[NTLUG:Discuss] wireless usb/card for openSUSE

[Ralph Green]

Howdy,
  Wireless bridges can be a pretty good solution.  Others spoke about
those.  My biggest complaint against those is that they are usually
pretty expensive.  You can make an inexpensive one, if you are willing
to tinker a bit.  If you reflash an Airlink AR430W or a Linksys WRT54g
to run DD-WRT, it will act as a wireless bridge.  You have to get the
right version of the WRT54G, since some versions don't have enough
memory.
  You don't say what kind of wireless access you need, or if you have a
budget.  If 802.11b is sufficient, then your job is easier.  You can get
a PRISM 2 based nic and there were a lot of those made.  I have a couple
of PRISM 2 based USB nics and they always work easily on any Linux
system.  One way to spot those was that they listed Tivo compatibility.
Another way is to use a classic Orinoco Silver or Gold card and a PCI to
pcmcia adapter.  The classic Orinoco Silver or Gold card used the Prism
2 chip and had a nice external antennae connector.  The classic card
look like the one on this auction:
  http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=260467915111
 I think this auction price is too high, I am just using it for the
picture.  Orinoco sold out to another firm and they changed the chip in
the card to one that does not work as well.  If you see a Orinoco Silver
or Gold with a picture of a waving man on the side, it is the wrong
card.  I see the old style every so often for $10 to $15.  A lot of
people don't put much value on cards that are 802.11b only, so if that
is good for your application, then it can be a good value.
 I have not used this card, but I did find a newer card that looks like
it might work.  Computer Geeks has a PCI card with a RT2760T chipset.  I
don't see many comments of that chip on, but it looks like it is a Linux
supported 802.11g card.  See it at:
  http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=W483-PB&cpc=SCH
 Tell us more about your requirements.
Have a good day,
Ralph



On Thu, 2009-08-27 at 08:48 -0500, Monty Shinn wrote:
> I am looking for a compatible USB network device to use with openSUSE. 
> I have found on the web which chipsets openSUSE likes, but I can't find 
> any reference that shows what actual products uses the preferred chipsets.
> 
> I have a 32bit pci slot available if needed, but prefer usb.
> 
> Any thoughts or recommendations will be appreciated.