Linux Format forums

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Which is the best wireless vendor/chipse

nelz — Thu Nov 17, 2005 2:19 pm

Author: nelz

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 2:19 pm

The iBook has the Airport Extreme, for which there are no open source drivers, and little likelihood of them. I don't know about the Bluetooth, mine doesn't have it, but a USB Bluetooth adaptor works well.

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Which is the best wireless vendor/chipse

ladi — Thu Nov 17, 2005 12:42 pm

Author: ladi

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 12:42 pm

Nelz said

Quote:

It turned out that this was because I hadn't specified the ESSID and it logged ontosomeone else's AP, presumably my neighbours.

I really must let them know that their AP is unsecured (I could even log into their AP's admin interface with the default password)...

Looks like we've got the same neighbours!

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Which is the best wireless vendor/chipse

Nigel — Thu Nov 17, 2005 12:11 pm

Author: Nigel

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 12:11 pm

nelz - does your iBook have an airport/airport extreme card built-in ? If so, does that not work with Linux ?

I'm thinking of treating myself to a 12" iBook for Christmas as I want a useable but very portable laptop with a decent battery life. The latest ones come with Airport Extreme & Bluetooth as standard. Initially I'll run OS-X on it, but I might want to move to Linux later on (depends if I can put up with Finder or not ), and it would be good to be forewarned of any potential problems.

What do you think of the iBook, hardware-wise - is it as good as they claim ?

Many thanks,

Nigel.

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Which is the best wireless vendor/chipse

nelz — Thu Nov 17, 2005 11:23 am

Author: nelz

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 11:23 am

I looked at the D-Link, but the rt2570 driver appears to be problematic with PPC (this is for my iBook). So I followed Dave2's advice and looked at the Edimax. Their USB device uses the zd1211 driver, it arrived yesterday and works perfectly. I had a slight problem at first in that it would connect to the AP but I couldn't connect to anything else. It turned out that this was because I hadn't specified the ESSID and it logged ontosomeone else's AP, presumably my neighbours.

I really must let them know that their AP is unsecured (I could even log into their AP's admin interface with the default password)... as soon as I've finished sending these Viagra e-mails

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Which is the best wireless vendor/chipse

ladi — Thu Nov 17, 2005 8:51 am

Author: ladi

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 8:51 am

I have a DWL G122 USB adapter from D-Link which works perfectly with Windows, as you would expect. The latest Linux distros - I know about SUSE 10 - will detect it and work without any configuration if you are not using encryption. I have now got it working at 54mps with WPA-TKIP under Slackware 10.1 with a 2.6.12 kernel and ndiswrapper 1.5. I am trying to figure out how to avoid having to broadcast my ESSID.

So I say D-Link gets my vote.

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Which is the best wireless vendor/chipse

Dave2 — Mon Nov 14, 2005 9:08 pm

Author: Dave2

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 9:08 pm

Given that ralink release their own GPLd code, including a GUI config utility, and work with the 3rd party maintainers, I'd think that rt2x00-based wifi devices are pretty safe for the moment. It's possible that this situation could change, but it seems unlikely in the near future.

Re: RE: Re: RE: Which is the best wireless vendor/chipset et

nelz — Mon Nov 14, 2005 8:27 pm

Author: nelz

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 8:27 pm

Dave2 wrote:

It's basically a commercially sold reference board, so I don't see them changing the chipset any time soon, given that they don't actually do anything with it themselves.

Even that doesn't guarantee anything. 3com didn't change to a different chipset, the Prism chipset itself changed, moving firmware code from the chip to the driver and rendering the Linux driver useless. Everything indicated that the card was compatible, but it didn't work because of the chipset change. Nothing is for sure with wireless

Re: RE: Re: RE: Which is the best wireless vendor/chipset et

nelz — Mon Nov 14, 2005 8:25 pm

Author: nelz

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 8:25 pm

Dave2 wrote:

Not sure; I didn't look into it. I know that there are rt2500 USB devices out there, though.

Unfortunately, there appear to be issues with the rt2570 driver on PPC. However, Edimax do a zd1211 based USB device (unless they've changed the chipset).

RE: Re: RE: Which is the best wireless vendor/chipset etc?

Dave2 — Mon Nov 14, 2005 6:48 pm

Author: Dave2

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 6:48 pm

Not sure; I didn't look into it. I know that there are rt2500 USB devices out there, though.

RE: Re: RE: Which is the best wireless vendor/chipset etc?

nelz — Mon Nov 14, 2005 6:40 pm

Author: nelz

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 6:40 pm

Do they do a USB version based on the same chipset?

RE: Re: RE: Which is the best wireless vendor/chipset etc?

Dave2 — Mon Nov 14, 2005 2:58 pm

Author: Dave2

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 2:58 pm

It's basically a commercially sold reference board, so I don't see them changing the chipset any time soon, given that they don't actually do anything with it themselves.

RE: Re: RE: Which is the best wireless vendor/chipset etc?

nelz — Mon Nov 14, 2005 1:32 pm

Author: nelz

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 1:32 pm

The specs don't say which chipset is used, so the manufacturer could change the chipset at any time and you wouldn't know until you'd bought it.

Re: RE: Which is the best wireless vendor/chipset etc?

Dave2 — Mon Nov 14, 2005 11:46 am

Author: Dave2

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 11:46 am

nelz wrote:

Buying any 802.11g card is a lottery, there are plenty you can be sure will not work, but none you can be absolutely certain will until you have bought them.

Except the one I linked to above :p.

RE: Which is the best wireless vendor/chipset etc?

nelz — Mon Nov 14, 2005 11:43 am

Author: nelz

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 11:43 am

I bought a 3com card, one supported by the prism54 drivers, only to find that 3com had changed the chipset to one that didn't work with any Linux driver. There is no way to tell which chipset a card uses unless you can look at the serial number or other markings on it.

Buying any 802.11g card is a lottery, there are plenty you can be sure will not work, but none you can be absolutely certain will until you have bought them.

RE: Which is the best wireless vendor/chipset etc?

Nigel — Mon Nov 14, 2005 10:23 am

Author: Nigel

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 10:23 am

I like 3Com stuff... I'm happily using a 3CRPAG175 a/b/g card (the one with the pop-out antenna) with SuSE 9.2 in my laptop.
They work well with Windows too.