[NBLUG/talk] Installing WiFi cards

A.C. ac at sonic.net
Mon Jun 14 12:13:04 PDT 2004


Lincoln Peters wrote:

>That was the last thing I tried before I gave up.  They were out of
>stock at CompUSA.  At that point, I had finally lost all interest in
>(and patience for) wireless networking.
>
>I suppose I could have looked somewhere else, but I don't think it would
>have been worth it.
>
>---
>Lincoln Peters
><sampln at sbcglobal.net>
>

I've been fighting with getting *any* wireless card to work on *any* 
distribution, and so far I've had very little luck.  I spent the past 
weekend fighting with Knoppix 3.4 (2.4 and 2.6 kernels), the Knoppix to 
HD install (Debian Sid), and a real Debian network install with three 
different cards - LinkSys WPC11 2.5 (Prism II), LinkSys WPC11 4 
(RealTek), and Proxim Orinoco Silver A/B (Atheros chipset).  I managed 
to get the best luck with the Debian clean install and the LinkSys WPC11 
2.5 based off the Prism II chipset, but even then I couldn't get the 
card to connect to my AP.  The linux-wlan / wlan-ng method has done 
nothing but confuse me, and wrapping a Windows driver seems like a 
really bad idea, and a hack at that.

In my case, wireless is the only option, and the lack of a clean 
wireless solution for Linux is the only thing preventing me from making 
Linux the default operating system of choice on all of the systems in 
the house.  I've got to find something my wife can use without making 
her frustrated (either from the standpoint of being too difficult to 
figure out or from the standpoint of being tied to our single landline 
access in an inconvenient room).
At this point, I think I'm going to drop the cash and get a 
WaveLan-based Orinoco Gold, but if that doesn't work I might just have 
to slap myself and slink back to Windows for household purposes for a 
couple more years until things mature.  Most unfortunate.

Good luck with your project Lincoln, and just know that there are others 
out there with the same struggles.  Take care,

A.C.
******




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