Hi all,

I thought a "my card's better than your card" poll would be de rigeur. Guess not, so here's mine:

<rant>
Let me start with my biases. D-link is on my shit list! Not only could I not get the card, DWL-G650 rev A1, to work -EVER- in Linux or XP (I tried like hell - follow the thread, but the replacement card also did not work -EVER. Because I didn't have any more time to f**k with it during the month after they shipped the replacement, they now say that because it worked ONCE FOR 5 MINUTES in XP, they won't cover the cost of the second shipment or cross-ship w/o a credit card authorization. So, D-link, "No mo biz fo u."
</rant>

Whew, now that's off my chest, I'm in the market for a new wireless CardBus pcmcia NIC.

Specs:
Fedora Core-1
kernel: 2.4.22-1.2174.nptl
Dell Inspiron 3700

Which card has given you the most hassle-free install/config/operation? Back up those claims, though! After all, it is your rep that'll suffer if you don't.

All in fun for a good cause - to wean myself from the CAT5 umbilical.

Interesting that you've had so many problems with D-Link. I just put a D-Link DWL-AG650 into my Slackware 9.1 box and was up and running in less than 10 minutes using the madwifi drivers and this FAQ,.http://www.mattfoster.clara.co.uk/madwifi-faq.htm . Works great and I haven't had any issues with it. I'm running that card in a Dell Latitude C640 using a Linksys BEFW11S4 wireless router. I have it setup using 128bit WEP. It's a dream setup so far.

The main difficulty lies in that most of these manufacturers change chipsets on their devices almost as often as they change their clothes. While of no importance to the Windoze crowd -- their target market -- to us, it wreaks havoc! For instance, your card, the AG650 is an Atheros chipset, whereas my card, the G650 revision A1 (because they switched chipsets within the same model) is a Prism II chipset for which the madwifi driver does not work.

Of course, I learn all this long after I bought the card. As usual, caveat emptor - buyer beware!

Very true. I lurked around in here and other forums and looked for people having success with a card before buying one.

The nice thing about the DWL-AG650 card is that it is an a/b/g card so one would be covered by a variety of networks. Granted, most are b now but it's nice to have the extra coverage if needed.

Anyway, don't hesitate to buy the DWL-AG650. Also, I found this link to dlink support in another post, http://support.dlink.com/faq/view.as...question=Linux . It shows you what open source drivers work with what cards.