Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 02:42:53 -0700 (PDT) From: Doug Barton <DougB@FreeBSD.org> To: vizion communication <vizion@ixpres.com> Cc: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Annother Wireless network card annother problem Message-ID: <20030415022050.V2937@znfgre.tberna.bet> In-Reply-To: <00ac01c302e0$da5d3fe0$15b55042@vizion2000.net> References: <200304142204.aa46871@banana.critchley.biz> <00ac01c302e0$da5d3fe0$15b55042@vizion2000.net>
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[ Followups set to freebsd-mobile, where this kind of stuff is usually discussed. ] I asked this same question recently, and since I said I'd report on my results I'm a bit overdue. :) I had several people give unqualified recommendations for Cisco Aironet cards (350 is the current incarnation), but since my wireless needs are modest, I decided to go with the other strong recommendation, the netgear MA-401. When I bought it at Fry's it was on sale, AND had a $10 rebate (over now, sorry, I got it on the last day). I had very good experiences with it at both of the conferences that I attended recently. The wi man page has very good instructions on how to use it in various circumstances. In fact, I liked this card so much that I bought the Netgear MA 311 mini-PCI version (which is basically just the same Intersil Prism 2.5 guts as the 401 glued to a PCI card) so I could set up my little wireless network at home. The good news is that once I updated the firmware, it was quite easy to set up hostap mode with this card following the instructions in wi(4). The bad news is that flashing the firware involved shuffling cards between boxes so that I could get it in a windows box. AFAIK, there is no unix firmware flasher. Following disussion on the -mobile list, I used the Intersil firmware and Windows flasher available at http://www.demarctech.com/products/reliawave-rwz/reliawave-rwz-200mw-prism2-5-pcmcia-card.html I didn't have a lick of trouble updating either card. It all went quite smoothly. I used the prism25-156.zip version, which as far as I could see is the latest. I ended up spending less than $150 for the whole setup, so if you're looking for a cheap way to play with WiFi, I can definitely recommend this option. The other piece of info I thought I should pass on is that a few people (including the guy at Fry's, who actually had a clue) told me that the newer linksys products are definitely to be avoided. Apparently they are having quality control issues in their factory or something, but the guy at Fry's said he's been getting a ton of returns on linksys lately, but almost none on the netgear stuff. A couple other people warned me about the linksys stuff too, but since the price was right on netgear, and since people had several good things to say about the MA 401, it was an easy decision. As for 802.11a, I was told by several people in a position to know that it's not going to be available in FreeBSD for "a while." I hope this is useful. Thanks to all those who were kind enough to send me information, and answer my goofy questions. If I've screwed something up, or if someone has better info, please feel free. Doug On Mon, 14 Apr 2003, vizion communication wrote: > OK What client cards do work? > For each of the following: > > 802.11a > 802.11b > > Media: > PCI > PCMCIA > USB > > OS: > FreeBSD 4.7 -- This .signature sanitized for your protection
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