Andrewski Posted December 6, 2003 Report Share Posted December 6, 2003 (edited) I'm going to be needing a wireless network card here soon and I figured here'd be the place to check first. I did a search and there seems to be good support for major card brands. (Why should I be surprised? ) However, in the past, I've heard about hardware companies being obstinately difficult about supporting Linux. I'm a bit concerned about supporting a company in my purchase which doesn't support Linux, even if some good souls have made a driver that would make it "work". Anyone know any companies that I should definitely support or avoid? Thanks. Edited December 6, 2003 by Andrewski Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted December 6, 2003 Report Share Posted December 6, 2003 Andrewski Sorry I can't actually help BUT I just want to support your idealism on this. I actually did a whole thread on this earlier and I think it is very important. If we support companies that others get to work (without help or docuemntation from manufactuerers) we do ourselves and linux no good. The same goes (IMHO) for products that just happen to work, like USB mass storage. Then I bleeive you have to look to the other products of that company to see if they really support linux or not. If the differences is $10 or so then perosnally I'd go for the one ACTIVELY supporting linux. I can tell you what not to BUY... NO NETGEAR.... (If you feel like trying you can buy my two paper weights) one PCMCIA and the other PCI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lawsonrc Posted December 6, 2003 Report Share Posted December 6, 2003 For the first time in any distro, Mandrake 9.2 and Mandrake Control Center's Wizard picked up my wireless card and had it working in less than 30 seconds (be sure to reboot after the configuration. Before I had to go to http://linux.oldcrank.com/tips/wpc11/index.php ) to get it to work. My wireless card is the Linksys WPC11, ver. 3. I've heard that the ver. 4 does not work with linux yet. You can call Linksys to see if they still have ver. 3 available to order, since I don't think it is carried in the stores any more. I hope this helps you! Sincerely, Richard L. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fissy Posted December 6, 2003 Report Share Posted December 6, 2003 don't get anything by dlink and don't get anything based on chips made by texas intruments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schussat Posted December 6, 2003 Report Share Posted December 6, 2003 This will sound heretical, but I'm using a Microsoft MN 520 PCMCIA card (prism2 chipset), and it works beautifully. I'm running mdk 9.2, and the card works with WEP and everything. It wasn't quite plug and play: Thanks to a thread at linuxquestions I found the lines I needed to add to /etc/pcmcia/config: card "Microsoft Wireless Notebook Adapter MN-520 1.0.3" version "Microsoft", "Wireless Notebook Adapter MN-520", "", "1.0.3" bind "orinoco_cs" After that, smooth sailing and easy configuration in drake config. I bought the Microsoft card because 1) I knew its chipset has drivers that work with linux, and 2) unlike cards like the WPC11 v3, I could buy it locally (Office Max) and not have to worry about tech support/returns via mail if there were problems. None of the other cards readily available in my area (local PC retailers or big box stores) used chipsets with known (and reliable) linux support, their manufacturers having moved on to chips like the Broadcom or to 802.11G chips, for which support is still pretty touch-and-go. Did I mortage my soul for a little wireless support? Maybe, but there was no amount of money that I could have paid locally to get a card from a manufacturer that endorses Linux. Anyway, the bottom line I'd recommend is to check this list of chipsets and manufacturers and see what's available. Off the top of my head, the Netgear MA401 is confirmed to work, and Netgear even offers a linux driver -- if that card is available to you, it would probably be a good bet (Gowater, what Netgear cards failed to work for you?) if you're determined to use a card with express linux support. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted December 8, 2003 Report Share Posted December 8, 2003 Ive got the NG - WG511 (PCMCIA/Prism G2) and WG311 (PCI - Atheros) The WG511 looks most promising right now. The atheros support is limited, as faras i could see last time I looked the atheros support didn't include being able to change settings etc. The bottom line is somewhere you seem to need to configure it in Windows. (which I don't have) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkelve Posted December 8, 2003 Report Share Posted December 8, 2003 don't get anything by dlink Why are you saying that? I thought they had a reasonably good reputation when it came to networking and Linux. I was just considering buying a wireless router from them. See the following post: http://www.mandrakeusers.org/index.php?sho...topic=10049&hl= Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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