Date: 31 May 2003 09:30:45 +0200 From: Eirik Oeverby <ltning@anduin.net> To: Sam Leffler <sam@errno.com> Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: WLAN support Message-ID: <1054366245.255.8.camel@ranger.anduin.net> In-Reply-To: <068101c326e3$f5cd9af0$52557f42@errno.com> References: <20030530190455.621065D04@ptavv.es.net> <068101c326e3$f5cd9af0$52557f42@errno.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Hi, This sounds very interesting - I do hope you find time to look more into this soon. I'm also planning an upgrade of my WLAN, and 802.11a and g are both being considered. If you do not have time to find and fix these problems, perhaps someone else? /Eirik On Fri, 2003-05-30 at 21:44, Sam Leffler wrote: > > > I've got a list of possible WLAN NICs and am wondering if somebody > > > has any experience using one of them with FreeBSD 4.x? > > > > > > Netgear WG511 (Cardbus) or WAG511 (Cardbus, 5 + 2.4 GHz) > > > SMC 2802W (PCI) or 2835W (Cardbus) > > > D-Link DWL G520 (PCI) or DWL G650 (Cardbus) > > > Belkin 802.11g/+ (don't have a product name by hand, PN PCI: > > > F5D7000, PN Cardbus: F5D7010 - not yet on market) > > > > > > All of these cards are 802.11g devices (54 MBit/s). > > > > > > What about support on FreeBSD for these devices? Any experience? > > > > Eliminate any 802.11g cards Any card that supports this is not going to > > work. The reason is legal. Those cards may be programmed to operate > > an any of a wide range of frequencies and powers and any release of the > > register definitions could result in transmissions on frequencies not > > allowed in that location. This could result in large penalties to the > > manufacturer, so they will only release the specs under an NDA that is > > totally incompatible with open source. In the industry there has been > > talk of cryptographic techniques for setting such things, but there are > > not current or near future products that will support this. > > > > I read a good article on this about a month ago, but I don't remember > > where. I think I got the pointer on /. > > > > Sorry, but this is wrong. There is _one_ manufacturer of wireless parts > that has a radio of the sort you describe. Other manufacturers control > their radios entirely on the card and are not releasing programming details > for reasons other than FCC compliance. > > > > I would like to setup one FreeBSD box (4.7 / 4.8 or even 5.0/5.1) > > > as a router and have at least one notebook connected wireless > > > (running both Win2k and FreeBSD). > > > > > > As I was reading that the high speed wireless devices are having a > > > better operating range compared to 802.11b devices, I don't want to > > > install 802.11b devices. > > > > Sorry. Maybe some day, but not any time soon. > > I've had a "working" driver for Atheros hardware for several months now but > am unable to make it available because of a bug that renders it unusable in > noisy environments. This is not a problem with the hardware. This is a > problem in my code that has been very very difficult to identify. The > driver supports all Atheros products used in 11a, 11a+b, and 11a+b+g cardbus > and mini-pci cards. The driver is for 5.x systems and is unlikely to ever > be backported to 4.x because it depends on many changes in the network > infrastructure. Until then folks are pretty much stuck with 11b cards based > on chips from Intersil. > > Sam > > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-stable-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?1054366245.255.8.camel>