Good USB+802.11/WiFi adapter?

[Bill McGonigle]

A few caveats:

1) retail brand names aren't terribly useful, they change vendors fairly 
often
2) IC vendors can run hot and cold between models and revs, some more 
than others.
3) You should test in your environment.
4) Automatically disqualify any part that comes in a USB form-factor 
with a swivel-antenna attached to it but when you crack open the plastic 
case there's isn't anything attached to the supposed antenna, which is 
really just a piece of plastic, and the USB case is twice as long as the 
IC board it's holding so the swivel dummy antenna can fold down along 
its length.

That said, I've had the best luck on the linux side with the 
Realtek-based drivers.  My experiments were limited to drivers that 
could be re-distributed.

My portable, an ASUS eeePC 1000HE, came with a Realtek part and works 
pretty well, at least if you factor out NetworkManager's  conniptions 
(iw* still show the driver/hardware OK in those cases).  The computer 
also came with Windows XP and Windows 7 is supported.

-Bill

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Bill McGonigle, Owner
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