[svlug] Can someone recommend a Linux supporting PCI wireless card?

[Joel Seidman]

--- Roland Krause <rokrau at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I need to buy a PCI wireless card. Any recommendations? I prefer to buy from
> a Vendor that supports Linux and if that's not available I'd go for soemthing
> easy as in: "Walk into Fry's/MicroCenter, pick up the card, pay, install,
> modprobe  blah... system-config-network blah blah blah....
> 
> It's a brand new box, so  I am going to run whatever the latest Fedora Core
> is that is out when the thing finally arrives.
> 
> I'd like to know what you have recently bought and what works well. I have
> access points (Netgear and Linksys WRT54GL. 
> 
> Thanks for your input.
> 
> Regards,
> Roland
>
Here's my limited experience.

On an impulse, I bought a D-Link DWL-G510 at Fry's earlier this year. I picked
it only because it was the lowest price after rebate, without even knowing if
it would work with Linux. I got lucky. The h/w version is B1, which contains an
Atheros chip set. Different versions can have different chip sets, so just
knowing the model number may not be sufficient. Linux has a driver for the
Atheros chip set, and the card worked out of the box on my Kubuntu computer. (I
don't remember doing anything specific to make it work. I may have had to
install knetworkmanager to make WPA work; I'm not sure if that comes with the
latest version of Kubuntu, but it is easily added.) D-Link doesn't specifically
support Linux, according to the box, which only mentions Windows.

I can't say quantitatively how good the performance is, but it does work well
over about 20 feet through a couple walls in my house. It picks up neighborhood
AP's, but I can't connect with any (even the open ones). Kismet (signal sniffer
program) works fine with it.

I was very displeased with the long rebate delay. There are some negative
comments about D-Link on the web, and I suggest you Google for user comments on
whatever brand/model you select.

FYI, the Usenet group alt.internet.wireless has some very knowledgeable people,
including with Linux background. I highly recommend you ask your question
there, too.

-- Joel


       
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