[NBLUG/talk] my laptop & wireless ethernet

ME dugan at passwall.com
Fri Jun 6 22:03:00 PDT 2003


Rob Orsini said:
> So, I feel like I'm pushing it a little but as well as a successful
> install
> of Mandrake on my laptop (which we've already discussed) I would LOVE for
> my 802.11b-PCMCIA card to work.  I have a Netgear card but have heard
> rumors that a Lucent flavored card has some support among some Linux vers.
>
> My first question: Has anyone had luck with wireless PCMCIA cards and
> linux?  Secondly, what is so complicated about writing drivers for these
> cards? I really am curious if it's really a difficult thing to do or just
> low priority.

Yes. I have and use Cisco AiroNet 340 and a DataLink DW650. Both work fine.

To find out if your card works, examine the model number and then examine
the HCL for the PCMCIA cards with the latest version of PCMCIA-CS:

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

Pay special anntention to any comments on how well your card is supported
and verify the version of PCMCIA-CS you have and how far off it is from
the latest.

Also, install the wireless-configuration-utilities (which includes
iwconfig which is a wireless-specific "kind" of ifconfig that offers you
specific wireless information and an ability to set wireless specific data
for such cards.)

Support for plain-text (non WEP) communications is usually best for
wireless 802.11b while WEP support is sometimes lacking in the more
recently supported cards.

HTH,
-ME




More information about the talk mailing list