want to check out: http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/Client_5fAdapters_5f802_5f11b http://www.linux-wlan.com/linux-wlan/ In summary, if you want a card that's really supported under any open-source OS with no bullshit voodoo/proprietary/kissmyass binaries required then you must find a card that uses one of the "supported" chipsets (i.e. hardware). You will hear the term "Prism chipset" used; Prism chipsets were (are?) manufactured by Intersil - apparently they published enough data on their chipsets to allow folks to write drivers. Most of the other chipset manufacturers (notably Texas Instruments) have not. In this free-market economy we all get to vote... we vote with our purchases. So - if you buy a WiFi product that has open-source support, you are "voting" for the chipset manufacturers that support open-source software - you are telling them all that if they want your business, you require them to support open-source software. If, on the other hand, you buy a WiFi product that requires closed-source drivers you are voting with the "Windows crowd". The bad news is that there is no open-source support for the "newer technology" 802.11a & g WiFi (caveat: AFAIK - someone please correct me if I'm in error here). Therefore you're limited to a "mere" 11 Mbps under 802.11b :) The good news is 11 Mbps is still pretty strong, and most of the AP appliances out there also support 802.11b. Well - I've digressed... hope this helps, and don't forget to "vote". Jay
