Wireless intarweb


I am amused by the “Recommended Accessories” at the bottom right of
this Future Shop catalog entry.


Incidentally, I’m just starting to plan an 802.11g network at home,
which will involve a couple of desktop PCs and a laptop all running
Linux and occasionally running Windows. It seems to me that the
SMC 2802W (PCI) and SMC 2835W (Cardbus) are good bets, although no
matter what I do I’ll have to move to a 2.6 kernel. I’m also debating
whether the laptop (old Thinkpad 570E) should speak 802.11g or just
802.11b; it’s sort of a secondary machine to be used when one of us want
to lounge on the sofa or balcony or bed or Bridgehead or the Elgin
Street Diner instead of sitting at our desks. Thoughts?


Lastly, I welcome recommendations for a broadband router/AP. I don’t
think I want to futz with a Linux-based AP, because the box that I’d
run it on is stuck with a 2.4 kernel for the foreseeable future. It
needs to speak PPPOE on the WAN side and 802.11g on the AP side and
have a couple of LAN ports, although I suppose I have an extra switch
lying around if it’s only got one LAN port.


4 responses to “Wireless intarweb”

  1. I have a Linksys WRT54G running the Sveasoft firmware. It has a ton of extra features, and it runs Linux and allows shell access. I can let you check my router out sometime, if you’d like.

  2. Why a 2.6 kernel? I have wireless working on my laptop with a 2.4.18 kernel. Or is 2.6’s wireless support that much better?

  3. Do you have 802.11g, though? The best-supported g chipset in Linux is prism54, and that appeared in 2.6.8 or so.