The battle for wireless network drivers

[n0cmonkey]

great article

Definitely worth the read if you're into wireless and free/open source software.

 

[drag]

I bought a wireless card for my brother for christmas.

It's such a pain in the rear when you go to stores to find out what chipset the stupid thing is using.

For instance on the store's website they have a Belkin F5D7000 PCI card. Now the version 3 is the one with the ralink device and I thought that wouldn't be very difficult. It's the one that was pictured.

I go to the store and the thing was a version 7! So that means that there are seven different F5D7000 cards all with different chipsets. Amazing.

Luckily they had a Linksys WMP54G PCI card... But at least belkin had one tiny sticker in one corner on it that told you want revision it was. Not so for the Linksys. I had to guess. Got it home, was hoping it was a V4, which would of been the rt2500 chipset, but it wasn't it was the version 4.1 that had the RT2600, which is still made by Ralink so that is still good. It needs to have a firmware downloaded though, I think.

Of course if I had more time I'd just order it online, but oh well.

 

[n0cmonkey]

I think D-Link also puts the rev. ID on the outside of the box. I'm constantly amazed at the companies that don't.

I ordered two wireless PCMCIA cards the other day from newegg. One should be atheros and the other one I bought because it was cheap. It'll be a mystery chipset, at least for now.

 

[SleepWalkerX]

Great article.

Here's a link I want to share with everyone that keeps track of which manufacturer's wireless products use which chipests (and includes revisions). I normally turn to it before going out and looking for wireless devices. Its helped me out over a number of times.

http://linux-wless.passys.nl/

 

[n0cmonkey]

Thanks for that link. I generally go with: http://www.openbsd.org/i386.html since I'm a BSD guy. Maybe the linux list will be more complete though.

 

[drag]

well here is a lists that both camps can use...
http://ralink.rapla.net/

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: drag
well here is a lists that both camps can use...
http://ralink.rapla.net/

The other list doesn't look too bad. With a little bit of translation it should work just fine.

There's also an atheros list on rapla, I think. I think I used it to help narrow down my recent purchase.

 

[drag]

Yep. If you scroll down the list at the bottom they have links to other chipsets. Those pages are lists of those paticular chipsets also.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Thanks for the article n0cmonkey, I haven't dove into wireless in any way shape or form, but I do like to tinker with a little bit of Open Source software. OpenBSD 4.0 is currently running on a VM, just so I can play with pf ... but so far I really dig it, and I'm considering replacing my iptables nat box with a pf box instead (and maybe eventually, Make it into a WAP as well.)

 

[drag]

For a PC box for WAP router you need to have a wireless card that supports 'master' mode.

Like you can't use Intel wifi for it because it doesn't allow for couple of the small features that are required to do master mode in it's firmware.

Unfortunately I don't have a recommendation for a card that can do that... I know lots can.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: drag
For a PC box for WAP router you need to have a wireless card that supports 'master' mode.

Like you can't use Intel wifi for it because it doesn't allow for couple of the small features that are required to do master mode in it's firmware.

Unfortunately I don't have a recommendation for a card that can do that... I know lots can.

ath(4), wi(4), ral(4), pgt(4), ural(4), rum(4), and acx(4) should work just fine. Although it isn't recommended for the USB based devices (ural, rum).

I've personally used a wi(4) device for this, and I'm going to be testing a ral(4) card soonish (if I ever get this kerberos error figured out :|).

 

[Missing Ghost]

That's one of the reasons I suggest you use a wired NIC card or the integrated wired NIC. Then you go to wireless using an ethernet to wifi bridge. Wired NICs usually state clearly what chipset is used. Additionnally, you get the flexibility to put the antenna at the best place for signal strenght. Also if you have many PCs you can use a single antenna for all of them by using a switch between the bridge and the computers. Of course you can't do this on laptops however.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Missing Ghost
That's one of the reasons I suggest you use a wired NIC card or the integrated wired NIC. Then you go to wireless using an ethernet to wifi bridge. Wired NICs usually state clearly what chipset is used. Additionnally, you get the flexibility to put the antenna at the best place for signal strenght. Also if you have many PCs you can use a single antenna for all of them by using a switch between the bridge and the computers. Of course you can't do this on laptops however.

Wired NICs are about the same in my experience. They change all the time (look at the linksys etherfast NICs). With wired there is just a better chance it's supported. Although OpenBSD seems to support a good number of the wireless chipsets out there (except broadcom, that driver wasn't working last time I checked, but it's being actively worked on).

When I find a wireless card that works I buy 2 of them.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Using a ralink based card seems to have frozen my system when it enters hostap mode.

Gonna try that again, hopefully from a system I can get into ddb from instead of the headless server that provides kerberos and dns for my lan. :laugh:

 

[Missing Ghost]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: Missing Ghost
That's one of the reasons I suggest you use a wired NIC card or the integrated wired NIC. Then you go to wireless using an ethernet to wifi bridge. Wired NICs usually state clearly what chipset is used. Additionnally, you get the flexibility to put the antenna at the best place for signal strenght. Also if you have many PCs you can use a single antenna for all of them by using a switch between the bridge and the computers. Of course you can't do this on laptops however.

Wired NICs are about the same in my experience. They change all the time (look at the linksys etherfast NICs). With wired there is just a better chance it's supported. Although OpenBSD seems to support a good number of the wireless chipsets out there (except broadcom, that driver wasn't working last time I checked, but it's being actively worked on).

When I find a wireless card that works I buy 2 of them.

Well yes you're right on cheap PCI nics, but with integrated nics and high-end (server) nics you always know what you're getting.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Missing Ghost
Well yes you're right on cheap PCI nics, but with integrated nics and high-end (server) nics you always know what you're getting.

I've had trouble finding chipset information on motherboard manufacturer websites in the past. Maybe it's gotten better...

I'm not a big fan of Intel's chipsets right now, so I tend to ignore them when possible.

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: Missing Ghost
Well yes you're right on cheap PCI nics, but with integrated nics and high-end (server) nics you always know what you're getting.

I've had trouble finding chipset information on motherboard manufacturer websites in the past. Maybe it's gotten better...

I'm not a big fan of Intel's chipsets right now, so I tend to ignore them when possible.

Best way I know is to check newegg images of cards before buying them. Mentioned link helps too.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: drag
I bought a wireless card for my brother for christmas.

It's such a pain in the rear when you go to stores to find out what chipset the stupid thing is using.

For instance on the store's website they have a Belkin F5D7000 PCI card. Now the version 3 is the one with the ralink device and I thought that wouldn't be very difficult. It's the one that was pictured.

I go to the store and the thing was a version 7! So that means that there are seven different F5D7000 cards all with different chipsets. Amazing.

Luckily they had a Linksys WMP54G PCI card... But at least belkin had one tiny sticker in one corner on it that told you want revision it was. Not so for the Linksys. I had to guess. Got it home, was hoping it was a V4, which would of been the rt2500 chipset, but it wasn't it was the version 4.1 that had the RT2600, which is still made by Ralink so that is still good. It needs to have a firmware downloaded though, I think.

Of course if I had more time I'd just order it online, but oh well.

Why does the chipset matter?

 

[Missing Ghost]

Originally posted by: Shawn
Why does the chipset matter?

Because it determines what driver it will use.

 

[Kaervak]

Originally posted by: SleepWalkerX
Great article.

Here's a link I want to share with everyone that keeps track of which manufacturer's wireless products use which chipests (and includes revisions). I normally turn to it before going out and looking for wireless devices. Its helped me out over a number of times.

http://linux-wless.passys.nl/

Hey, that site is really handy. Now I know what chipset the Belkin card in my aunt's XP system uses. Maybe I can finally get the damn thing working without issues.