[aklug] Re: USB wireless device

I've done quite a bit of involuntary research on this subject *ahem*.

To summarize, it's all in the chipset, particularly if you are doing anything with WPA,
and the only chipset (in usbland) that continues to work flawlessly once I get it set up
is the zd1211.

Ralink and Realtek (I don't think those are the same company) are making good efforts
and more power to them, but they are not stable yet.

I don't think atheros has anything in usbland.

So, the real question is how do you determine the chipset? Most of the lists are out of
date (no fault of theirs). Going by 'model number' is irrelevant since innards change
while model numbers don't. FCC ID's could be useful, but never found anyplace that
keeps track of those. So the only way I've found is to get one, plug it in and see what
lsusb says. If using ubuntu or some such autoloading distro, see what module it loads.
 zd1211rw is good. Anything else is iffy.

Try doing that in the store, and good luck with that.

Now, if you are don't need WPA, I've got a couple of old USB wireless dongles that I
could let go for a couple of bucks with the understanding of as-is. They worked before
I switched everything over to WPA a few years ago. Email me offlist if you're interested.

And good luck. If you do find a current one that is rock stable, and does WPA etc that
we can get at BestBuy or whatever, email the list.

> Anyone familiar with a Linux friendly USB wireless device?
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Received on Sat Dec 13 16:12:00 2008