SMC SMC2862W-G EZ Connect g 802.11g Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter
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07-02-2006
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This is an ok card for everyday use. If you are looking for something cheap that gets the job done then it will do. Personally I would go with something that has native drivers. Sadly, this relies on ndiswrapper in order to work.
Simply download the driver and navigate to the "driver" folder and then use ndiswrapper to load smc2862w.inf and configure your network from there. Most distros include ndiswrapper and you can use another computer (or boot into windows) and search google for steps on how to install ndiswrapper, they are all over the internet and by no means is it hard, even a beginner could do it.
One problem I have had with this card is for some reason I needed to restart in order to get a connection to work. I couldnt just restart wlan0 or the wifi program, I had to restart the system after the first time I installed it. Restarting a computer for an install seems wierd in the linux world, but I had too.
Another problem is when the card disconnects for whatever reason you have to restart wlan0 completely. For some reason unless you stop and start wlan0 interface, the card will have trouble connecting again after a disconnect. Not a big deal, but if you plan on using this for a laptop or if your going to be using it from far away, it might be annoying. If your just using it in your home or apartment, it rarely happens. This computer is all the way at the other end of the house and the router is at the other end, so they are basically about as far apart as you can get them in my house and it still runs just fine and very fast as well.
To summorize, there are a few minor hiccups with disconnects but it isn't that bad. Depending on your motherboard you might have more problems than others. ndiswrapper seems to cause crashes under some motherboards whether or not ACPI is enabled/disabled. I believe this is fixed in 2.6.16+ versions of the kernel.
ndiswrapper is not stable when streaming data (video) at high speed through it. Receiving is not the problem but transmitting is. For slower communication like web browsing etc. this is good.
Without native support this is not suitable for high speed data transmission.
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