help me chose a wireless card

lubricated · 01-30-2004, 06:31 PM

I've been trying to wade through the documentation and have been unable to find a wireless card(pcmcia,802.11b) that is compatible with linux for sale anywhere. All the ones for sale seam to be ones you can't buy except for maybe used. I currently have a shitty wpc11 ver 4 that I couldn't get to work. I would be using linux if I can buy a good wireless card.

h/w · 01-30-2004, 09:42 PM

netgear wg511 is what i use.

basically, goto a store (or online if thats what ur doin), just note down the ones that catch ur fancy ... then goto the site for that company, get the name of the chipset that card u liked uses, and then check if linux supports that chipset.

if it's something brand new in the market, then google for any group working on drivers for it. i think most cards are supported (although not built-in).

2Gnu · 01-30-2004, 09:43 PM

My suggestion is a Prism3 card. The WPC11 v3, also sold as the ZyXEL ZyAIR B-100 would make a good choice. Provantage has the B-100s for about $32 and they come with a Meetinghouse client for 802.1x (Windows version). I'm using one right now with Slackware and a RADIUS server for eap-tls 802.1x.

basics · 01-31-2004, 01:27 AM

ok dont laugh

i had good luck w/ the microsoft 802.11b wireless card (mn-520)
it can be purchased pretty cheaply, and searching for +mn-520 +linux in google got it running for me in about 5 minutes (slackware 8, 9).

ive used it in 2 laptops....a very old dell, and a newer thinkpad (r40)

lubricated · 02-01-2004, 01:01 PM

Looks like provantage doesn't sell the zyxel card anymore. I can't find the wpc11 ver 3 and I have the ver 4 of that card.

and I'm not going to purchase a new card with closed source drivers. What is the point of that. I already have a piece of crap now I would have two.

This is pretty lame. As far as I can tell no cards that can be purchased and are still curently produced work with linux. I know that linux supports limited hardware but this is to the point of ridiculessness.

2Gnu · 02-01-2004, 02:17 PM

Here's the Provantage B-100 link Looks like they have 35 in stock.

As an alternative, Llama Works Equipment is a ZyXEL dealer with drop-ship from ZyXEL, U.S. in Anaheim, CA. Great service. I use them a lot.

I also bought a 200mw SMC card recently (I'm using it in my AP, but it works equally well as a client). My source was Computers4Sure
This is not the card to have if you're trying to conserve battery power, but a nice one for long distance configs.

Hopefully, you can find something out of those three. Good luck.

lubricated · 02-01-2004, 05:30 PM

thanks for the help. For some reason I couldn't find the provantage card when I went there. I was getting really frusterated.

I just bought the smc card from computers4sure. I'm not too concerened about battery life. Alot more concerned with performance.

Well in 3-5 buisness days I'll be installing linux again.
And I got my self a new paper weight call wpc11 ver 4.

lubricated · 02-05-2004, 08:35 PM

Well I finally got the card. Debian is running on my laptop(presario 2140US) and everything is working but my touchpad wich isn't tapping to click and 3d accel, but I don't care. So I'm real happy. Thanks for your help!!

2Gnu · 02-05-2004, 09:23 PM

Way cool, as they say.
Glad it worked. Enjoy.

DevilsBrigade · 02-06-2004, 11:11 AM

i used the Linksys WPC 11 ver 3. In mandrake 9.2 it was simply plug and play.
I plugged it in,

/sbin/ifdown eth0

/sbin/ifup eth1

whoo hoo lets ride

DevilsBrigade · 02-06-2004, 11:32 AM

oi!

my compnay makes a USB wlan adaptor.
If you want to try to muck about with it to get it to work...i send one to you...
It is am atmel chipset, so that means it works with Linux...they even have their own sourceforge project for it.

mordak · 02-12-2004, 12:39 PM

I use 2 different Netgear MA401 802.11b cards and both work flawlessly. They use the orinco_cs modules and I have never has a hitch with either of them. I configure with iwconfig and us the WAP encryption.
Good Luck,
Ken Gutkowski