Wireless Card Compatible with Linux CentOS
 

Hi,

We are building Linux network appliances using MiniATX motherboards. The appliances need to be wireless access points as we have wireless devices that need to connect to them. As an access point, the appliance should issue IP's... basically act as a router. We are currently using Foxconn NIC cards and they seem to be working.

I'd like to know if there is a better brand of wireless NIC cards out there with better drive support. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Hello and welcome to LQ. Hope you like it here.

Compatible with Linux CentOS
Compatibility of this kind is not based on distribution but on kernel support. Support can either be native or can be achieved by patching the kernel with Madwifi drivers or using Ndiswrapper.


I'd like to know if there is a better brand of wireless NIC cards out there with better drive support.
I prefer Atheros chipsets using Madwifi because the combo doesn't give me trouble, but that is *my* opinion: if you don't define what "better" means there is no reference, no comparison. Could check the LQ HCL and browse the LQ Linux - Wireless Networking forum.

I have found that wireless support is more a function of the chipset used rather than the actual card. I also have had good results with the atheros chipset cars using the mad-wifi driver under CentOS. I downloaded the driver and kernel modules from one of the 3rd party repos for RHEL4 (ATRPMSI think).

I recently found the following website taht has great info on chipsets used in many wireless network cards: http://linux-wless.passys.nl/

This site has been a great help to me when I was shopping for newer wireless cards for my laptops.

Bob

Thanks for the help guys. :-)