[oclug]Linux wireless hardware? where to find.

[Ross Jordan]

> 
> Oops. Sorry... guess i read too quickly.
> 
> I do however remember seeing a PCMCIA to PCI adaptor type of device
> while researching wireless card support for linux. Here is the type
> of device i'm talking about:
> (http://www.wirelessbg.net/bg/products/wcard.htm, sorry page in russian),
> if you scroll down until you see the item PCI-to-PCMCIA Adaptor.
> You may want to look into this, although i'm not sure where you could
> find one in ottawa.

There are very few truly PCI wireless cards. I've only heard of
one. The vast majority, i.e. 90%+ are PCMCIA (The other 10% are
USB). So the normal way one gets the PCMCIA card to work in a
desktop machine is using a PCI to PCMCIA adapter. Of the available
PCMCIA adapters, you can get (a) a PCMCIA bridge or (b) a model specific
PCMCIA converter. The bridge has the benefit of working with *any*
PCMCIA card, and drivers for the bridges are well supported under
Linux and BSD. On the other hard, the model specific adapters will
only work with the specific PCMCIA card it is designed for, and driver
support under Linux is weak or non-existant. I have a Nortel E-mobility
card in category (b) and it has been a royal pain to get working. 
Meanwhile, I can just pop out the PCMCIA card and put it in my Databook
PCMCIA bridge and it work.

ISA PCMCIA bridges go for about US$25 on ebay, which is cheaper than
you could get an adapter for anyway.

Hope that helps, 
Ross