choice of an Agere (Orinico) like adaptor

[Jim Carter]

On Fri, 9 Aug 2002, Ivan Zakharyaschev wrote:
> I'm going set up a wireless network (802.11b).
> Now, I'm choosing an WLAN adaptor card for this purpose....
>
> The network will be just between 2 computers running Linux, in ad-hoc
> mode.  Both computers are Toshiba laptops: Satellite 2800 and Portege
> 4010. The last one already has a miniPCI WLAN adapter (Agere based). So
> AFAIK orinoco driver (or the other 2 drivers) will treat it.

I can't give a complete recommendation, but here are my opinions.  As far
as I can tell, most or all WiFi-certified cards interoperate with most or
all access points (Managed mode); that's what WiFi certification is
supposed to mean.  My personal successes are Dell TrueMobile 1150
(Agere firmware 6.16) Mini-PCI, similar to Agere Orinoco, and Linksys WPC11
(Intersil firmware 1.0.3) talking to Cisco-Aironet AP's (don't know the
model) and Agere AP-200.  This is with the orinoco_cs v0.11b driver in the
laptop, and orinoco_plx and friends on the Linksys card.

On the other hand, I had nothing but trouble (see earlier message today)
doing IBSS (Ad-Hoc) mode between the Dell and Linksys cards.  I'm not the
only person with this complaint.  Apparently bugs are common in both Ad-Hoc
variants, and the finger of blame all too often points to Intersil.

So I bought an Agere AP-200 access point for US$ 160, and have been very
pleased with the results. Besides just that it works, a big advantage of
the AP is that you can place it up high, above obstructions such as a metal
filing cabinet and other family members. With the AP my signal level is
much improved. External antennas are generally unsatisfactory, and most
cards don't even have a connector for a user-supplied antenna.

One reason I like the internal wireless card on the Dell Inspiron (same
comments re. the Apple Ibook) is that I don't have to worry about breaking
the antenna that sticks out of the PCMCIA bay. That was a big disadvantage
of my former setup.

As I understand it, the wlan_ng driver suite can handle USB NICs with
Intersil firmware only.  One might think of that solution if the partner
also has Intersil firmware, but I have no personal experience with Intersil
<-> Intersil Ad-Hoc operation.

The AP can handle laptop to laptop wireless communication, with an uplink
to your internet connection (optional). Of course there's no firewall. I
run wired Ethernet from the AP to a desktop gateway running Linux, which
has serious firewall rules to keep the numerous hackers out. You can buy a
"residential gateway" with some firewall capability and a builtin wireless
card, but the ones I've seen appear to have Intersil firmware.

Hope this helps!

James F. Carter          Voice 310 825 2897    FAX 310 206 6673
UCLA-Mathnet;  6115 MSA; 405 Hilgard Ave.; Los Angeles, CA, USA  90095-1555
Email: jimc at math.ucla.edu    http://www.math.ucla.edu/~jimc (q.v. for PGP key)