From owner-freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Wed May 7 13:19:41 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0C74937B401 for ; Wed, 7 May 2003 13:19:41 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mail.gmx.net (pop.gmx.de [213.165.65.60]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 676D243F93 for ; Wed, 7 May 2003 13:19:37 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from Gerhard.Sittig@gmx.net) Received: (qmail 6432 invoked by uid 65534); 7 May 2003 20:19:31 -0000 Received: from p50910713.dip0.t-ipconnect.de (EHLO mail.gsinet.sittig.org) (80.145.7.19) by mail.gmx.net (mp009-rz3) with SMTP; 07 May 2003 22:19:31 +0200 Received: (qmail 13095 invoked from network); 7 May 2003 19:52:45 -0000 Received: from shell.gsinet.sittig.org (192.168.11.153) by mail.gsinet.sittig.org with SMTP; 7 May 2003 19:52:45 -0000 Received: (from sittig@localhost) by shell.gsinet.sittig.org (8.11.3/8.11.3) id h47Jqg913091 for freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org; Wed, 7 May 2003 21:52:42 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from sittig) Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 21:52:42 +0200 From: Gerhard Sittig To: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20030507215242.V26888@shell.gsinet.sittig.org> Mail-Followup-To: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i Organization: System Defenestrators Inc. Subject: WLAN w/ RealTek chips? X-BeenThere: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Mobile computing with FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 07 May 2003 20:19:41 -0000 Browsing through the newly released German c't magazine I noticed a rather cheap offer for PCMCIA WLAN cards (EUR 25,-). The "spec" in the commercial and on the website reads like a generic WiFi product (802.11b, 2.4GHz, 128bit WEP, 1/2/5.5/11 MBit). But the "RealTek chipset" mentioned makes me stop and wonder. What are the chances of FreeBSD support for these cards? `grep -r -i realtek src/share/man/man4` in a -CURRENT sandbox (cvs up'ed last Thursday) only pointed to the ethernet drivers (RealTek 8029 in ed.4, RTL 8002 in rdp.4, and RealTek 8129/8139 and MPX5030 clones in rl.4). `grep -r -i realtek src/sys/dev` only hits on ed/if_ed_pci.c (RTL8029), mii/miidevs (PHYs), mii/rlphy.c (the RealTek PHY), sound/pcm/ac97.c (huh, RealTek produces AC'97 codecs?), and usb/if_axe.c (USB ethernet). Reading the wlan driver manpages does not hint me any further. FYI, here are the revisions of the manpages I read: $FreeBSD: src/share/man/man4/an.4,v 1.17 2003/02/24 02:20:20 trhodes Exp $ $FreeBSD: src/share/man/man4/awi.4,v 1.12 2003/02/15 17:12:53 trhodes Exp $ $FreeBSD: src/share/man/man4/wi.4,v 1.42 2003/04/10 17:04:03 shiba Exp $ $FreeBSD: src/share/man/man4/man4.i386/ray.4,v 1.9 2002/01/21 12:36:12 mpp Exp $ For those interested: visit http://www.innet24.de/ and follow the Netzwerk -> Wireless -> "ALL0182 Wireless PCMCIA Adapter" route. Yes, ALLNET is a local OEM vendor, so the label doesn't mean too much. But I'm quite satisfied with what I've seen from them so far (NICs and switches). And I still some kind of hope that the "RealTek" is just a typo -- but the price is not the same as for Prism2/2.5/3 cards so this could/must really be some newer/cheaper/different chipset. Hmmm ... BTW do I not know how to read the pile of words at the "ALL0272 Wireless 54 Mbit PCMCIA Adapter" description (54MBit/s with Intersil chips?). And the "ALL0192 Wireless PCMCIA Adapter V.3.0" seems to be the Prism3 card. http://www.allnet.de/ isn't too informative either. virtually yours 82D1 9B9C 01DC 4FB4 D7B4 61BE 3F49 4F77 72DE DA76 Gerhard Sittig true | mail -s "get gpg key" Gerhard.Sittig@gmx.net -- If you don't understand or are scared by any of the above ask your parents or an adult to help you.