Re: [gentoo-user] Recommend me a good PCMCIA wireless network card

[Greg Bur <greg.bur@gmail.com>]

> 
> Just remember, if the laptop isn't going too far, a good length of Ye
> Olde Cat5e is a much cheaper solution.  That being said...

Changes the possible security implications too...

> 
> 
> Yeah, I picked up a great Orinoco (branded as Enterasys) at
> Rokland.com last month for roughly $50.  Atheros chipset, 802.11a/
> SuperA/b/b+/g/SuperG... very nice.  It works in Windows (with the
> driver CD), Mac OS X (with the shareware OrangeWare driver--totally
> worth the $15 shareware fee) and, naturally, Linux (with MADWIFI).
> It picks up Channels 1 through 14, and can put out up to 100 mW of
> power (40 mW on A networks).

I forgot about Enterasys and Atheros.  The Orinoco-based cards have
power output of around 24mW and the sensitivity is right around -83dB
which I've found works well in most situations.  I usually see about
3.5mbps of throughput when "connected" at 11mbps.  Could be better but
it gets the job done.  Btw, I think YDI (Terabeam) still sells an
Orinoco-based card.  They've got really good support should you need
it.

> There's no antenna jack, though, but I hear most PCMCIA Orinocoes can
> be modded to include some kind of external jack;  I'm not that
> desperate for power, but with dial-up at home, I might do that mod
> and build a yagi antenna, get in my car, and... well, you get the
> idea. :-)

I've got three or four of the cards back from the days when they were
still made by Lucent and with the proper pigtail you can connect an
external antenna.  In fact I used to use Orinoco PC cards with a PCI
adapter to deliver high-speed access to folks around here and they
worked quite well, then the telco showed up with DSL but that's
another story.  As for the newer cards, I believe the Proxim cards can
be modded by opening the antenna housing on the card to get to the
antenna connector.  If you want to go to an external antenna check
with YDI, I think they still make PC cards with external antenna
connectors.


> Still haven't had any luck with KisMAC (the OS X port of Kismet),
> though.  It finds my card but doesn't detect my wireless network...
> I'll figure it out eventually.

Maybe the drivers don't support monitor mode?  That's what I ran into
with Linux but that was only a kernel patch away and my experience
with KisMAC is exactly zero...



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