hi. im thinking of getting an orinoco card (ORINOCO GOLD 802.11B/G-PCCARD - WORLD) and am curious if it is well suppored in linux. I poked around in the HCL and did some googling and if i read correctly there is possibly three different drivers for orinoco wireless cards. Also im thinking about getting one with an antenna. Do you think the linux drivers would be able to make use of the antenna or would it be a waste to get it? Also i know some places sell them as a kit with an antenna. Is it possible to get the card then get the antenna later or are the ones that are selling the kits modded cards? Anyone here use the orinoco cards and have any bad/good experiences with them?

I have used two types of Orinoco cards on Linux with two different radio chipset and different drivers for both. I guess the card your are describing is known as the 8470-WD, which uses the Atheros chipset.

This is a PC-card with external antenna connector and I have one of those myself. It works very well for me on Linux, at least when using Kernel 2.6.10 or later together with the Madwifi drivers: http://sourceforge.net/projects/madwifi/.

Of course an antenna will extend the range of the card. Most antennas use N-type connectors or SMA-connectors. To be able to connect with thoose you need a pigtail between your card and the antenna cable.

Regards
Nicklas