I am looking to get a decent (reasonably priced) Wireless card for a used laptop that I'm getting. I don't have the computer yet, so I don't know what distro I will put on it- I imagine I will try a number of them out. Whichever one I do put on it, it will probably be fairly Newbie friendly.

I've done research about getting a wireless card (here and other places) and I am left pretty confused. I've really only been looking at the 'g' cards. It seems like every card comes in two or more versions that are completely disparate in terms of linux support (ones prism and the other is atheros?). Of course there is no way to get the rev# online before ordering. That combines with the plethora of seemingly outdated and conflicting (and often confusing for me) information out there has left me with no idea where to go.

I've mainly used D-Link wireless stuff in the past, and wouldn't mind sticking with them- of course I'll be perfectly happy to go with someone else if it means it will work smoothly (and easy setup for newbie). I usually go with the big name brands (d-link, netgear, lynksys).

Since, I' haven't bought the card yet, I 'm trying to take advantage of the fact that I can hopefully get info on the linux support before I buy.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!


note: if it matters, this will be my first real linux installation, so I'm a total newbie.

d-link should be widely supported... otherwise, you might find yourself using ndiswrapper. cisco aironet is also widely supported in linux. but do not take my comments as fact. I'm glad you have done some researching yourself, and would be happy to help with specific questions.

cards come in multiple 802.11 versions because g is compatible with b, and b was the most common, but when g came out it took over... the backwards compatibility helped, i'm sure. n is about to come out, and looks to be popular by solving some 'dead space' problems in buildings, but i haven't done my research yet, and i would bet linux support isn't there yet, as linux HW tends to be a day behind.