WLAN stuff [was: Re: 5 years of support..!!??]

[Nils Kassube]

gene heskett wrote:
> Well, at this point it is all moot.  I haven't powered up this lappy
> in about 6 months.  6 months ago ndiswrapper, using bcmwlhigh5
> worked absolutely bullet proof, in the shop, against Linda's
> frontier supplied router up in NY, and in a motel in Orlando.  So I
> plugged it in and edited the interfaces file even before I'd plugged
> in a cat5 in case I needed something.  But no led can be seen on the
> dongle, and when I check the logs, loadndisdriver is failing to load
> bcmwlhigh5, giving no reason.  So I try to install the driver again
> but it claims its already installed.
> 
> To top that off, I apparently lost the pw to the router I was using
> as an AP out there in the shop(its been 6 months since I used it),
> so I did the powerup, holding the reset button down for 30 seconds
> thing, and now its disappeared.  Brand new router, 7 months ago,
> only been powered up 3 or 4 days in that time.  I am beginning to
> develop an extreme distaste for netgear crap.  Which means I am
> about to order another buffalo running dd- wrt.  I can at least get
> good support from dd-wrt when it turned out that buffalo's branded
> version of dd-wrt was broken.

I don't know about that buffalo thing you're talking about, but if it
isn't capable of 802.11n, I can recommend the TP-Link TL-WN1043ND. I'm
using it with openwrt, but maybe there is also a dd-wrt port for it, if
you prefer that software.

> That may be fixable, but dammit, where can I buy a 802-11g/n dongle
> that linux supports right out of the GD box?

I'm using the TP-Link TL-WN821N USB dongle here. It is supported out of
the box from Natty onwards. For 10.04 you need the
linux-backports-modules-wireless-2.6.38-lucid-generic package (or 
*-generic-pae depending on your kernel version) or at least the 2.6.38
kernel (there are backported kernels from Natty and Oneiric in the
repos). And you need a newer linux-firmware package, e.g.
<http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/l/linux-firmware/linux-firmware_1.60_all.deb>.

BTW: Router and dongle are both using Atheros chips, so no Broadcom
involved.


Nils