Recommendations for Wireless Network Cards

[Jay Moore]

On Fri, 2004-12-31 at 07:15, ingramipaq at cox.net wrote:
> As a newbie...
> 
> I have FC2, and it installed smoothly, and recognized everything - except my Linksys WPC11 v4 card.  I researched to find FCx works with previous versions of the same card (because the earlier cards had a different chip/firmware), but none-the-less the v4 card just won't work...
> 
> I've followed Linksys' vague directions - nothing.
> I saw an article from another site -where I learned about the  chipset differences - but the file(s) to edit are different (it references everything to Debian(voodoo linux)).  
> 
> The other problem is in there are a ton of different cards listed when I try to set up a new network connection - but trying to get one is another story as the guy at a (No names mentioned) computer store looked at me like I was a rodeo clown because I dared to mention Fedora/Red Hat
> 
> Ok Fedora community, what card(s) do you recommend to run with minimal fuss-n-muss...

>From an earlier posting:

I think this has been asked many times in this list. It _is_ a FAQ, but
apparently not _in_ the FAQ. FWIW, here's my experience:

I tried a couple of WiFi cards under FC2, and while I finally got them
to work (kinda, sorta, d/l voodoo binaries, yuck!), I finally went out
and bought two that were "recommended". Of these two, I have tried one
under FC2, and I can report that it "just works". The card? "Orinoco
Classic Gold PC Card"; it is mf'd by Agere Systems, and the P/N is
"026258/A". I found a vendor through pricegrabber.com. Just so there's
no confusion, here's a URL with several vendors listed:

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=923071/search=orinoco

Other valuable resources you may want to check out:

http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/Client_5fAdapters_5f802_5f11b
http://www.linux-wlan.com/linux-wlan/

In summary, if you want a card that's really supported under any
open-source OS with no bullshit voodoo/proprietary/kissmyass binaries
required then you must find a card that uses one of the "supported"
chipsets (i.e. hardware). You will hear the term "Prism chipset" used;
Prism chipsets were (are?) manufactured by Intersil - apparently they
published enough data on their chipsets to allow folks to write drivers.
Most of the other chipset manufacturers (notably Texas Instruments) have
not. 

In this free-market economy we all get to vote... we vote with our
purchases. So - if you buy a WiFi product that has open-source support,
you are "voting" for the chipset manufacturers that support open-source
software - you are telling them all that if they want your business, you
require them to support open-source software. If, on the other hand, you
buy a WiFi product that requires closed-source drivers you are voting
with the "Windows crowd". 

The bad news is that there is no open-source support for the "newer
technology" 802.11a & g WiFi (caveat: AFAIK - someone please correct me
if I'm in error here). Therefore you're limited to a "mere" 11 Mbps
under 802.11b  :) The good news is 11 Mbps is still pretty strong, and
most of the AP appliances out there also support 802.11b. 

Well - I've digressed... hope this helps, and don't forget to "vote".

Jay