Which 802.11b or g card?

[cgriffin]

I would really appreciate any recommendations on 802.11b or g cards that work out of the box (i.e. no manual configuring) with FC1 or the test releases of FC2.

TIA.

[Bana]

I also would like to know this.

[crackers]

If you find one, the Linksys WPC11 version 3 (not version 4) worked for me on FC1. If you're more adventurous, I wrote a HowTo (http://fedoranews.org/contributors/e_a_graham_jr/ndis/) for the NetGear MA521 (which wasn't "out of the box").

For the definitive list, go to the source: http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/

You do have to do a bit of "manual configuration," though on ANY wireless card, to get it to find the appropriate WAP, SSIDs, WEP, etc.

[jrblevin]

LOL, this is the magic question! Which wifi card to buy?? I thought I had figured it out...TWICE, and both times all I got was frustration :) The manufacturers (read LINKSYS) like to switch chipsets without telling you.

Enough of my rant. I wanted to say that if you do inadvertently get a card that doesn't work, you should look into the ndiswrapper module at http://ndiswrapper.sf.net. It allows you to load the windows drivers for your card and it is open source and free unlike the LinuxAnt driverloader.

[jrblevin]

Hmm..I suppose I should have read your howto _before_ posting. ;) It looks nice, I could have used that a while back when I was dealing with my Linksys and D-Link cards.

[micha]

My Dell True Mobile 1400 (802.11g mini-PCI) on my Dell Inspiron 8600 works great.

[crackers]

Originally posted by jrblevin
Hmm..I suppose I should have read your howto _before_ posting. ;)

Don't feel bad - I do that myself, from time to time. That's one of the reasons I like this forum. I can erase my really over-the-top boo-boos... :D

[cgriffin]

thanks for the replies. If I find one that works, I'll post it here. If anyone else has one that works, please post.

Thx.

[jherubin]

I am using an older Lucent/Orinoco Gold Card (802.11b). Was pretty easy to set up. FC2 recognized it without a problem.

[andrey]

I have a Netgear WG511. With a little trouble it worked great in FC1 and then eventually stopped working. I tried it on several Linux laptops now and it doesn't work on any of them. Then I realized that the card may have physically failed somehow. Ugh.

Anyhow, the driver for the WG511 is included in FC2 (though you'll need to follow the simple instructions for adding the hotplug firmware, etc). It may or may not work easily. There is a nice forum at www.prism54.org for discussing this card (and others) and they have a Fedora section there.

[cgriffin]

I just discovered that a Linksys WPC11 v.3 (802.11b pcmcia card) works out of the box. The network setup utility recognized it and I configured it no problem. No manual editing at all.

:)

[Thoreau]

If you have any questions are other hardware, take a peek over at linux questions' HCL
http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/index.php

[crackers]

Originally posted by charlie
I just discovered that a Linksys WPC11 v.3 (802.11b pcmcia card) works out of the box.

Hmm, mine didn't. I'll have another shot at it this weekend and see what I screwed up...

[Carver]

This one "just worked" for me: Microsoft Wireless Notebook Adapter model MN-520. I have not been able to get my SMC2635SW to work .

Carver

[MoJoe]

I also have the WPC11 v.3 and I've also found that it works right out of the box. For some reason whenever I start FC2 it says that it can't find anything in eth0 and says error and all this crap but it still works fine

[k4dgw]

I purchased a linux certified laptop. At the time it came with Xandros. I am now running FC2 with a ZoomAir wireless card (4100 I think). It loaded fine, running the orinoco drivers. I had to edit a file so that I did not have to do the modprobe yenta_socket. Then all worked fine. I found all the information I needed in the fedora mailing list archive.

Dave

[jadepig]

I was succesful in getting my laptop (Winbook Si2) running wirelessly with FC2. My wireless card is a SMC2635W. I used the ndis wrapper to get it working with FC2. I used the instructions found here http://www.linuxelectrons.com/article.php?story=20040507104718960&mode=print. For those that don't know about ndis, it uses the windows drivers to drive the wireless card.

[decals74]

avoid the dlink dwl-650+
with fc2 and fc1 and it will NOT work right out the box.

================================================== =
here's the list of cards with built-in kernel support [i havent confirmed but i'm pretty sure this list is applicable to the fedora kernels]:
================================================== =

Wireless network adapters:

[airo_cs driver] [x86]
Aironet PC4500, PC4800
Cisco 340, 350
Xircom Wireless Ethernet Adapter

[netwave_cs driver] [x86]
Breezenet SA-PX
Xircom CreditCard Netwave

[ray_cs driver] [x86,axp]
BUSlink Wireless LAN Adapter
Raytheon Raylink
WebGear Aviator 2.4, Aviator Pro

[wavelan_cs driver] [x86,smp]
AT&T / NCR / Lucent WaveLAN version 2.0
DEC RoamAbout/DS

[orinoco_cs driver] [x86,axp,ppc,smp]
[ this driver supports multiple chipsets and some features may
not be supported for all cards ]
3Com AirConnect
1stWave 1ST-PC-DSS11IS, DSS11IG, DSS11ES, DSS11EG
Addtron AWP-100
Ambicom WL1100 PC
ARtem Onair ComCard STD & EMB versions, 128- & 64-bit
ASUS SpaceLink WL-100
Avaya World Card
Belkin F5D6020
Buffalo WLI-PCM-S11
Cabletron/Enterasys RoamAbout 802.11 DS
Compaq WL100, HNW-100
Corega PCCA-11
Dell TrueMobile 1150 Series
D-Link DRC-650, DCF-650W, DWL-660, DCF-660W
D-Link DWL-650 [older version, NOT new CardBus ones or 650+]
EagleTec ET-WL300NE-CC
Efficient SpeedStream SS1021 [old 16-bit, NOT new CardBus ones]
ELSA AirLancer MC-11
Ericsson WLAN Card C11
Farallon SkyLINE
HP F2136B
HyperLink Wireless
IBM High Rate Wireless LAN
Intel PRO/Wireless 2011
LA4111 Spectrum24 Wireless LAN
Linksys WPC11 Instant Wireless [ NOT the CardBus v4 card ]
Linksys WCF12 Wireless CompactFlash
Lucent Orinoco WaveLAN/IEEE 802.11(b)
Melco WLI-PCM-L11, WLI-PCM-L11G
NCR WaveLAN/IEEE 802.11
Netgear MA401RA
Nortel Networks eMobility
PLANEX GeoWave GW-CF110, RoadLannerWave GW-NS11H
Proxim Harmony 802.11b
Safeway Wireless
Samsung 11Mbps WLAN
Sandisk Connect SDWCFB-000
Seg Communications XI325H
SMC2632W
Tekram AIR.mate PCF 200
ZCOMAX AirRunner/XI=300

from http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/SUPPORTED.CARDS

[DannyBoy]

avoid the dlink dwl-650+
with fc2 and fc1 and it will NOT work right out the box.

================================================== =
here's the list of cards with built-in kernel support [i havent confirmed but i'm pretty sure this list is applicable to the fedora kernels]:
================================================== =
]

No man, these are not in FC1 kernel I am sure. It couldn't detect my Intel 8011 wireless card.

Is there anyway I can do a sort off "drivers update" without installing FC2?

BTW, I boot up the same laptop (IBM T30) with a Knoppix CD and it worked beautifully with my Intel wireless card.

[jazzmanjapan]

Hi, I have not checked out the links posted here yet, but I am having hard time getting any cards to work... I am using COmpaq Armada e500 with Fedora Core 1 (I think I'm going to have to upgrade it to FC2 soon... ) I have following three (yes 3) cards... U.S. Robotics 802.11g Wireless Turbo PC Card Model 5410 and SMC2635W, and finally (I just got this in the mail) Microsoft MN-520.
I was unable to get anyof them to work yet... I will check the links posted above and if one of them works, I'll post it here! Thanks.

[jazzmanjapan]

So using Microsoft MN-520 on my Fedora Core 1 running on Compaq Armada E500, all I had to do was to add the following codes to /etc/pcmcia/config (right after # Wireless network adapters):

card "Microsoft Wireless Notebook Adapter MN-520 1.0.3"
version "Microsoft", "Wireless Notebook Adapter MN-520", "", "1.0.3"
bind "orinoco_cs"

KDE's system -> network setup did the rest. Pretty amaizing. good reference was
http://www.cuddapahonline.com/technology/linux/wireless/

[jamatwitsend]

I also have the WPC11 v.3 and I've also found that it works right out of the box. For some reason whenever I start FC2 it says that it can't find anything in eth0 and says error and all this crap but it still works fine

Mojo
The error information you see is because the network startup is done before the
cardmgr/pcmcia software is fired up.. but you're right - no big deal.
It doesn't hurt anything.
Jim

[peterskm]

I have a Netgear WG511 Card. After installing Fedora Core 2, I had to install the Prism54 (http://www.prism54.org) drivers to get it to work. It has been working perfect for 2 months now.

[douglas_slac]

Oy, I saw the list here, and I thought maybe it was an answer of sorts, that finally I could get a wireless card working on the laptop. But nope. I printed out this list and went to Fry's. There was only one card on this list that was on the shelf, a D-Link DWL-650, and that was after digging. It looked like this is a older card by now, and has been replaced by at least 3 other versions. But it was on the list, so I bought it.

Nope, I don't know what to do, and I don't care. I can't seem to get the laptop to recognize that there is a card in the slot, nor does this card get listed in the "Ethernet Adapter" section of the "Network Configuration" tool. The cards that do get listed there, if I can tell from the shelf at Fry's, are cards from the past, at least over a year old, and maybe more, and ethernet 'b' or 'g' seem to not exist.

So, forget it. I had wireless working without much hassle in RH7.3 and since then each update of the system has gotten further away from wireless working. I can't believe that a linux distro can't find a way to support wireless networking, since it somethng that basically all laptop owners want to do. And support it "out of the box" without have to search on 10 web sites or so, and find some wrapper of the windows drivers to install.

I would love to part of a way to actually "fix" this but I don't even know where to start. I don't want to install some other wrapper to make this work, but actually have FC2 changed so people don't keep suggesting random ways to get a card working. You would think you could walk into a store, say "This card works fine, I know it does, since my chosen system supports it, that is the one I will buy", so I can vote on support with my pocket. Buying something which ignores linux as a support option, and then we all go and find something to add to the system to wrap some other system's support is just not helping the issue.

[anthony]

I must recomend the "Netgear WG511" which works basically out of the box in FC2. I wrote a tutorial on the Prism54.org forums on how to get it working.

Please note, Not the WG311 and not the WG511t these are both Atheros based meaning Madwifi and take a bit more work as the drivers are included right in the kernel.

[cavedweller]

Be careful witch card you buy and KNOW what you want to do with it. You better also be willing to comprimise on the distro you are running. Kernel 2.6.whatever has a problem with pcmcia wirless. Just do a li5ttle googling and it doesn't take long to figure out. doesn't matter the distro and from what I have seen the card. It seems to be kind of go to the com store get all the laptops they have and all the pcmcia card throw them in the air and hope the winning combination lands at the check out stand. Seriously alot of cards can be made to work to some degree. But if you want stability and reliability stick with a 2.4 kenel disto. They are slower but the drivers just aren't there yet for the 2.6 kernel. Maybe in a future release the bugs and start up orders will work out. Hardware gets to expensive to when the updated kernele drop support for them. Netgear MA401 works fine with a couple of tweaks no rfmon mode. Steer clear of the cisco 350 aironet series it will just Pi@@ you off you spent that kind of money for something that won't work. A little shopping Ma401 $25.00 Cisco 350 series $99.00 is a pretty good buy for a ......... paper weight.

[nods]

http://airo-linux.sourceforge.net/

these dudes seem to be making headway with cisco gear.

nods

[aditrus]

I use D-link dwl-650+ in my Dell Inspiron 5100. I used to hate this wifi card because its not plug and play. But with instructions here (http://www.houseofcraig.net/acx100_howto.php) and some tips from friends in FedoraForum now my D-link dwl-650+ is now plug and play.

[cavedweller]

The scourceforge link like I said is basically all about the 2.4 kernel the last patch or download put on that site was in 01. A little googling will show turns up cisco 340 350 worked fine with RH 8-8.2 but the problems started with 9. By the time 9 came out the firmware was updated to the point you had to roll it back on a windows machine to get it to work with linux. RH 9 is a good distro nothing you can't keep up2date with yum. In FC2 I can get the card up and runing system sees it once I even got it to associate with my Ap.Quite frankly it just isn't worth the hassle. I can plug in my net gear MA401 and I am up and running just no rfmon mode, but if you know what channel you AP is on and weather or not you need to be in managed or Ad-Hoc it works fine.

[designwebs]

I have a Linksys 54G card. When I try to do an install on add new device, all I get is a screen that says wireless card and then below that the words "Other wireless card" there are no other cards mentioned. Did I not install the complete fedore 2 package or something?

[crackers]

Did I not install the complete fedore 2 package or something?
That only means that the setup program(s) didn't detect what the card or chipset is. It also means you'll probably have to do some Googling and tweaking to get it to work. Just because everything works in Windows doesn't mean it will work in Linux - many hardware vendors either lag in Linux support or don't bother. Remember that Microsoft controls over 95% of the desktop/laptop space - there's little to no money to be gained from financing development of Linux drivers.

[mugs]

Anyone know anything about the Dlink DWL 122 or the DWL 520 with FC2? Great price this week, ($9.99 after rebate) at Comp USA. thanks.

[warnockm]

I installed Fedora FC-2 as well and i have the Microsoft MN-520 PCMCIA card, while Fedora detects the card it does not start it because it thinks its an ethernet card. I'm not sure why everyone says to add the config lines to /etc/pcmcia/config because they are already there. When i delete the incorrect card and add it again, it works. I use the Ad-hoc settings and fill in everything else as normal and it finds my AP just fine.

The problem i'm having is that when i reboot it does not detect the interface. when i go into the network settings and activate the interface, it again does not come up. i have to remove it, reboot and add it again, filling in all the settings.

I'm thinking it could have something to do w/ the PnP settings in the laptop not resetting one reboot, but theres no options for this in the BIOS.

Any suggestions? Its nice to have WiFi working, but not nice to reconfigure it every time!

[momendo]

Atheros cards are supported. These are cards that can hit 108mb/s and have a/b/g support. Some laptops have this chipset built in. It requires one to build the driver from CVS but there are also some precompiled RPMs for Fedora available. The driver has binary parts in it so it's not truly free but it is actively being worked on.

http://www.atheros.com/news/linux.html

http://madwifiwiki.thewebhost.de/wiki/FrontPage

http://www.mattfoster.clara.co.uk/madwifi-faq.htm

RPMs are available here:
http://atrpms.net/dist/fc2/madwifi/

And two posts on this forum which go over how to make it install in FC2.

http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3452

http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=2137

Joe

[SDNick484]

I use a pre-Agere Orinoco silver card (which can be hacked to run gold or so I've been told...) I bought at school a little over 3 years ago. It works great under Fedora Core 1 & 2 as well as the various Knoppix versions I've used. I recommend version 13e of the orinoco_cs driver with the patch that allows you to put it in monitor mode.

[carlwill]

I have this built in G card on my HP by broadcom & was trying to use the NDIS Wrapper but not sure where to start.

[spin0us]

What about wifi card supported in FC3 ?
I want to buy one 54Mbits card soon, but which one works with FC3 ?

[andrey]

What about wifi card supported in FC3 ?
I want to buy one 54Mbits card soon, but which one works with FC3 ?

My Netgear WG511 works great, the only thing needed was to download the firmware file from prism54.org and put it in the right directory (lib/firmware)

[spin0us]

My Netgear WG511 works great, the only thing needed was to download the firmware file from prism54.org and put it in the right directory (lib/firmware)

Thank's man ...

[jamatwitsend]

What about wifi card supported in FC3 ?
I want to buy one 54Mbits card soon, but which one works with FC3 ?

If you're talking laptop you can't go wrong with linksys Access Point and
pcmcia card...

[spin0us]

Ok I manage to install a made in china Netgear WG511 wifi card on my Dell C610 laptop.
Using ndiswrapper and generic driver SMC2802W.
Netgear CD drivers doesn't work ....

[james_in_denver]

I like the Linksys USB wireless network, WUSB11 (version 2.6 or 2.8).

It worked with with only compiling one module, and not a problem since then....

[Jasbo]

i have an IBM R50 Thinkpad (Centrino) and have managed to get the onboard Intel 2100 3b 11mbit card
and a Netgear WG 511 54mbit pcmcia card working. The intel card was a little more work than the netgear which I got working in about a half hour.

[jakarpinsk1]

anyone know how if u can use Linksys WCF12 compactflash card in Fedora core 4 through a compact flash reader via usb???
it says ppl have gotten it to work but i dunno if u can throuhg a compact flash reader via usb??????
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