Differences between revisions 306 and 307

Contents

Wireless Cards
1. By Manufacturer
  1. Wireless USB Adapters
2. By Card

If you are buying a new computer, it is best to select one with a wireless component that is designed for free software like Linux. A card designed for free software gives you improved support. Free software compatible devices also work out of the box.

The Free Software Foundation recommends a few chipsets including: Ralink 2500/RT2400 (802.11G), Realtek RTL8180 (802.11G), and the Atheros AR9170 chipset (802.11N).
ThinkPenguin.com currently offers a 802.11N USB card with the AR9170 chipset that guarantees free software compatibility. Also available are MiniPCI wifi cards for laptop computers and USB Bluetooth adapters to connect Bluetooth wireless devices.
Passys sells a PCI card that is Linux compatible (although not free software compatible) for desktop computers.
Wikipedia has additional information on which chipsets and drivers are free software compatible.
Some other cards are Linux compatible, but not free software compatible. These usually work, but in some cases may not.

Even if your wireless card does not have a driver designed for Ubuntu, you may be able to get it to work using NDISWrapper and a Microsoft Windows driver. This comes at the expense of functionality and reliability. If you get this method working your Internet connection will most likely be very unstable.

Other Ubuntu wiki pages on Wireless Networking:

Wireless Cards

To determine what wireless card/chipset you have, first determine whether it is a separate device plugged into the computer or not. If it is a separate USB device, open up a terminal and type the following:

lsusb

and look for words like "wireless" to find your card type.

For chips that are not USB but included in the computer, type:

lspci -v

and read the last section.

By Manufacturer

The Community has created articles for the following Manufacturers:

Manufacturer	Card Type
3Com		PCMCIA	PCI	PCI Low Profile	USB
A-Link					USB
Accton			PCI
Adaptec		PCMCIA
Advent		PCMCIA
ADDON					USB
Airlink101		PCMCIA	PCI		USB
Aptiva					USB
Aria Extreme		PCMCIA
Asus		PCMCIA	PCI		USB
Atlantis Land			PCI
Belkin		PCMCIA	PCI	ExpressCard/34	USB
Blitzz				Cardbus
Broadcom	miniPCI
Buffalo		PCMCIA	PCI		USB
Cable & Wireless				Cardbus
Cisco		PCMCIA		Cardbus
Cnet		PCMCIA	PCI
Compaq					USB
CompUSA/Realtek			PCI
Conceptronic					USB
Dell					USB
Dexlan		PCMCIA
Digicom					USB
Digitus		PCMCIA	PCI	Unknown	USB
D-Link		PCMCIA	PCI	Unknown	USB
Edimax		PCMCIA	PCI	Unknown	USB
eHome		PCMCIA
Encore			PCI
Gigabyte Technology	miniPCI		PCI
Hawking		PCMCIA	PCI	Cardbus	USB
HP			PCI
Intel	miniPCI
KCorp				Cardbus
Level One		PCMCIA
Linksys		PCMCIA	PCI		USB
Longshine		PCMCIA
Motorola		PCMCIA
MSI	miniPCI		PCI
MyEssentials					USB
Netcomm			PCI
Netcore					USB
Netgear		PCMCIA	PCI		USB
Novatech					USB
Pheenet					USB
Proxim/Orinoco		PCMCIA	PCI
RealTek			PCI		USB
RetailPlus					USB
Rosewill					USB
Sierra					USB
Sitecom		PCMCIA	PCI
SMC		PCMCIA	PCI		USB
Sweex		PCMCIA	PCI		USB
Topcom		PCMCIA
TP-Link		PCMCIA	PCI		USB
Trendnet		PCMCIA	PCI		USB
Trust				Unknown
US Robotics		PCMCIA			USB
Zonet		PCMCIA	PCI		USB
Zyxel		PCMCIA	PCI		USB
Various

Wireless USB Adapters

This table is discontinued. Please do not add anything to it. Update directly on the manufacturer's page.

These cards are being moved into the articles listed above. Please feel free to help out.

Make

Model

Chipset/ Driver

Supports network install?

Supported in installed system?

Works "out of the box"

Comments

Last Updated

Type

AVM GmbH	Fritz!WLAN USB Stick	TNETW1450 / fwlanusb	No	No	No	See WifiDocs/Device/Fritz!WLAN_USB_Stick for details, works with Breezy & Dapper	2006-03-25	USB
Orient	XG-701A	zd1211	?	Yes	Yes	Works out of the box with WPA on Feisty using network-manager	2007-04-23	USB
Veho	11g USB adapter	ZyDAS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes works out of the box. Plug and play including WPA support!	2007-12-04	USB
Westell	A90-211WG	ndiswrapper + wlusb20/PRISMA02	?	Yes	No	Works perfectly with ndiswrapper and wlusb20.inf on installation CD.	2007-07-17	USB
Various (SMC, Belkin...)	Various USB devices	Atmel AT76C503A	?	Yes	Yes	Plug it and go the the network administration to enable it. Nothing more, it works fairly well	2005-09-27	USB
My Essentials	Various USB devices	Belkin	?	Yes	Yes	Just works: Feisty, Gutsy, Hardy. Plug in and automatically recognised by network manager.	2008-06-29	USB

Note: Have a look at this page, my new version of this on with a cleaner layout: WifiDocs/WirelessCardsByVersion

By Card

Please take a moment and add your card to the wiki if there isn't a page on that device yet. It's very simple, try to follow the format of template but don't worry too much about following guidelines. It's much more important to document your experience for others.

To create a page, simply enter the model # and version in the box (example: dwl-g650vB5) and then click on the Create Device Page button. If there is a page on your device already, open it and add your comments/experience to the existing page.

CategoryHardware CategoryNetworking CategoryWireless

-  ⇤ ← Revision 306 as of 2011-07-11 02:11:24 → 
  Size: 18481
  Editor: cpe-72-230-96-198
  Comment: moved some cards from tables to new pages and aesthetic change to tables
+   ← Revision 307 as of 2011-07-11 18:46:45 → ⇥
  Size: 18345
  Editor: cpe-72-230-96-198
  Comment: moved some cards from tables to new pages, and other small changes
-Deletions are marked like this.
+Additions are marked like this.
 Line 5:
-  * [[http://thinkpenguin.com/| ThinkPenguin.com]] Currently is the only company offering a 802.11N USB card with the AR9170 chipset that guarantees free software compatibility. Also available are MiniPCI wifi cards for laptop computers and USB Bluetooth adapters to connect Bluetooth wireless devices.
+  * [[http://thinkpenguin.com/| ThinkPenguin.com]] currently offers a 802.11N USB card with the AR9170 chipset that guarantees free software compatibility. Also available are MiniPCI wifi cards for laptop computers and USB Bluetooth adapters to connect Bluetooth wireless devices.
 Line 7:
-  * [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_open_source_wireless_drivers|Wikipedia]] has additional information on which chipsets and drivers are free software compatible if you would like to hunt down a card on your own.

Some other cards are Linux compatible, but not free software compatible. These usually work, but in some cases may not.
+  * [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_open_source_wireless_drivers|Wikipedia]] has additional information on which chipsets and drivers are free software compatible.
  * Some other cards are Linux compatible, but not free software compatible. These usually work, but in some cases may not.
-Line 15:
+Line 14:
- * WifiDocs/WirelessTroubleShootingGuide (work in progress)
 * WirelessTroubleshootingProcedure   (work in progress)
+ * WifiDocs/WirelessTroubleShootingGuide 
 * WirelessTroubleshootingProcedure
-Line 20:
+Line 19:
-To determine what wireless card/chipset you have, first determine whether it is a separate device plugged into the computer or not. If it is a separate device, open up a terminal and type the following:
+To determine what wireless card/chipset you have, first determine whether it is a separate device plugged into the computer or not. If it is a separate USB device, open up a terminal and type the following:
-Line 24:
+Line 23:
-and look for words like wireless, etc. to find your card type.
+and look for words like "wireless" to find your card type.
-Line 26:
+Line 25:
-For chips that are not separate parts but included in the computer, type:
+For chips that are not USB but included in the computer, type:
-Line 53:
+Line 52:
-|| [[HardwareSupportComponentsWirelessNetworkCardsBlitzz | Blitzz]] || ||[[HardwareSupportComponentsWirelessNetworkCardsBlitzz#PCMCIA | PCMCIA]] || || || ||
+|| [[HardwareSupportComponentsWirelessNetworkCardsBlitzz | Blitzz]] || || || ||[[HardwareSupportComponentsWirelessNetworkCardsBlitzz#Cardbus | Cardbus]] || ||
-Line 56:
+Line 55:
-|| [[HardwareSupportComponentsWirelessNetworkCardsCableWireless | Cable & Wireless]] || ||[[HardwareSupportComponentsWirelessNetworkCardsCableWireless#PCMCIA | PCMCIA]] || || || ||
+|| [[HardwareSupportComponentsWirelessNetworkCardsCableWireless | Cable & Wireless]] || || || ||[[HardwareSupportComponentsWirelessNetworkCardsCableWireless#Cardbus | Cardbus]] || ||
-Line 59:
+Line 58:
+|| [[HardwareSupportComponentsWirelessNetworkCardsCompaq | Compaq]] || || || || || [[HardwareSupportComponentsWirelessNetworkCardsCompaq#USB | USB]] ||
 Line 81:
+|| [[HardwareSupportComponentsWirelessNetworkCardsNetcore | Netcore]] || || || || ||[[HardwareSupportComponentsWirelessNetworkCardsNetcore#USB | USB]] ||
-Line 82:
+Line 83:
+|| [[HardwareSupportComponentsWirelessNetworkCardsNovatech | Novatech]] || || || || ||[[HardwareSupportComponentsWirelessNetworkCardsNovatech#USB | USB]] ||
|| [[HardwareSupportComponentsWirelessNetworkCardsPheenet | Pheenet]] || || || || || [[HardwareSupportComponentsWirelessNetworkCardsPheenet#USB | USB]] ||
-Line 110:
+Line 113:
-|| Compaq || W200 || orinoco_usb || No || No || No || Following [[WifiDocs/Device/CompaqW200]] WEP works, not tried WPA || 2005-01-25 || USB||
|| Netcore || 331gu || ndiswrapper || ? || Yes || No || Stable in Gutsy without Network Manager. || 2008-02-22 || USB ||
|| NovaTech || 902w || RAlink rt2570 || No || No || No || VendorID not included [[https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bug/61797|BUG]] || 2006-10-29 || USB ||
 Line 114:
-|| PheeNet || WLU-703Z || zd1211 || ? || Yes || Yes || Works out of the box on Edgy using network-manager || 2007-01-15 || USB ||
-Line 124:
+Line 123:
-Please take a moment and add your card to the wiki if there isn't a page on that device yet. Its very simple, follow format of template but don't put too much worry here in following a guideline. It will be cleaned up if needed. It's more important to document your experience for others.
To create a page, simply enter the model # and version in the box {{{ex.. dwl-g650vB5}}} and then click on the Create Device Page button. If there is a page on your device already, open up and add your comments/experience to the existing page.
+Please take a moment and add your card to the wiki if there isn't a page on that device yet. It's very simple, try to follow the format of template but don't worry too much about following guidelines. It's much more important to document your experience for others.
-Line 127:
+Line 125:
- * A list of supported cards can be found in the chart above
+To create a page, simply enter the model # and version in the box (example: dwl-g650vB5) and then click on the Create Device Page button. If there is a page on your device already, open it and add your comments/experience to the existing page.

Ubuntu Documentation

Diff for "WifiDocs/WirelessCardsSupported"

Wireless Cards

By Manufacturer

Wireless USB Adapters

By Card