WiFi: Conceptronic C54Ri (RaLink RT2500) and WPA no go

[Patrick]

Hi,

Think I read about a zillion pages to find a WiFi PCI nic that's 
supported by Linux (Fedora 9). I found the Conceptronic C54Ri which has 
a RaLink RT2500 chip, is supposed to work and was available at a shop 
near me.

Unfortunately I can't get the card to do anything with NetworkManager 
(NM) when the rt2500pci module is loaded. It won't even setup a link to 
an AP without any security. With the latest ndiswrapper 1.5.3 and 
version 2 firmware from conceptronic.net at least NM can setup a link to 
an AP that has no security whatsoever and NM can also setup a link using 
WEP. Both are useless for obvious security reasons. Both WPA and WPA2 
didn't work (wpa_supplicant mentioned some timeout authenticating to the 
AP). I require a WPA2/CCMP (AES) link to the AP.

Does anyone have any experience with this card or any RaLink RT2500 
based card howto make NetworkManager (or system-config network) 
successfully set up a WPA2/CCMP (AES) link to an AP?

Thanks and regards,
Patrick

ps if anyone knows a WiFi PCI card or USB stick that has the 
always-working-out-of-the-box-Intel WiFi chipset please let me know