Wireless cards

[Colin McGregor]

--- "D. Hugh Redelmeier" <hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> | From: Merv Curley <mervc-MwcKTmeKVNQ at public.gmane.org>
> | Can anyone suggest a USB [ is dongle the word?]
> unit that will work with the 
> | current 2.6.17 kernels?
> 
> I just wanted to mention: if you are buying new, try
> hard to avoid one
> that uses NDISwrapper.  A great hack but:
> 
> - WindowsXP drivers are allowed to use way more
> stack than Linux
>   drivers.  This is something that NDIS wrapper
> cannot paper over.
>   Usually this doesn't matter, but there is no way
> of telling if
>   it does.
> 
> - binary-only drivers are very difficult to debug. 
> Kernel hackers
>   will shun you if you even load one.
> 
> - it is good to reward the manufacturers that
> support Linux.  Or show
>   manufacturers that there are customers that use
> Linux.
> 
> Having said all that, I don't know it there are any
> 802.11g USB
> thingees that have Linux drivers.  I have not
> looked.

There are some Linux USB 802.11g dongles out there,
but, let my experiences be a lesson on that score.
Several months ago I went shopping for such a dongle,
checking the adds in ... usual places. I was looking
for a dongle that I could use both with an older
laptop and desktop. Saw an ad for for the TRENDnet
TEW-424UB, I checked, there was a native Linux driver,
and after I got home I found I had been bitten on two
levels.

- This dongle REQUIRES USB 2.0, my laptop with USB 1.1
can not be made to work with this dongle, period.

- There have been two versions of the TRENDnet
TEW-424UB USB dongle, version 1 is well supported
under Linux as can be seen here:

   zd1211.ath.cx/

for version 2 (the version I bought) the only way to
get it to work with Linux at present is with
ndiswrapper, and face the concerns noted above.

TRENDNet I gather is not the only firm to keep the
model number the same and totally change the internal
guts of a dongle, card, etc., so step very carefully
on this score. 

So, lessons learnt, my laptop is currently running
with an SMC wireless PCMCIA card that is supported by
the MadWiFi Linux driver that can be seen here:

   madwifi.org

Colin McGregor
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