might buy a new wifi card for laptop PC (pcmcia)

[Dennis Kibbe]

From: "Mike Schwartz" <mike.l.schwartz at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: might buy a new wifi card for laptop PC (pcmcia)
Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 19:03:41 -0700

> On 5/30/07, Dennis Kibbe <dennisk at fastmail.fm> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Order this card from Newegg
> >
> > ASUS WL-107G IEEE802.11g Wireless Cardbus Adapter
> >
> > It will work out of the box with an Ubuntu distro and with Fedora/Red
> > Hat/Centos witha simple driver install.
> >
> > Make sure your laptop is, in fact PCMCIA (PC Card) and the newer, smaller
> > express card format.
> >
> > Current price is under $30USD.
> >
> > Or if your lappy has an e-ztoget to miniPCI slot you can replace the
> > current (Broadcom?) card with an Intel 2200 from eBay for about the same
> > price.
> >
> > Did you try the broadcom-firmware-cutter application already?  You can
> > install it with Synaptic.
> >
> > Dennisk
> >
> 
> Thank you for that kind reply.
> That [internet] price seems pretty reasonable - - (e.g., cheaper than
> say,  the local neighborhood store I went to ("Ultimate Electronics")).
> Also, if it is supporting a hardware manufacturer that releases enough
> specs (or, 'FOSS' code) such that the firmware and drivers do not
> have to play in to the hands of the proprietary 'warez "proprietors",
> then, "great!"
>     There were several issues with the Broadcom card:  for one, the
> fact that [I think...] the formware involves some binary blob;  for another
> thing, the old driver required using NDIS wrapper.  Both of the above
> things were (supposedly) sorta "taken care of" by Red Seven before
> they sold me the card - (as part of a package, that also included the
> used ThinkPad T22 laptop PC).
>     However, that was not all.  I also found that, even besides the above,
> it is sometimes very iffy connecting to a WAP.  (Essid).  Once
> it establishes a connection, it seems to work fine, for an hour or more;
> (I usually run with the adapter/charger plugged in to an A/C outlet
>   [typically "via" a surge suppressor], so it's a "don't-care" how much
>   "transmit power" is being used up...  but according to some
>   of the advice here on the  "PLUG-discuss" mailing list [see other
>   threads that mention the BroadCom 4318 chipset], the design
>   of some of the driver software, or firmware, or something, was
>   apparently trying to suppress the  "transmit power" (intentionally)
>   because of some concern about [battery] power consumption.  hmm...)
> Questions:
> Do you "happen" to know whether this card, available from NewEgg,
>   would be any different in regard to the above?
>   [issues of "transmit power", reliability of being able to connect
>    to a nearby WAP (e.g. in a library, airport, or roadside park)]?
> Also, would I need to upgrade to an Ubuntu release
>   "more recent" than 6.06, in order to use this card?
> Clarifications:
> > Make sure your laptop is, in fact
> > PCMCIA (PC Card) and the newer, smaller express card format.
> 
> I think I do not understand that [well enough]...
> 
> > Make sure your laptop is, in fact PCMCIA (PC Card)
> 
> I just know that the card that it came with
> (is now in my hand, and)   says, quote,
>    "LINKSYS a division of Cisco Systems, Inc.,
>     Wireless-G
>     Notebook Adapter"
> and [quote again:]
>   "Model No. WPC54G ver. 3"
> It also has a serial number and a MAC address, but there
> is probably no point including those in this message.
> ("outside the scope of this post")
> (right?)
> 
> > and the newer, smaller express card format.
> 
> I do not know what that means.
> did someone maybe leave out the word "not"?
> (maybe you meant "and not the newer [...] format"?)
> 
> > Or if your lappy has an e-ztoget to miniPCI slot [...]
> 
> um, I don't even know what that means.
> The PC is an IBM ThinkPad T22, built circa 2001.
> (I am not familiar w/some of the terminology...)
> 
> But I did look up
>    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini_PCI
> and
>    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpressCard
> and I now think that, this PC, which was built in 2001,
> is probably too old to have those kinds of newer slots.
> (does that mean I need some different advice?,
>   instead of the idea to buy that card from NewEgg?)
> and/or, Do I now need to go read
>    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express
> ?
> Any advice (past & future) appreciated,
> -- 
> Mike Schwartz
> Glendale  AZ
> schwartz at acm.org
> Mike.L.Schwartz at gmail.com


Ralink Technology (www.ralinktech.com) does support Linux and even says so on the _front_ of the box either than just small print on the side.

I haven't used mine with anything but public access points so I can't comment on WEP, WPA performance.  But public access isn't usually encrypted.

The ASUS card works with gNewSense which is based on Ubuntu 6.06 so it should work for you.  With Red Hat RHEL5 I needed to install a driver, but that was straight forward.

Your T22 will work with the ASUS card.  Linux Hardware says it supports Lunix 100% (http://www.linuxhardware.org/article.pl?sid=01/09/04/0135236)

(Sorry for the typos)

Dennisk