From owner-freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Sep 14 19:03:48 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9BB0416A4CE for ; Tue, 14 Sep 2004 19:03:48 +0000 (GMT) Received: from mproxy.gmail.com (rproxy.gmail.com [64.233.170.198]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3CA5743D31 for ; Tue, 14 Sep 2004 19:03:46 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from enemy.cow@gmail.com) Received: by mproxy.gmail.com with SMTP id 76so544618rnk for ; Tue, 14 Sep 2004 12:03:45 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.38.2.74 with SMTP id 74mr1211497rnb; Tue, 14 Sep 2004 12:03:40 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.38.13.40 with HTTP; Tue, 14 Sep 2004 12:03:40 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <9cf39d604091412032d7f1bb6@mail.gmail.com> Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 14:03:40 -0500 From: Ben Nell To: "Kenneth D. Merry" In-Reply-To: <20040914165631.GA27504@nargothrond.kdm.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <9cf39d6040914085256593790@mail.gmail.com> <41471721.8050705@centtech.com> <20040914165631.GA27504@nargothrond.kdm.org> cc: Eric Anderson cc: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Hardware reccomendations X-BeenThere: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: Ben Nell List-Id: Mobile computing with FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 19:03:48 -0000 On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 10:56:31 -0600, Kenneth D. Merry wrote: > On Tue, Sep 14, 2004 at 11:06:57 -0500, Eric Anderson wrote: > > Ben Nell wrote: > > >Hi All: > > > > > >I am running FreeBSD 5.2 on a Dell Inspiron 8600, and I am interested > > >in swapping out the mini-pci wireless NIC. It's a Centrino machine, > > >and I believe that the 802.11b card that is currently present is a > > >Broadcom. Regardless, it doesn't appear to be supported. I've used > > >the NDIS wrapper driver found in current release, but I'm not happy > > >with it's performance and would prefer to just replace the card with a > > >well-supported 802.11g card. > > > > > >What I'm looking for is a reccomendation of chipset/brand/model from > > >anyone. I'm fairly new to wireless networking and would appreciate > > >any insight or personal opinions anyone would care to share. > > > > I bought a 'Netegriti' card (EM-500AG I think), and it works flawlessly. > > I've got one of those as well, and it seems to work well. > > I've got an Inspiron 8500. It fit in the minipci slot, but was shorter > than the original Broadcom b/g minipci card. I think the antenna connectors > on it were also swapped, when compared to the Broadcom card. There was just > enough slack in the antenna wires to connect it up. > > It works fine in A, B, and G modes with the ath driver. I think the only > thing missing is working Turbo (802.11a) mode support in the ath driver, > unless that has been fixed in the past few months. > > Ken > -- > Kenneth Merry > ken@kdm.org > Thanks for the advice! I think the only problem is going to be finding a reputable source to purchase the card from. Wireless has been my only issue with this laptop. With a replaced wireless card and using Daniel O'Connor's guide to configuring the 8600 (http://www.gsoft.com.au/~doconnor/I8600/) this is simply any unbeatable setup.