prism wireless card!

jank

anybody know where i can find a wireless card enabled on the prism 2.0 chipset

need to configure my linux box to be an access point , heard they were the cards to go for so i need to buy one,
heard linksys used to do them but unsure of an exact model to go for!

thanks in advance!

ZENER

PCMCIA WiFi Cards with Prism2 info

USB Prism2 WiFi device info

Useful info and links available on both these sites. Prism2 seems to be the way to go for wifi on linux - lots of help available. I think generaly it doesn't matter what the brand is only the chipset is relevant with linux i.e. realtek - orrinoco etc.

What distro of linux have you installed by the way ?

Tinky

rob1891

hey jank, I have two Netgear MA311 PCI cards left over after moving from 11b to 11g. One was used in a freebsd box as an accesspoint/router the other on a desktop, they are Prism 2.5.

If you are interested I'll sell one for €35 (they are €55 on elara new and fetch about £25 on ebay).

If your not I think this page is quite useful:

http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/Client_5fAdapters_5f802_5f11b

Have you thought about the Atheros chipset for 11g? It has gotten support in BSD and can operate in HostAP mode like the Prisms. I didn't bother with keeping the BSD box as a router because Komplett was selling standalone 11g routers for just €10 more than the damn 11g card!!

Rob

Capt'n Midnight

Originally posted by tinky
I think generaly it doesn't matter what the brand is only the chipset is relevant with linux i.e. realtek - orrinoco etc.

AFAIK Orinoco/Entrasys/Buffalo/Avaya/Wavelan use HERMES instead of PRISM.
So to get those working in AP mode http://www.me2000.net/
http://www.midwestwan.org/

I took a 3 com AP apart and it used a prism pcmcia card - windows won't recognise it - but knoppix will auto configure it on boot.

jank

ill be using red-hat V9
those netgear pci cards seem the job.
dont know if i can but one of you as the collage im in will be doing the purchasing and they might have one already in the computing or elec department
prism2.5 works as an AP too, i only thought it was prism2

are they hard to configure, and will they support a good few nodes
DHCP and NAT/masquerading will have to be used to but thats an other issue i guess
ill let you know rob what the story is ok

rob1891

I don't know what the configuration is like on linux, with freebsd you just need to compile the kernel with the wi driver, then ifconfig the interface with a few special options. The card's firmware has to be at the right version too, or at least it has to not be at the wrong version.

The only problem I've experienced is it reporting 2Mb/s transmit rate, which google groups has assured me is a made up number and that the card transmits as fast as it can with the associated clients though I'm not entirely convinced as ftp transfers were definitly around the 2Mb/s area and some people say running freebsd 4.8 brings it back to 11Mb/s. Obviously this could be a problem for you.

Also, if you want to connect a different (non-netgear) external antenna to my particular card, it uses a Reverse Polarity SMA connector which fab-corp.com have (not sure about irish shops, maplin don't anway).

Don't worry if you can't buy it, I'm not that pushed to sell them anyway, unless there is a good use they can be put to

Capt'n Midnight

Originally posted by rob1891
The only problem I've experienced is it reporting 2Mb/s transmit rate, which google groups has assured me is a made up number and that the card transmits as fast as it can with the associated clients though I'm not entirely convinced as ftp transfers were definitly around the 2Mb/s area and some people say running freebsd 4.8 brings it back to 11Mb/s. Obviously this could be a problem for you.

Also, if you want to connect a different (non-netgear) external antenna to my particular card, it uses a Reverse Polarity SMA connector which fab-corp.com have (not sure about irish shops, maplin don't anway).

See also www.irishwan.org
on 802.11b 1Mb,2Mb,5.5Mb and 11Mb speeds are quite distinct - a bit like auto negotation 10/100 full/half duplex on a network card - they depend on the signal to noise level.

You can get SMA connectors in RS - with some types the inners are interchangable so you can do a sex change operation. Under US law the connectors are not allowed to be off the shelf to keep muppets away from them.

tomk

I've been looking into this too. There's a Prism card list here, but I've also found it very hard to find anyone who actually supplies them. You can get the Netgate cards here, and FAB Corp, who mainly do antennas and the like, have the SMC2532. Both are in the US, but will ship internationally.

Some more useful links:

Jason's HostAP page

IBM devWorks article on Linux AP