Netgear MA301/MA401/ME103

[Sylvain Goletto (AF)]

Hello all,

Let me give you the scope:
I have :
	- 4 NetGear MA401 Pcmcia cards, 
	- 4 NetGear MA301 PCI/PLX adapter,
	- One ME102 access point.

The configuration is:
	- A MA401 in a Dell C600 laptop running Win98 and Linux Mandrake 8.2,
	- A MA301/MA401 in a Dell P420 running W2K and Linux Mandrake 8.2,
	- A MA301/MA301 in an Advantech Industrial PC running Linux Mandrake 8.2.

I am using the orinoco_cs driver shipped with Mandrake 8.2 on the laptop.
I am using the orinoco_plx driver shipped with Mandrake 8.2 on the desktop PCs

The drivers seem to load corectly and I have a new eth1 network device. I can 
use tje wireless tools to get/set the wireless config. I can even set the 
network interface with on IP address (even with DHCP on the laptop).

I am using the managed mode with the ME102 access point.

The problem is the the link is very instable with the orinoco_plx driver 
(ping often timeout and NIS/NFS is unsusable) and the speed is dramaticlay 
slow (not more than 100 kbps). The rate given by iwconfig varies from 1 to 2 
Mbps (never 11Mbps).

With the orinoco_cs driver on the laptop, the link looks stable, the rate is 
11Mbps, the signal is good but the speed (ftp download from local server) is 
not more than 12 Kbps.

I also tried the latest 0.11b driver available and the results are the same.

I read the MA301/MA401 are working under Linux so how can I make it work at 
full speed ? Is there a configuration issue with these cards and the ME102 
access point ? May be the the mode is not the right one the work with the 
access point ?

Any answers are welcome :)

I am OK to give any info on the hardware and try to help is I can to enhance 
the driver (I know a bit of the Kernel driver programming :-).

Thanks in advance

Sylvain Goletto