Hello all, I'd like to ask the people in this mailing list if anyone has setup a linux-based wireless network using desktops. If so, can anybody tell me what pci wifi card (or pcmcia-to-pci bridge solution) they're using and where I can purchase them? I need to setup a simple wireless network that would consist of one desktop and two laptops connected together in adhoc mode. My problem however is not the actual setting up of the network itself, but the procurement of linux-compatible hardware..from what is available here in the Philippines.
I have no problems with finding pcmcia wifi cards that work for linux. For pci cards however, that's another story. Network hardware companies like D-Link and Linksys have a frustrating habit to change the chipset of their products while leaving the product name unchanged. It so happens that they've been changing their linux-compatible wifi chipsets for some cheaper ones that happen to be linux-uncompatible. The fact that they've been doing this while leaving the product name untouched is the source of confusion of many linux users who buy such cards --after some research in the net-- assuming it would be supported, only to find out that it wouldn't work. This happened not once to me, but twice. The first time, I bought a linksys WMP11 which the linux-wlan project (which supports prism chipsets) said was supported well under linux. I missed learning that the latest hardware revision of the WMP11 used a different chipset other than prism. It was a good thing that pc express allowed me to exchange it with another product. I spent several months trying to find another prism-based chipset here in the philippines with no success. Instead I asked my sister in the states if she can order and send me what was then a popular prism-based wifi card known to work in linux that couldn't be found here...the D-Link DWL-520 (not to be confused with the DWL-520+). I got the card recently after months of waiting, but to my surprise and extreme disappointment, it still didn't work. It was then that I found out that D-Link also changed the chipset of the DWL-520 very recently to one that isn't supported in linux. After several rants about my predicament to the linux-wlan mailing list (who btw seem to have a lot of people who went through what I've just been through), my next recourse now is to use a pcmcia-to-pci adapter like the Linksys WDT11 along with a pcmcia Linksys WPC11 and hope it works as expected. I'd like to apologize for the long rant, but anyway I hope linux-users who plan to go wireless on their desktop learn from me and wouldn't go through what other people and I went through. Oh, and please...I'd like to ask again people who got desktop wifi working here in the Philippines. Can you please share your insights? Thanks and more power. -Paul Prantilla -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
