how to choose PCI WLAN card (Prism 2/2.5/3 based)
 

hi everyone,
I am a newbie in Linux and just now i have joined this forum.
I want to configure WLAN on my Redhat9 system(2.4.22). I have compiled the wlan-ng driver on it, but unable to make a choice as to which pci card(Prism based) to use.
I have gone through the list of wlan cards in Absolute value systems site,but unable to find appropriate one which will be supported by wlan-ng driver( a Newbie Afterall !) .
so kindly guide me to make a good choice.
looking forward for an early response.

Here's the challenge:

Manufacturers have moved on from the Prism2/2.5/3 chipsets addressed by your preferred driver. You'll have a hard time finding a Prism version of some of these cards. Some places may have old stock, but be careful of the version info. The Absolute Value list you mentioned is probably the best source for identifying the specific versions.

Consider a few points:

1. Dump Red Hat. Many vulnerabilities exist in your installation that have been fixed in newer, supported distros. Fedora Core is the "replacement" for RH, if you like that style. Debian-based distributions with some enhanced h/w discovery and GUIs seem to be all the rage - Ubuntu, Knoppix, Mepis.

2. Newer distros will have more recent drivers or something called ndiswrapper which will make more card choices available to you. Many of these could be installed on your RH system, if you chose. By picking the wlan_ng driver first, you're painting yourself into a corner.

3. Get a wireless Ethernet adapter. Sometimes called bridge, these devices plug into a wired Ethernet port on your system and do not require a wireless driver (wired NIC support is almost always less challenging). Configuration is done via a browser over the Ethernet connection. They are more expensive than a PCI card, though.

thanks for ur explanation 2Gnu,
ok i'll leave wlan-ng driver. I'll continue with my RH9 system.tell me which other drivers can i have which will support the recent chipsets and from where can i download them. If possible provide some info about the corresponding chipset Manufacturers too.

My personal preference is the Atheros chipset for 802.11G (MadWiFi driver) and the orinoco_pci driver for Prism cards.

Broadcom-based cards are fine, but require ndiswrapper and the Windows driver.

There are several others.

Links:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/madwifi
http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/
http://ozlabs.org/people/dgibson/dldwd/

well I am unable to get any prism card and I am working on 802.11b,so kindly suggest other chipsets that will work with 802.11b. thanx for the links provided,these are really helpfull.

You could try the Belkin F5D7000UK ver 3 PCI card. This uses a ralink chipset and there's a linux driver available at http://www.ralinktech.com/supp-1.htm.