Dynex PCMCIA WiFi (Best Buy house brand)
Forum: Networking
Topic: Dynex PCMCIA WiFi (Best Buy house brand)
started by: john.martzouco
Posted by john.martzouco on Nov. 24 2007,05:10
Hi All,I'm thinking of buying one of the following PCMCIA cards for my laptop for use with this distribution.
Has anybody tried any of these cards and with what results, good or bad?
I've checked the cards with the ndiswrapper list and the first card is listed there... but is the ndiswrapper in this distribution at a version level high enough to run the card?
Both cards are Best Buy house brands, one has higher rated speed than the other.
From my research, they are Atheros chipset. I also see good reviews from the Ubuntu users, but I don't know if that's pertinent for us.
DX-WGNBC
< Best Buy listing >
From ndiswrapper:
#86
Dynex DX-WGNBC
* Chipset Atheros
* pciid: 168c:001a (rev 01)
* driver net5211.inf and ar5211.sys off the CD
* Other: Ubuntu breezy (5.10).
DX-WGPNBC
< Best Buy listing >
Not listed at ndiswrapper.
Posted by curaga on Nov. 24 2007,09:25
Atheros chipsets don't need ndiswrapper, they have native drivers.. Unless you need wpa encryption, that isn't fully functional with the native drivers..
Posted by john.martzouco on Nov. 24 2007,12:03
I'd prefer to use WPA encryption.I assume that your reply means that there is a chance the card might work in WEP right out of the box?
Is it painful to add the WPA layer? Is wpa_supplicant the only way to do it? Is wpa_supplicant already available for DSL?
Posted by curaga on Nov. 24 2007,12:21
They do work out-of-the-box with WEP.I can't say much about adding WPA, it should be supported natively, but the drivers in DSL are too old (I think the new ones do support WPA)
wpa_supplicant is in DSL..
Posted by john.martzouco on Nov. 24 2007,13:00
Thanks curaga, your statement that this Best Buy card will work with DSL out-of-the-box is good enough for me to make a $22 gamble.I've noticed a few other threads on this Forum that touch on WPA, I'll give them a good read and hopefully get the card running on WPA. It's well known that < WEP is easily cracked >, and I can't imagine this distribution being soft on security.
Posted by roberts on Nov. 24 2007,14:23
My Airlink Super G pcmcia is an Atheros based card, (AR5212). It works out of the box. However, with Atheros there are so many different chipset all called atheros and all use the same named files for ndiswraper, yet they are different.I believe the card in question is an AR5005, so it is different. For example the Atheros in the eeePC is a AR5007 and that one has been reported not to work. And, worse yet the module for it requires a 2.6 kernel. Perhaps more research is needed.
I have tested wpa_supplicant in DSL with ndiswrapper and it worked fine. Others have also reported such.
Posted by roberts on Nov. 24 2007,14:49
More info on Atheros card from the Madwif sources.There are currently three "programming generations" of Atheros 802.11
wireless devices (some of these have multiple hardware implementations
but otherwise appear identical to users):
5210 supports 11a only
5211 supports both 11a and 11b
5212 supports 11a, 11b, and 11g
These parts have been incorporated in a variety of retail products
including Cardbus cards from D-Link, Linksys, Netgear, Orinoco, Proxim,
and 3Com; and mini-pci cards from some of these same vendors. In
addition, many laptop vendors use Atheros mini-pci cards for their
built-in wireless support.
For an up-to-date list of cards based on Atheros parts visit:
< http://customerproducts.atheros.com/customerproducts >
Posted by curaga on Nov. 24 2007,15:00
There are also variations based on firmware; my card is a 5212, yet it doesn't support 11a at all.
Posted by john.martzouco on Nov. 24 2007,15:18
Wow, I've looked everywhere I can think of but haven't found an Airlink Super G PCMCIA. I'm no dummy (I hope) and I'd buy exactly the same card you have Robert (it's the best chance for stability I figure) but I haven't found a source. eBay has no listings, my local computer stores and office supply places also don't have.I'm going to go pick up the Dynex and keep it sealed until I decide where I'm going with this.
I know it's stupid to ask this... but if someone were to recommend the best choice for a WPA compliant PCMCIA card for DSL, I'd probably spend the extra 20$ knowing that future versions would be built with that piece of hardware in mind.
Anybody have an Airlink Super G PCMCIA like Robert's that they'd like to sell me? I'm in Montreal, shipping in NA would be trivial and I'm not cheap when I make up my mind about things.
Thanks,
John
PS - What's the difference between the nomenclatures PCMCIA and Cardbus?
Posted by roberts on Nov. 24 2007,15:47
Cardbus has a gold colored edge. Mine is cardbus.On my oldest laptops, in order to use cardbus, I need to boot with pci=assign_busses
My AirLink Super G is model AWLC4030 - II
I got this a Fry's Electronics. Very cheap.
Works with DSL both natively and with ndiswrapper.
Posted by john.martzouco on Nov. 24 2007,16:39
I imagine that by gold edge you're referring to the 1/4 inch of metal that is applied top side of the 68 pin-hole connector? The Dynex is then a CardBus.I have one here with me right now, I just came back from Best Buy with it. Plugged in, booted up DSL 4.1 and the Power light on the card is illuminated.
I just executed lspci and I see it listed:
| Code Sample |
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03) 0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03) 0000:00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02) 0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01) 0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01) 0000:00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02) 0000:00:11.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1225 (rev 01) 0000:00:11.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1225 (rev 01) 0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage LT Pro AGP-133 (rev dc) 0000:03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc.: Unknown device 001a (rev 01) |
okay... iwconfig reports this from combined stdout and stderr:
| Code Sample |
ath0 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:"" Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00 Bit Rate:0kb/s Tx-Power:0 dBm Sensitivity=0/3 Retry:off RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Encryption key:off Power Management:off Link Quality:0/94 Signal level:-95 dBm Noise level:-95 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 lo no wireless extensions. wifi0 no wireless extensions. |
okay... now I've run the Wlanconfig command from the Control Panel. There are many options in there that I've never seen before so I took defaults for them: NWID (is this domain or host name?), additional parameters for iwspy, iwpriv?
I've also temporarily dropped the WEP encryption on my wireless access point.
Here are the pertinent changes:
| Code Sample |
ath0 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:"[B]my_ssid_name[/B]" Mode:Managed [B]Frequency:2.437GHz[/B] Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00 |
Ran pump -i ath0 and now both lights are blinking on the card. Now iwconfig returs:
| Code Sample |
ath0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"my_ssid_name" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412GHz Access Point: [B]00:0A:0B:0C:0D:0E[/B] Bit Rate:[B]54Mb/s[/B] Tx-Power:18 dBm Sensitivity=0/3 ... Link Quality:[B]27/94[/B] Signal level:-68 dBm Noise level:-95 dBm Rx invalid nwid:176 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 |
Okay, I just checked the Active Clients List on my wireless access point configuration page and the card's MAC address shows up there...
But my laptop just shut down because it hit critical temperature of 93C. hmmmm, I had that happen a couple of times with Wolvix the other day as well... I'll be asking for help to understand how to get my fan spinning with cheat codes soon.
Okay, I've followed Robert's directions from the next post and I connected without any encrypption. Then I went to my access point and set up WEP again and I reconnected fine:
| Code Sample |
# iwconfig ath0 key 99:99:99:99 essid your-net-name # pump -i ath0 '# pkill pump |
Now, what do I do to make this persistent? I have a hard-disk installation with multi-user.
Also, what do I need to do on the DSL (client side) to get WPA up and running?
I'm going to come back and edit this entry as I progress through this.
John
Posted by roberts on Nov. 24 2007,17:11
If you turned off encyrption then try the simplest command first:# iwconfig ath0 essid your-net-name
# pump -i ath0
or with wep
# iwconfig ath0 key 99:99:99:99 essid your-net-name
# pump -i ath0
Once you do a pump, you may have to reboot or try
# pkill pump
Don't want to have pump hanging around.
The second one is the one that I use fot my airlink card
Posted by john.martzouco on Nov. 24 2007,17:22
Thanks Robert, I'm going to try that now.
Posted by curaga on Nov. 24 2007,17:23
If it's using acpi, go to /proc/acpi/fan/FAN0. There's a file "state", do a | Quote |
| echo -n "1" > state |
Posted by john.martzouco on Nov. 24 2007,17:30
@Robert,WHOOHOOO!!! It worked!
The
iwconfig ath0...
pump...
pkill pump
combination worked!
I'm writing you from Dillo!
@curaga,
I saw the noacpi cheat code passed in when I booted up. Does this affect the fan? I'm going to go check the /proc/acpi... now.
I checked, there is /proc/acpi/fan directory.
Should I change cheat codes to try and get this turned on? What info can I upload that might help diagnose this?
Thanks
Posted by john.martzouco on Nov. 24 2007,17:50
WEP up and running...Now, what do I do to make this persistent? I have a hard-disk installation with multi-user.
Also, what do I need to do on the DSL (client side) to connect to the AP using WPA?
Posted by john.martzouco on Nov. 24 2007,18:44
Another question... what console commands do I need to execute so that I can assign a static IP address through ath0? If I do this, will I still need to make the call to 'pump'?I added the iwconfig commands to my /opt/bootlocal.sh, this is the best place for it, yes?
I remember seeing a post about how to change the machine's 'hostname'... so that comes pretty soon.
Should I want to put this machine on the same network workgroup as my desktop Windows machines? I'm guessing yes, so that I can easily file serve back and forth with Samba... but am I correct?
Much, much thanks to everyone who's helped me so far!
John
Posted by roberts on Nov. 24 2007,20:55
Most answers are up to you and how you will be using the machine.Placing the commands in /opt/bootlocal.sh is fine if the machine will always be connecting to your home network.
BTW: Using the iwconfig gui in the control panel for 4.x makes a wireless icon and script in your home directory. I use this as I don't run wireless at home. I have several wireless icons for each net that I want to connect to when out and about.
Static IP is in the < Wiki FAQ > Place those command in /opt/.bootlocal.sh
Could also use netcardconf gui, but it has a bug until I post 4.1RC3.
For Samba please start a new thread, but look around many users are doing this with LinNeighborhood MyDSL extension.
For WPA, I have only tested using ndiswrapper. The trickest part is to get the correct settings in wpa_supplicant.conf
The commands using ndiswrapper that works for me are:
# iwconfig ath0 essid 'your-network-name'
# wpa_supplicant -Bdd -Dndiswrapper -i ath0 -c /home/dsl/wpa_supplicant.conf
# pump -i ath0
Posted by john.martzouco on Nov. 24 2007,21:16
A million thanks Robert!I'm going to take care of a few things on my setup and then post questions in appropriate places if I get stuck.
Today has been incredibly good for me, I've made great progress with my favorite distribution!
Posted by curaga on Nov. 25 2007,11:05
Yeah, remove "noacpi" from the boot line, as it disables acpi.. Then try to force the fan on.If it won't go on, it's broken
Posted by john.martzouco on Nov. 25 2007,12:15
Thanks curaga,I'm making the change now and will see what happens next bootup. The fan is usually running, I've only noticed it Off while plugged into wall power a few times.