On Jul 24, 2005, at 1:49 am, Ian K wrote:
I have an older laptop that I want to add to my network, (its a 802.11B one) and I was wondering what brands/models would work the best under Linux. Im fairly flexible, and would really not like to tinker with too many drivers. Any good ideas?
Currently available are cards using the Ralink chipset, as this manufacturer has open-sourced their own drivers and there is a strong GPL project that will (I believe) eventually join the main kernel tree.
I have tested CNet cards using this chipset, and indeed I supply them to Windows customers as they're very good value, however I prefer the Belkin under Linux, as they just seem to behave slightly better. The difference is nearly intangible, but the CNet cards would sometimes not start properly when called by the /etc/init.d scripts, only to work perfectly when restarted manually. I could not make any rhyme nor reason of this, although I expect they'll work perfectly in a year or two when the rt2500 driver is more mature.
Some others have suggested finding a supplier with a liberal returns policy and have suggested that no-one can guarantee that a model will have a specific chipset. I'm associated with the famous UK cartoon IT consultant, Network Ned, and can vouch that he does indeed test every batch of wireless cards that he receives for Linux compatibility. He offers these on a "guaranteed to work with Linux" basis - http://networkned.co.uk/hardware.php - but is aware that his website isn't CSS-compliant, thankyouverymuch.
Stroller.
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