# Best wireless ethernet card solution for gentoo

## scootersmk

I'm  wanting to add a wireless ethernet card to my newly installed gentoo laptop.  Please share about any really good cards to buy.  What type of card works best and is easiest to install (ex. USB or other).  Tell of any cards that you have had trouble with, and any other advice that might be useful concerning wireless ethernet card, laptops and gentoo.  Thank you and i hope  this is helpful to others as well.

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## DefconAlpha

best == cisco aironet

bang/buck == proxim orinoco

poor ass foo == d-link (NOT 520+)

also, apple airport is really nice :)

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## gramafonov

You might want to look here too: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=60257

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## de4d

got one of those 3com cards w/ xjack antenna. nice hide mechanism - no external connector though.

atmel chipset works with some drivers out there.

google 3crshpw196 for more information.

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## spooon

I'm a big fan of the Orinoco card. Great drivers, great range, great price.

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## Assgier

 *spooon wrote:*   

> I'm a big fan of the Orinoco card. Great drivers, great range, great price.

 

me too, using an Orinoco Silver card in my Gentoo Asus-laptop, running fine with the pcmcia_cs Orinoco drivers (patched) [img:c1bd5227b2]http://gathering.tweakers.net/global/smileys/worshippy.gif[/img:c1bd5227b2]

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## tdb

If anyone is still watching this, I just got a radio shack flyer listing the Linksys WPC11 for $50 in the stores. Looks like it's on closeout, and isn't available on line. It has an Intersil radio and is well supported in linux by pcmcia-cs, wlan-ng, and hostap.

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## belial

dont get the wpc11      i got it ( :Sad: )  now i regret it.  I should have looked around first..   I've been working on it about a week straight now and still have no luck...i finally found a link in the fourms that sent me to a good page for instalation of the pci card....witch i have also.   I would go with something else      good luck.

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## Liathus

if you are interested in 802.11g (54mbps) i own the netgard wg511 and have had great luck with it.  The drivers arn't in the kernel yet, so you need to patch.  But its pretty easy and has been as stable as possible.  I havnt had any problems in the 3 weeks that I have had it:)

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## Sas

i have a d-link dwl-g650 (.11g 54mbit) and it was very hard to make it run... and in ad-hoc mode the driver works not very stable :/

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## Liathus

I don't use ad-hoc mode.  I have found that performance is always very bad in ad-hoc no matter what driver or OS I have used.

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## tdb

 *Liathus wrote:*   

> I don't use ad-hoc mode.  I have found that performance is always very bad in ad-hoc no matter what driver or OS I have used.

 

Yeah, WEP is really flaky in ad-hoc mode. I've never tested in managed, since I don't have an AP. Also, my logs are full of "frame from mars" entries from the Berlios drivers, about one every other second. It's really annoying.

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## Joebel

I asked for the best performing combo in a dutch shop which specializes in wireless stuff (it is called 'wifi shop'). They told me their own tests resulted in using a linksys access point, and the avaya wireless goldcard.

Both work really well. The avaya card never gives me any trouble.

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## smiler.se

 *Liathus wrote:*   

> if you are interested in 802.11g (54mbps) i own the netgard wg511 and have had great luck with it.  The drivers arn't in the kernel yet, so you need to patch.  But its pretty easy and has been as stable as possible.  I havnt had any problems in the 3 weeks that I have had it:)

 

Kernel version? Can you verify this on 2.6? URL to patches?

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## Seclar

 *Quote:*   

> if you are interested in 802.11g (54mbps) i own the netgard wg511 and have had great luck with it. The drivers arn't in the kernel yet, so you need to patch. But its pretty easy and has been as stable as possible. I havnt had any problems in the 3 weeks that I have had it:)

 

Where do you get the kernel patch from ?

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## MorphiusFaydal

NEVER EVER EVER get a dlink wireless network card..

for ANYTHING!!!

they suck..

i cant get my dwl-520+ to work on my desktop, and the 650+ is equally bad..

ethernet 2 wireless bridges are good..

yeah..

chris

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## raylpc

the linksys WPC11 version 4 is not using prism chipset anymore. It's not very easy to the new WPC11 to work. Be warned.

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## pottzers

MorphiusFaydal said:

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> NEVER EVER EVER get a dlink wireless network card.. 
> 
> for ANYTHING!!! 
> ...

 

i know this is not a desktop forum, but i didn't have a problem getting my dlink g520 pci card working.  just had to do the following:

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86" emerge madwifi-drivers

cp /etc/init.d/net.eth0 /etc/init.d/net.ath0 

modprobe pci_ath0 

edit /etc/conf.d/net and add ath0 settings(i hard coded in the ip for my lan)

rc-update add net.ath0 default

/etc/init.d/net.ath0 start

and badda bing badda boom she works like a charm.

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## Pyke

I have an Asus L8400 with a NetGear MA401 wireless PCMCIA card. Works like a bliss - although I had a little trouble getting the card to work until I ended up NOT following all the advice in the forums. (cf. https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=36991).

I have been using my laptop with Gentoo 1.2 for over a year now and I am greatly satisfied  :Very Happy: . The connection to my girlfriend's Airport has been flawless. We've bought a new accesspoint, a NetGear, which strangely enough is causing some troubles, but it will be replaced with a Linksys, which I've read is working nicely together with the NetGear card.

/Pyke

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## vertex

I bought a Siemens orinoco based card and it works decent. I use the orinoco_cs driver with shmoo monitor patches. These patches work ok as far as I can see. I can verify that 2.6 works fine w/patches.  I have had problems in the past with the drivers filling my logs with errors until it brings my system to a crawl. This only happens under a heavy load.  I have some friends with a similar problem.  I would suggest the a cisco card if you have the money.  If not, an orinoco card isn't a bad alternative.

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## DeKoder

I'm looking for a mini-PCI 802.11g card for my future laptop (probably a Compaq X1000, they're awesome)...any opinion on the recommended card for me ? I'd like to go with a D-Link w/ Atheros chipset , but I haven't found one in mini-PCI form so far :\

Thanks

dekoder

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## dj_choco

Any idea if I can get the Compaq W200 Multiport.... working? ---->Existing Thread!

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## ChopChopMasterOnion

I use an Addtron orinoco-based PCMCIA, and it runs fine for me.  My wife has some no-badge prism2 based (no name as in no labels even...the only sticker is a MAC address) that the invoice from TigerDirect listed as a "Proxim", and it runs good too.  Not quite as nice as my orinoco, but it works.  I tried out my father in law's Linksys W(two letters that I forgot)-11, and it sucked.  disconnected all the time.

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## deeppro

 *DeKoder wrote:*   

> I'm looking for a mini-PCI 802.11g card for my future laptop (probably a Compaq X1000, they're awesome)...any opinion on the recommended card for me ? I'd like to go with a D-Link w/ Atheros chipset , but I haven't found one in mini-PCI form so far :\
> 
> Thanks
> 
> dekoder

 

Simple !! you get a dlink pci card, you open it and oh surprise, it's a mini-pci card inside ....

Personnaly, i prefer the one frome US Roboticks.... with Texas Instrument chipset ...  Just open the box, remove the two screw, and rescue the mini-pci card. Put that in your laptop, connect the antenna, and let's go on the neightboor wifi ...   :Twisted Evil:   :Twisted Evil:   :Twisted Evil: 

It works fine under win32 and gentoo using the same driver via driverloader ...

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