From owner-freebsd-questions Tue Jul 24 10:43:48 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from wasp.eng.ufl.edu (wasp.eng.ufl.edu [128.227.116.1]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3A63437B401 for ; Tue, 24 Jul 2001 10:43:43 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from bob@eng.ufl.edu) Received: from eng.ufl.edu (scanner.engnet.ufl.edu [128.227.152.221]) by wasp.eng.ufl.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id NAA07555; Tue, 24 Jul 2001 13:43:40 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <3B5DB3CC.3F82592B@eng.ufl.edu> Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001 13:43:40 -0400 From: Bob Johnson X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.77 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.2.12 i386) X-Accept-Language: en, eo MIME-Version: 1.0 To: tzink@metrocon.com Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: A question asked so many times: wireless nics. Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > > Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 16:28:15 -0400 > From: Terry Zink > Subject: A question asked so many times: wireless nics. > > I know this has been asked so many times, but I'm looking for something :) > > Basically, i want a 1 name brand solution, to cheap wireless nics. I need 1 > pcmcia wireless nic and 1 PCI nic, both supported by FreeBSD... Now.. the fun > part, finding cheap ones that work well in a house. Wireless support is changing rapidly, so it is hard to keep up with the details. I use a D-Link DWL-650 and one of their access points. You will need to be running -STABLE built since July 4th, though. On July 4th an important bug in the wi driver was fixed, so now it does a pretty good job with PCMCIA cards based on the PRISM II chipset. That includes most of the cheap ones, but some brands do proprietary things and are still not supported even though they use that chipset. I've never used it in ad-hoc (peer to peer) mode, which is what you seem to have in mind. I can't guarantee that works, but I believe it does. The D-Link PCMCIA card (the DWL-650) seems to have a crummy antenna and doesn't have as much range as other brands, though, so whether you go with it may depend on how much you value range vs. cost. People have occasionally seen them as cheap as $75. The PCI card is a PCMCIA card in an adapter. Most brands do it this way. The wi driver won't work with some (possibly any) brands of PCI adapters, and in those cases you must use an ISA version. Searching the archives of the FreeBSD-mobile list will reveal more specifics about that in particular, and wireless support in general. And you can probably mix name brands if you stick with stuff that is Wi-Fi certified (http://www.wi-fi.org). That might give you a little more purchasing flexibility. - Bob > > Any suggestions? > > > - -- > Regards, > > Terry Zink > System Administrator > Metrocon Communications > Phone: (212) 661-6800 x 1553 > - Bob To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message