Robin Turner wrote:
On 11/02/06, Weller Andrew Francis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I am running Mandriva 2006.0 and am going to take the plunge into wireless! Can
anyone recommend a good hardware set-up - router, etc? I am using
Swiss-Cablecom (i.e., a LAN-type router).
I'm in a similar position, though I'm connecting to a VPN and thus
don't need a router. I'm using an ASUS adapter, which works with
ndiswrapper and the Windows driver supplied. OK, I haven't managed to
a get a signal yet, but at least the hardware seems to be working! If
you want to get a list of wireless cards with native support, just go
to MCC and click on the icon to set up a wireless connection, then
choose the option to manually select a driver - you'll get a list of
supported models. Bear in mind, though, that the name of the
driver/chipset may not be the same as the name of the card.
Sir Robin
As a starting point, if your thought is to use a wireless network, your
existing router may not work. By the sounds of it, the Swiss-Cablecom
LAN-type router doesn't include wireless capability, so your PC or
laptop won't have a wireless access point to 'talk' to.
If you have no choice and your existing router must remain in place,
your only choice will be to connect a wireless router the the existing
router. If you're able to replace the Swiss Cablecom unit, then almost
any wireless-enabled router will suffice.
Since most of them also include standard wired ports (using normal
network cables), you'll be able to connect to the wireless router using
a network cable to perform the setup.
I can't speak for the download version of Mandriva, but the PowerPack
version comes with all the wireless driver-modules for Mandriva
included. The interesting thing is that even many of these 3rd Party
modules work seamlessly when installed via the Mandriva Control Center,
something which hasn't been all that reliable to date in regards to
wireless setups.
Using the PowerPack edition, I had absolutely no problems setting up a
DLink AG660 108Mbps PCMCIA (Cardbus) card in my laptop and several other
DLink PCI cards in PC's and laptops belonging to my clients.
If you decide to go with DLink, one thing you might want to try with the
download edition of Mandriva 2006 is 'madwifi' which the installer will
automatically detect and install when you get to the summary page of the
installer and select the network (Lan?) section.
In order to speed things up, you can select the 'dkms' and
'dkms-madwifi' packages during your install. You'll probably need to use
the 'Individual package selection' check box which appears on the first
page related to software installation and you'll see the list of
individual packages on the next page.
If you've already selected your main software sections from that first
software page, they will already be 'checked' when you arrive at the
next page, which allows you to simply select the dkms packages mentioned
above.
As a side note, as long as you haven't changed your kernel from the
default one, you can also boot your system with the first Mandriva
install CD, select 'UpGrade' and walk through the various sections until
you get to the first software page. Then follow my suggestions above, by
checking the box at the bottom called 'Individual package selection'.
Once you get to the next page, check the boxes for the dkms packages as
suggested above and proceed as normal, but stop at the summary page and
run through your LAN setup. That should cause dkms to build a kernel
module for madwifi and install it automatically. Once that's done, it
should let you finish the wireless card setup in the normal fashion.
Remember though, that my experience was with the commercial PowerPack
edition, not the download version, so it may not work for you. If it
does, I'd like to hear back from you on this.
I would expect that most of the DLink cards will work on Mandriva 2006
as long as they use the Atheros chipsets or other ones that are already
setup for Linux, ndiswrapper or madwifi.
Good Luck!
Dan LaBine
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