Wireless PCMCIA Card that works

[Gerbil]

So here's the question what distro offers the best wireless support and what wireless PCMCIA card will just work out of the box with WPA encryption? By out of the box I mean it must be capable of being configured using the GUI tool provided by the distro. No editing of text files or strange incantations allowed.


Most Linux distros now do an excellent job of detecting wired network cards. In general you enter the IP address during setup and away you go. I realise wireless is inherently more complicated, but thinking that things might have moved on since my last attempt I stuck a Netgear WG511T PCMCIA wireless card in the slot of my laptop and installed Fedora Core 8 hoping for the best. Alas it sees the wireless card but configuration fails so I'm now resigned to searching the Internet for why.

I'm not looking for a help on configuring my wireless card, I was just curious as to what combination of card + distro other forum members had found comes closest to plug and play under Linux.

[TOMMOHAWK_UK]

There is a hardware compatibility list on LinuxQuestions.org, the wifi section lists all the supported devices.

Follow this link and all your questions shall be answered........

http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/index.php

Ken

[Gerbil]

Thanks for the link, but my point was more what wireless card/distro combination just works. i.e. is detected, can be configured by whatever GUI tool the distro provides and works reliably.

That link lists all the cards that can be made to work with varying degrees of effort. I want to know what will just work out of the box. PCMCIA wireless cards are relatively cheap so I wasn't against purchasing a new one if it came close to being plug and play.

[TOMMOHAWK_UK]

Oh right, OK then in terms of the best distro for hardware detection and wireless support - 1-Ubuntu 2-PCLOS 3-openSUSE (in my experience with my own hardware anyway!)

As for PCMCIA wireless cards then it would depend which chipset it uses. I have 3 wireless adapters that work out of the box in Ubuntu. The first is the inbuilt wireless on my laptop which is an Intel pro-wireless 3945. The second is a Dlink DWL-G122 USB dongle and the third is a PCMCIA card which uses an Atheros based chirset.

Hope that helps,

Ken

[RRB]

Avoid Broadcom chipset wireless nics cos they dont work out of the box.

[Gerbil]

Well I managed to get a connection using SimplyMepis 7 and an Atheros based card (DLink DWL-G650).

The only fiddling I had to do was set my access point to broadcast the SSID. With the SSID hidden it just doesn't want to connect. It makes me suspect that Fedora Core 8 might have connected if I'd have turned on SSID broadcasting.

I know its only a marginal increase in security, but I'll persevere and see if I can find a way of having the SSID hidden.

[TOMMOHAWK_UK]

@ Gerbil

I know this link http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=684495 is not Mepis specific but that should make no difference. The thread details how to set up a manual connection. I think your problems are being caused by Network Manager - hidden SSIDs can cause problems when using Network Manager in roaming mode - in fact Network Manager causes problems full stop. You could try WICD instead http://wicd.sourceforge.net/. Thats what I use now on Ubuntu Hardy and I think the interface and configuration process is much better.

Ken

[Gerbil]

Thanks Ken that's a useful link. I'm going to persist a little longer with SimplyMepis. I'll try configuring the card manually tonight and if that fails I'll probably try the ndiswrapper method.

I did have some success last night connecting without the SSID being broadcast by issuing a

iwconfig ath0 ESSID myssid

prior to configuring the connection with the KDE network manager. I then installed WICD, but had no better luck with that. I could just make life simple for myself by setting the AP to broadcast the SSID but that feels like accepting defeat.

If i don't get anywhere tonight I'll download and install Ubuntu 8.04 as per your recommendation earlier.

[TOMMOHAWK_UK]

Originally Posted by Gerbil

I could just make life simple for myself by setting the AP to broadcast the SSID but that feels like accepting defeat.

Yep, I admitted defeat on that one about 3 months ago. WICD is better for hidden networks so it's a shame it never worked for you.

Mepis is a good distro and to be honest if you have come this far with it then you might as well persevere!!

Good luck,

Ken

[Gerbil]

I gave those instructions a try but I didn't seem to be getting anywhere so i switched to using ndiswrapper in the mistaken belief that it didn't rely on wpa_supplicant.

I discovered the error in my logic later, but luckily WICD does now work and I can connect to my wireless LAN with a hidden SSID. There still seems to be a bug in WICD that means it won't automatically connect. I have to type in the SSID name every time I restart the laptop, but at least it's connecting.

I think I'll go back through those instructions and have another go at setting it up manually.

Hardly the plug and play experience I was hoping for, but at least I feel like I'm getting somewhere.

[TOMMOHAWK_UK]

Originally Posted by Gerbil

Hardly the plug and play experience I was hoping for, but at least I feel like I'm getting somewhere.

Ha Ha, Plug and Play is for Windows users. Linux is more Plug and Hope for the best support. That's one of the reasons I like using it. With Windows you don't learn anything about how the OS works, everything is done for you. That's fine for most people but if you have a hidden inner geek then you want to play around a bit.

And yes I did used to take everything apart when I was a child to see how it worked. Still do actually