Hi,

I want my little home LAN to go wireless. Actual configuration: one desktop,
two laptops, currently linked via Ethernet. Every machine has Slackware
10.1 on it, with a 2.6.12 kernel tuned to the hardware. The desktop is
connected to the internet via dialup (56k, see previous post), and every
client can launch/cut the connection remotely, via a connection manager
(linecontrol, thanks Thomas Overgaard for the hint).

Now I'd like to get rid of the cable mess. I'm fairly new to wireless
technology, and what I grasp until now: I need two pcmcia wireless cards
for the laptops, and then one wireless card for the desktop PC. Optionally,
instead of the (PCI?) wireless card for the desktop, I'd maybe prefer an
"access point" (is it called like this?), that is, an external box with an
antenna, and linked to the PC via ethernet. A guy in a shop today explained
to me that this could cover much more distance.

Q 1: can you recommend any material known to work under Linux? Material that
you use, and that works?

Q 2: can I configure this like my other hardware? make menuconfig, Device
Drivers ---> Network support ---> Wireless LAN ---> ? Or is the
configuration more complicated, and more of the hairpulling type?

Q 3: is it worth the pain to update from 2.6.12 to 2.6.13? Are there more
WLAN cards supported in the meantime?

Thanks,

Niki Kovacs
--
I'm not as think as you stoned I am.

> Optionally, instead of the (PCI?) wireless card for the desktop, I'd maybe
> prefer an "access point" (is it called like this?), that is, an external
> box with an antenna, and linked to the PC via ethernet. A guy in a shop
> today explained to me that this could cover much more distance.

Well, an external access point is simpler, it's probably not much more
expensive than a PCI card, you don't need to care about drivers...

A well supported PCI card might be more powerfull, but since you're gonna
buy PC Card's for the laptop, that doesn't matter much.

> Q 2: can I configure this like my other hardware? make menuconfig, Device
> Drivers ---> Network support ---> Wireless LAN ---> ? Or is the
> configuration more complicated, and more of the hairpulling type?
>
> Q 3: is it worth the pain to update from 2.6.12 to 2.6.13? Are there more
> WLAN cards supported in the meantime?

Most of the drivers for wifi cards are outside of the kernel tree, and many
of them aren't fully GPL either.

Those are: madwifi (for atheros chipsets), rt2x00 (for ralink chipsets), acx
(for Texas Instruments acx100 and acx111 chipsets - not recommended), etc..

--
damjan

Niki Kovacs wrote :

> and then one wireless card for the desktop PC.

If your planning the use your desktop computer as access-point then make
sure that the card can manage "Master Mode" before you buy. Many cards
can only handle "Managed Mode" and/or "Ad-Hoc Mode" and that wont do.
--
Thomas O.

This area is designed to become quite warm during normal operation.

> If your planning the use your desktop computer as access-point then make
> sure that the card can manage "Master Mode" before you buy. Many cards
> can only handle "Managed Mode" and/or "Ad-Hoc Mode" and that wont do.

Yes, but he could still use all of them in ad-hoc mode.

--
damjan

Niki Kovacs wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I want my little home LAN to go wireless. Actual configuration: one
> desktop, two laptops, currently linked via Ethernet. Every machine has
> Slackware 10.1 on it, with a 2.6.12 kernel tuned to the hardware. The
> desktop is connected to the internet via dialup (56k, see previous post),
> and every client can launch/cut the connection remotely, via a connection
> manager (linecontrol, thanks Thomas Overgaard for the hint).
>
> Now I'd like to get rid of the cable mess. I'm fairly new to wireless

Good call.

> technology, and what I grasp until now: I need two pcmcia wireless cards
> for the laptops, and then one wireless card for the desktop PC.
> Optionally, instead of the (PCI?) wireless card for the desktop, I'd maybe
> prefer an "access point" (is it called like this?), that is, an external

Yes.

> box with an antenna, and linked to the PC via ethernet. A guy in a shop
> today explained to me that this could cover much more distance.

Not necessarily. I have a Netgear MA311 running hostap in the Master mode as
a PCI card in my desktop (running Slackware 10.0).

I bought this PCI card two years ago and chipsets can change.

>
> Q 1: can you recommend any material known to work under Linux? Material
> that you use, and that works?
>

I use Netgear MA311 PCI wireless card in hostap Master mode in my desktop
running Slackware 10.0 and a Netgear MA401 PCMCIA card with orinoco_cs
drivers (have used hostap drivers in the Managed mode in the past -
http://www.geocities.com/linuxmacbsd...rwireless.html ) in my laptop
running Debian Sarge.

Integrated instructions for setting up (admittedly somewhat old, but should
work) can be found at :

http://www.geocities.com/linuxmacbsd/sldesktop.html

> Q 2: can I configure this like my other hardware? make menuconfig, Device
> Drivers ---> Network support ---> Wireless LAN ---> ? Or is the
> configuration more complicated, and more of the hairpulling type?
>

Hostap is probably not integrated per se in Linux. It is NOT hair pulling
type at all.


> Q 3: is it worth the pain to update from 2.6.12 to 2.6.13? Are there more
> WLAN cards supported in the meantime?
>

Maybe. But to set up an access point, you will probably need to use hostap
drivers.

On Mon, 29 Aug 2005 20:47:09 +0200, Niki Kovacs <mickey@mouse.com>
wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I want my little home LAN to go wireless. Actual configuration: one desktop,
>two laptops, currently linked via Ethernet. Every machine has Slackware
>10.1 on it, with a 2.6.12 kernel tuned to the hardware. The desktop is
>connected to the internet via dialup (56k, see previous post), and every
>client can launch/cut the connection remotely, via a connection manager
>(linecontrol, thanks Thomas Overgaard for the hint).
>
>Now I'd like to get rid of the cable mess. I'm fairly new to wireless
>technology, and what I grasp until now: I need two pcmcia wireless cards
>for the laptops, and then one wireless card for the desktop PC. Optionally,
>instead of the (PCI?) wireless card for the desktop, I'd maybe prefer an
>"access point" (is it called like this?), that is, an external box with an
>antenna, and linked to the PC via ethernet. A guy in a shop today explained
>to me that this could cover much more distance.

At one stage (when was still on dialup) I had three PC's connected in
a "ad-hoc" wireless config (no access point). This was pretty easy to
setup and saved me the expense of having to buy a Wireless Access
Point.

Obviously going through dialup, it could get pretty slow at times, but
for light usage, it was great.

For wireless connectivity, I was using a mixture of USB and PCI cards,
which all performed quite well (even better under Linux in some
cases).

Do a bit of research into the various wireless devices out there to
save yourself a bit of trouble in configuring and setting them up and
finding out what works and what doesn't work.

Dazz

<snipped>