[KLUG Members] Compatibility Among Netgear Wireless PCMCIA Cards

[Mark Bystry]

yup, i buy only the wg511t's now. both knoppix 3.9 and suse 9.3 pick it up automatically. anything 
with the atheros chipset is good for linux.

i've gotten a linksys card working with ndiswrapper and the realtek 8081 chipset in suse 9.3 but the 
netgear wg511t's always work without a problem for me.

Mark Bystry
SuSE 9.3 Pro
KDE 3.4.1


Marr wrote the following on 8/23/2005 11:15 AM:
> Folks,
> 
> This post is to let anyone interested in Linux-compatible wireless PCMCIA 
> cards know about my recent experiences with a couple of different Netgear 
> cards.
> 
> I've been successfully using a Netgear WG511 PCMCIA card for the last year. It 
> works in various versions of Slackware by using the 'Prism54' driver, which 
> works with the Intersil Prism chipset in the WG511:
> 
>    http://prism54.org
> 
> A couple weeks ago, I bought another WG511, since it was on sale at Staples. 
> Unfortunately, it is now 'v2', which uses the Marvell chipset, which has no 
> native Linux driver. After some non-trivial efforts, I was able to get the 
> card to work using version 1.2 of 'ndiswrapper':
> 
>    http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net
> 
> Unfortunately, it seemed a bit unstable, causing a lockup on at least 3 
> occasions, 2 of which completely locked the machine (mouse, keyboard, clock). 
> I also discovered that trying to load the 'ndiswrapper' driver would lock up 
> the machine _every_ time if I booted to the bare console (i.e. not running 
> X11)!
> 
> After a bit more research, I decided to return the WG511v2 card and purchase 
> the WG511T, which is $10 more expensive, but was also on sale and comes with 
> the 'Atheros' chipset, which is (apparently) better-supported and uses the 
> 'MADWiFi' ('Multiband Atheros Driver for WiFi') driver:
> 
>    http://madwifi.sourceforge.net
> 
> This driver was much simpler to deal with than the 'ndiswrapper' stuff. A 
> simple driver compile/install and a reboot -- hotplugging on Slackware 10.0 
> picked up the card automatically. The WG511T + MADWiFi was much easier to get 
> working than the WG511v2 + 'ndiswrapper'. As an added bonus, I've seen no 
> lockups at all so far (under limited testing, admittedly) and I can use the 
> WG511T without booting into X11, if desired.
> 
> I noticed that Staples has these cards on sale again this week for $39.94 
> ($69.98 - $20 instant savings - $10 'Easy' rebate) in case anyone is in the 
> market for a Linux-compatible PCMCIA WiFi card.
> 
> Be careful because Staples is also selling the more-problematic WG511v2 card 
> for $29.94 ($59.98 - $20 instant savings - $10 'Easy' rebate).
> 
> Aside: The math "sharps" will notice a $0.04 discrepancy in the prices, but 
> that's actually how they're printed in the ad! :^)
> 
> Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Netgear or Staples -- I just had good 
> luck with that card so far and wanted to let people know.
> 
> Bottom Line: The WG511T seems like a good choice for $40. It's capable of what  
> Netgear calls 'SuperG' (with speeds up to 108 Mbps) but that's only possible 
> with Netgear's SuperG-capable routers, of course. Count only on getting 
> regular 802.11g speeds (54 Mbps) out of it otherwise.
> 
> Hope this is useful to someone....
> 
> P.S. I'm cross-posting this independently to the 3 LUG lists I'm subscribed 
> to. Advance apologies to anyone who gets this more than once.
> 
> Bill Marr
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