Help me out of wireless hell

[Tom Buskey]

Return the card & get a different brand.

A friend of mine just got a Linksys card & hub.  She couldn't get it 
working, so she asked my help.  She ended up getting another brand card 
& is working fine.

Once you get wireless, you'll miss it elsewhere.  I can't imagine a 
laptop without it.

For the details:

	She brought her laptop over & tried it with my addtron hub.  
Worked, but it didn't listen for the DHCP server.  It just grabbed an 
address. 

I brought my laptop (addtron card) over to her place & got an address off her hub.  I 
also had the card from my wife's laptop (compaq) and got that working.

So, we loaded the drivers on her laptop & got the compaq card working.  
I installed drivers on my laptop & got her card working on my machine.

I tried reinstalling her drivers for the linksys card too.  Still 
didn't work.  Even got the updated drivers off the web site.

So, she returned the card, got a different brand, & everything's 
working.  Yep, the linksys card should've worked, but why spend another 
minute on it when you have a solution that works?

FWIW, I like the compaq card better then the addtron.  It works with 
Netstumbler.  The addtron works with kismet though.

I should mention that all this testing was done using WinXP :-/

OB unix: ok, my DHCP server is NetBSD
OB Linux: my laptop is dual boot.  I usually run Mandrake 8.2.  WinXP 
boots faster though :-(


Paul Iadonisi said:
>  *sigh*
>
>  I've avoided getting any wireless hardware for various reasons.  Now
>I'm in a situation where my life is much easier if I dive in.
>  Well, I'm part way there.  I've at least got a wireless card that
>works with the access point (whatever it is) that I need it to.  But
>having a piece of hardware that only works for me six to eight hours a
>day at a specific location just doesn't sit right with me, so I decided
>to get an access point for home.  That's when my pain started.
>  After struggling for hours to get a Linksys WPC11v3 and a Linksys
>WAPv2.2 to talk to each other, I stumbled across several comments on
>several mailing lists that indicate that these two devices are not
>compatible with each other.  That's right, same vendor and they won't
>talk.  Surprised?  I didn't think so.  According to a few postings I
>saw, Linksys is aware of the problem and recommends buying an older
>version of either the card or the WAP.  The thing that rankles me is
>that at least one of those messages was posted in January, indicating
>that the problem has existed for at least seven months without a
>resolution.
>  So I exchanged the WAPv2.2 for a WMP11 PCI wireless card hoping to use
>it as an access point in my desktop with the help of the Prism2 HostAP
>project.  No dice.  *That* requires a firmware update to firmware that
>is not available as an official update from Linksys.  It's apparently
>possible to use any prism2 firmware with any vendor's prism2 based
>cards, but there seemed to be some indication that some people have
>smoked their cards doing this.
>  So I'm back on the hunt for a real WAP.  Chump^WCompUSA only carries
>one more model that isn't also a hub -- it's a Netgear model that
>requires Windows in order to configure it (through its USB port).  I
>won't buy it on principle, but I don't have access to any Windows
>machines, anyhow (and intend on keeping it that way).  This is trying my
>commitment to my principles, however, as I'm at that 'I just want it to
>work' stage about right now.
>  Does anyone know of a WAP that:
>
>o is configurable entirely from Linux like the Linksys which uses a web
>interface
>o isn't also a wired hub -- I don't want to pay for what I don't need --
>one RJ45 connection is all I need, thank you
>o is known to work with the WPC11v3 Linksys card
>
>?
>
>
>-- 
>-Paul Iadonisi
> Senior System Administrator
> Red Hat Certified Engineer / Local Linux Lobbyist
> Ever see a penguin fly?  --  Try Linux.
> GPL all the way: Sell services, don't lease secrets
>
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>

-- 
-------
Tom Buskey