Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2007 16:09:03 -0800 From: "Kevin Downey" <redchin@gmail.com> To: "Sam Leffler" <sam@errno.com> Cc: freebsd-net@freebsd.org, John Nielsen <lists@jnielsen.net>, Lars Stokholm <lars.stokholm@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Wireless NIC recommendation Message-ID: <1d3ed48c0701151609v2db2cbf5oca52c8bafa13a1e0@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <45AC1675.9060005@errno.com> References: <45ABBFDF.4080708@gmail.com> <200701151344.49696.lists@jnielsen.net> <45ABEA01.7090704@gmail.com> <200701151614.09299.lists@jnielsen.net> <45AC1675.9060005@errno.com>
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On 1/15/07, Sam Leffler <sam@errno.com> wrote: > John Nielsen wrote: > > On Monday 15 January 2007 15:54, Lars Stokholm wrote: > >> John Nielsen wrote: > >>> On Monday 15 January 2007 12:54, Lars Stokholm wrote: > >>>> Hi, I hope someone can help me with this, before I go mad (no pun > >>>> intended.) :) > >>>> > >>>> I was initially looking for a relatively cheap 54Mbps, 802.11g- and > >>>> WPA-capable network card, based on an Atheros chipset, but after > >>>> spending the whole of last night looking for one - to no avail - I gave > >>>> up. > >>>> > >>>> I'm almost about to conclude that Atheros is not the way to go. So now I > >>>> want to know, if anyone can recommend ANY card, being cheap and > >>>> supporting the features mentioned above. I don't mind using NDIS, as > >>>> long as it works flawlessly. Also it would be good, if the card was a > >>>> popular one, so community support is more available. > >>> For driver support in FreeBSD, Atheros is definitely the way to go. Have > >>> you looked through the listings here? > >>> > >>> http://customerproducts.atheros.com/customerproducts/default.asp > >> Wow, I actually think I found a card there, that is guaranteed to work. > >> Is this really the end of all my struggles? :) For only 50 USD. There > >> seem to be only one version of the card. > >> > >> http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=12 > >> http://edbpriser.dk/Products/Listprices.asp?ID=38373 (in Danish) > >> > >> The two cards /are/ the same, right? > > > > This is actually the card I have and use in my FreeBSD box as an access point > > (I didn't know it was still available or I would have said so sooner.) Yes, > > they should be the same. > > > > There is an early revision ("A1") card of the same name that actually used a > > non-Atheros chip, but anything you buy today should be "B" or "C" and work > > fine. I have the "B" revision. > > > > Check out the D-Link website (pretend like you're looking for a Windows > > driver) for slightly more information on the different revisions and how to > > identify them. > > > >> Also, it says 108Mps? Does it matter that my AP is only 54Mbps? > > > > Shouldn't matter at all. 108Mbps is often advertised and rarely > > used/practical. The idea is to use two 54Mbps streams at once. You need to > > have a card (and driver) that suport it ("Super-G" or "Extreme-G"), an AP > > that supports it and that acknowledges that your card supports it, and little > > to no other traffic or interference, since most AP's will automatically fall > > back to 54Mbps at the drop of a hat. I'm not sure if ath(4) supports it or > > not, but I've never really cared too much. > > Thanks, your description is good. Let me try to elaborate. 108Mb/s is > the marketing speak for cards that are capable of Turbo mode. Turbo > mode is a chip feature whereby a 2x wide channel is used to get > effectively 2x the bandwidth. Radios capable of doing turbo mode can do > this in either 2.4G or 5G. When configured to use turbo mode only it's > said you are operating in "static turbo mode". When the driver switches > the radio between turbo and non-turbo operation on the same frequency > then it is said you are using "dynamic turbo mode". You are not > supposed to use static turbo in 2.4G, only dynamic turbo. In 11a you > can use either. > > The freebsd driver only supports static turbo mode. It's done so since > the first commit. The current linux driver supports both static and > dynamic turbo modes. I have support in p4 for dynamic turbo but to be > honest it's not really useful and you cannot use it when operating as an > ap unless you also do radar detection so you can drop out of turbo mode > when you hear non-turbo stations operating on the channel. > > In testing I routinely see 40+ Mb/s using static turbo mode with tcp > netperf; probably more (been a while). If you add in some other stuff > that is part of the Atheros SuperG protocol (vendor-specific extensions > to 802.11) then you can get 60+ Mb/s. Under certain circumstances you > can hit 90+Mb/s. The code in p4 supports most of the important bits to > get 60+ with turbo mode under good conditions. > > Finally, understand also that 11n is coming along very soon and will > have interoperability and higher throughput than SuperG. > > Sam > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-net@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-net > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-net-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > Any hints on what the 11n landscape will look like for freebsd? -- The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has occurred.
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