# What Wireless NIC should I buy? What works with Gentoo?

## beakmyn

Hi Folks,

I just bought a WPC11 and had to send it back because get this, the card was not compatible with the chipshet of my cardbus controller  :Mad:  Go figure

Anyway, I'm looking at D-Link (DWL-G650) it's a 802.11b&g. Looking at the wlan_ng compatibility it says:

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> D-Link 802.11g DWL-G650 Cardbus Prism GT
> 
> HW version A1 is PrismGT:B1 is Atheros
> ...

 

So am I safe with this card? It should work right?

I won't get the Cisco aeronet (too expensive) 

So who else do you recommend?

Computer Specs:

Sager 8886 2.4Ghz 256MB RAM 40GB HD, 2 cardbus slot (Ti PCI-1520 cardbus controller)

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## scootersmk

Here is a previous thread where i asked a similar question.....

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=60290&highlight=

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## swagr

As mentioned in the forums, take a look at:

http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/SUPPORTED.CARDS

I have thinks working with an "IBM High Rate Wireless LAN".

Not as fast as some, but great range.

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## btsg

I have a Netgear MA401, and although a driver issue had me going crazy at first (it is sloved in the forums https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=236595), the cards' performance now is top notch!!  Great range and signal.  There are also plenty of posts to help you get it working. (Like https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=38225)

Hope this has been helpful.

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## beakmyn

Thanks, for the replies. Thanks for the link scootersmk I did a search before posting and yours didn't show up in the list. I thought it odd no-one had posted this topic before.

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## sa

the D-link DWL-G60 rev A1 does not work in linux. ( I have one  :Sad: )

revision B1 might work http://sourceforge.net/projects/madwifi/

edit: D-link DWL-G60 rev A1 works now  :Smile:  see SyS_RaGE's post below...Last edited by sa on Wed Dec 17, 2003 9:35 am; edited 2 times in total

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## Odin

I've got a (internal) usb prism 2.5 card running using linux-wlan-ng. I had to add the USB vendor/device ID to the driver myself, though. Works great, after that.  :Smile: 

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## dirtboy

Orinoco Gold cards work great.  Thats what I have.  Costs a bit more, but I think it is worth it.

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## klarnox

 *btsg wrote:*   

> I have a Netgear MA401, and although a driver issue had me going crazy at first (it is sloved in the forums https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=236595), the cards' performance now is top notch!!  Great range and signal.  There are also plenty of posts to help you get it working. (Like https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=38225)
> 
> Hope this has been helpful.

 

I'll second the Netgear MA401.  I love mine, so much so that I bought a second for my girlfriends laptop.  I haven't had any driver issues with this card.

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## Xargon

This post is brought to you by a DLink DWL-650 (not the 650+).  I haven't run into any troubles with it and had a fairly easy time with configuration; however, I did purchase this when I was running Windows, so there very well may be better alternatives.  AFAIK the 650+ does not work, so you may want to carefully research if you're looking at the DLink cards.

I've heard great things about Orinoco cards across multiple platforms; that might be a good investment.

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## beakmyn

It looks like all the cards are 802.11b, and apparently there are no working linux drivers for 802.11g. On my first post I was thinking g was the way to go being faster and newer but now I wonder is g worth it? There are some good deals on g version bundles (router and PCMCIA NIC). 

I can get the Netgear Ma401 and a router for $88 from Buy.com right now.

or

netgear WG511 9802.11b/g and router for $142

It appears the orinoco gold (proxim) is no longer available, none of the major online retailers have them in stock. Is 8410-WD the right part number? This is the version with the connector for the external antenna right?

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## dirtboy

Thats the one.  I am also waiting on 802.11g support, and I think Proxim will be the first to offer Linux drivers.  Most of their wireless hotspot hardware are boxes that have a pcmcia slot inside them where you stick an Orinoco card.    Linux gets used extensively in these systems, so they have a good reason to get some drivers out.  I'd like to know if the b/g combo cards work in b mode.  I doubt it, but you never know.  I'm too poor to put it to the test.  

Back on topic, search Froogle for Orinoco Gold and you will get a few sites that have some in stock.  The prices are around $60-$80 these days it seems.

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## sa

802.11g is definitaly faster,

you can get ~3 Mega Bytes per sec with one of those,

a 802.11b card will only give you ~90 Kilo Bytes per sec.

 :Cool: 

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## beakmyn

Thanks for the info. I'm at the point where I'm thinking it might better to get a g card and run it under XP until hopefully linux drivers are created. 

It looks like the Proxim Orinoco Gold b/g is 60mw b 85mw g (source: seattle wireless). and I'll just cross my fingers for linux drivers. On the plus side it's got a built in external antenna connector. 

but what router to pair it with? The linksys looks good are there compatibility issues with routers that I need to worry about?

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## kicker69101

I use and like both the 3c575(I think this is it) and the linksys wpc11 (though I had to install the driver myself). Once I got both up they have been working like a champ since.

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## weazy

you have to be careful about which orinoco gold card you purchase. there is a new line out that is based on the Hermes2 chipset, which AFAIK is not supported by any of the current drivers and when I called they said they were not developing any Linux Drivers. The new Orinoco Gold cards are marketed the same way so it can be tough to tell ahead of time.

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## SyS_RaGE

 *Quote:*   

> the D-link DWL-G60 rev A1 does not work in linux. ( I have one ) 
> 
> revision B1 might work http://sourceforge.net/projects/madwifi/

 

That's not correct (anymore at least). I have a DWL-G650 working great with the prism54 driver. It's still under heavy development so has a few problems, but the devlopers are working very fast at getting a nice stable driver working for the Prism GT / Prism Duette / Prism Indigo Chipsets. You can find the driver at prism54.org

There is also a package by Linuxant which I have seen mentioned that is a driver 'wrapper' of sorts. It allows you to use a windows driver for many 802.11 cards in Linux. If you can't seem to find support for your wireless NIC you may want to check out their NDIS DriverLoader.

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