[ubuntu-uk] PCI Wirless card recommendation

[Mac]

Tony Arnold wrote:
> Mac,
> 
> On Mon, 2007-10-22 at 15:49 +0100, Mac wrote:
> 
>> I wonder if Al's reading this.  I'll remind him what he told me.
>>   ;-)
>> 
>> Alan Pope wrote:
>>  > Hi Mac,
>>  >
>>  > On Sat, 2007-10-20 at 09:56 +0100, Mac wrote:
>>  >> For example, linuxemporium recommends Edimax.  I bought one some time
>>  >> ago, but it didn't work 'out of the box' with Feisty.  It doesn't
>>  >> work 'out of the box' with Gutsy live CD.  So I'm sceptical of
>>  >> anything that doesn't come with an 'I've actually seen this working'
>>  >> recommendation.
>>  >
>>  > https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/RalinkRT2500
>>  >
>>  > "The easiest way to get your wireless working if you have rt2500-based
>>  > wireless is to upgrade to Ubuntu 7.10. Everything works out of the box,
>>  > including WPA."
> 
> It kind of worked but with poor throughput!
> 
>> Luckily, I haven't started trying to install Gutsy with the Edimax 
>> RAlink card yet.  In the same thread, Steve Drake said
> 
> The Edimax cards from the Linux Emporium use the RT2561 chi set. It's
> not clear to me whether these suffer the same problems as the RT2500
> chip set device that I have.
> 
>> "Also consider Atheros based cards, usually with 108 Mbps, Xtreme G or
>> Super G on the box. Most cards will work fine. Only the very latest
>> cards have issues with the binary firmware.
>> 
>> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/Madwifi
>> 
>> "There's a list of specific cards on the madwifi site.
>> http://madwifi.org/wiki/Compatibility"
>> 
>> 
>> What do you reckon to the Atheros option, Tony?
> 
> Presumably these work out of the box? Or do I have to build/install the
> drivers separately? I was hoping to avoid that if I could.
> 
>> (And thanks for the timely warning about RAlink!)
> 
> You are welcome. See my comment above though! If you do try the Edimax
> card, can you post your experience here?
> 
> Regards,
> Tony.


Tony >>> Just to update this, I could not get my Edimax EW-7108PCG 
working with Gutsy;  and I did not want to go to revert to the legacy 
driver (your eventual solution).  Instead, on the recommendation of 
someone here (forgive me, can't remember who) I bought a Netgear WG511T 
from Amazon (20.38UKP incl VAT and free postage) and - it worked out of 
the box!  (Still can't quite get over the shock!)

The card came on during boot up, and the Atheros HAL restricted driver 
triggered automatically.  With the wireless encryption off, and the SSID 
being broadcast, the card connected to the network immediately.

The N-M applet has changed in Gutsy, and is not intuitive (not that it 
ever was).  I restarted the encryption and hid the SSID.  With Roaming 
turned off in the Network Manager - as the upgrade documentation seems 
to advise - I entered the SSID and network password manually, and set 
'dhcp' on.  The card did not connect.

With Roaming on, however, the N-M applet accessed the Keyring for the 
network password (the set up I'd used in Feisty), and Bingo!  Card up 
and running with WPA encryption.  I guess the settings for N-M to access 
the keyring were part of the upgraded from Feisty, where I'd had a 
Linksys WPC54G (Broadcom) working with WPA, using the keyring for the 
network password.

Anyway, I'm not too bothered about the idiosyncrasies of N-M, as long as 
the wifi works - which it does (though at 36 Mbps according to network 
tools, rather than the 108 Mbps the Netgear card claims - but presumably 
the notional 108 Mbps is only with its own Win drivers).

Anyway, that's the feedback.

Mac