further information on previous 802.11 thread?

Grant Morphett grant at gmorph.com
Fri Apr 26 15:59:50 EST 2002


On Fri, 26 Apr 2002 11:31:39 +1000 Peter Chubb scribbled:

>>>>>> "jan" == jan newmarch <newmarch at infotech.monash.edu.au> writes:
>
>jan> On Thu, 25 Apr 2002 clug at repose.cx wrote:
>>> 1. I'd like to use two cards, and avoid the base station, as I
>>> really don't want to incure the extra expense. I seem to recall
>>> that doing this is when the cards are placed in "ad-hoc" mode, but
>>> there's this small piece of information floating around in my head
>>> that says that you require new/particular cards to do this nicely
>>> without a base station. Am I imagining things? Can
>>> base-station-less operation be done fine with no consideration as
>>> to the type of card? I just remember reading somewhere about a
>>> "better" way to do it, or something. Maybe it was making one of the
>>> cards act like an access point?
>
>jan> You do have to be careful, because some of the current drivers
>jan> are incomplete/buggy. For example, Aironet PCI card is fine in
>jan> ad-hoc mode.  Wavelan cardbus card is fine in my laptop in both
>jan> adhoc and managed. For D-Link, there are 3 drivers. Only one of
>jan> those supports PCI cards in adhoc mode (and in one application
>jan> gets only 400kbps transfer rates - well short of 11Mbps).
>
>You will almost certainly need an external antenna on the
>base-station.  I'm running in ad-hoc mode using a Compaq card.
>Without the antenna, I can't use another station except within two
>metres of the base (and even then the bit-rate drops to 1Mb); with the
>antenna I can go out into the garden and use my laptop there.
>This will depend on the geometry of your PCI slots vis-a-vis the case;
>and where the card sticks out relative to the nearest wall.  Walls are
>good absorbers of microwave energy; PC cases are metal and a good
>reflectors.
>
>
>The general rule is line-of-sight is needed to the antenna.
>
>Windows, floors and ceilings don't seem  to be too much of a barrier;
>brick and concrete are.
>
>However, the drivers are buggy at present.
>Every now and then with 2.5.7, the card just disappears (cardctl can;t
>see it or the PCMCIA bridge any more).
>
>Peter C
>
>

I have a couple of Lucent (Avaya) cards and can go all over my house inside and
out without any external antennas.  It all works great.  I run in "Managed" mode.

I had huge problems with the kernel pcmcia stuff (see posting about 2 months ago
- xircom related) but with the pcmcia-cs everything works a treat.  Guess its
more mature.

cheers

Grant Morphett
GMORPH CONSULTANTS Pty Ltd - Solutions Outside the Square
tel : +61 (0) 421 325348
fax : +1 309 4164790




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