-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi, On Wed, 2 Jul 2003, Werner Guttmann wrote:

I've been following the recent threads around wiress networking with interest, as I am about to setup a private WLAN locally. Here's some questions related to this:

1) Is this achievable at all with 8.1 ? Or will I have to upgrade to 8.2 ? If so, why ?

It depends on the WLAN hardware you are planning to use. The kernel on 8.1 is older than the one in 8.2 and might not have the required driver. However, updating the orinoco driver is quite easy. SuSE 8.2 has added some more support for WLAN cards to the networking scripts and YaST2, so it's much easier to set it up. However, it's also possible with 8.1, if you don't fear to use an editor.

2) What adapters could you recommend, iow are there any that will be recognised and configured (semi) 'automatically' ?

My setup here: NetGear MA301 PCI Adapter and two NetGear MA401 PCMCIA cards. No problems at all.

3) Is there a HOW-TO or anything similar for me to read up on this subject ?

Sure: http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/ The best resource about WLANS on Linux, IMHO. The orinoco driver can be downloaded from here: http://ozlabs.org/people/dgibson/dldwd/ Good luck, LenZ - -- - ------------------------------------------------------------------ Lenz Grimmer -o) [ICQ: 160767607 | Jabber: LenZGr@jabber.org] /\\ http://lenz.grimmer.com V_V -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.2-rc1-SuSE (GNU/Linux) Comment: For info see http://quantumlab.net/pine_privacy_guard/ iD8DBQE/AswRSVDhKrJykfIRAs5PAJ4kFEtY+9COdPbG++8as96QBp6wnwCff9NJ xRSGyCNlik/WlsffUxaBVXQ= =/bGC -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Right now I would say away from the cards based upon the TI ACX-100 chipset. You can tell these cards by the reference to being 22Mb/s cards, twice as fast. There is a binary only driver available but it is an extra step that might not work, and is not a click and run process. The Wi-Fi cards (802.11b) are probably ok for home the extra speed of other wireless schemes (802.11g) is offset by the lack of drivers for Linux. Get get it in your mind that any wireless hardware you buy today will have a short life span, two or three years, before 802.11g or whatever makes it obsolete. Stick with the lowcost option, who cares if my $20 Wi-Fi PC Card is obsolete in two years compaired to spending $80 on a PC card that can do both 802.11b and 802.11g. Most of the usb connected clients appear to based on the Prism2 chipset that doesn't use the normal wireless tool iwconfig. I haven't used a usb device so I don't know how easy they are to configure under Linux. There is a good list of cards and what chipset they use at: http://www.linux-wlan.org/docs/wlan_adapters_supported_html2.html I would just get a good generic Wi-Fi access point (Linksys , D-Link, etc) and a $20 PCMCIA card for the notebook and go for it. I don't know about using a USB client, I used a D-Link PCI card for a while in ad-hoc mode with my notebook but the D-Link PCI cards sold now are based upon the TI ACX-100. Is there a Linux User Group in your area? http://www.linux.org/groups/index.html They are usually too happy to play with this kind of hardware, when someone else is paying for the hardware. Alway remember that http://www.google.com/linux is your friend when all else fails. Someone seems to have done it first and written about it somewhere. pben On Wednesday 02 July 2003 06:17 am, Werner Guttmann wrote:

Hi,

I've been following the recent threads around wiress networking with interest, as I am about to setup a private WLAN locally. Here's some questions related to this:

1) Is this achievable at all with 8.1 ? Or will I have to upgrade to 8.2 ? If so, why ? 2) What adapters could you recommend, iow are there any that will be recognised and configured (semi) 'automatically' ? 3) Is there a HOW-TO or anything similar for me to read up on this subject ?

Regards Werner