[plug] WiFi card question

[Adrian Woodley]

Chris,

If you absolutely need WPA/WPA2 today, and you don't have a laptop, then
an atheros chipset would be the way to go. Unfortunately, I can't
recommend any actual cards as I haven't bought a wifi card for a couple
of years now.

WPA/WPA2 is worth it in terms of ease of setup and use, as well as
security. You could probably make do with WEP128, provided you changed
your keys every day or so. Alternatively, you could run and open access
point and firewall it off from the rest of your network and allow
through only authenticated SSL services - imaps, smtp/TLS, http proxy
over ssl, etc. You could also run a VPN over the top of a firewalled,
open access point. This will provide you with security as good as, if
not, better than WPA (plus you can use it for remote access away from
home).

If you can wait a bit (maybe 6 months?) there should be a new wifi stack
in the kernel which will provide WPA/WPA2 support for most wifi
chipsets.

Adrian

On Thu, 2006-07-06 at 19:47 +0800, Chris Griffin wrote:
> Hi Adrian,
> 
> many thanks for the response. From what you have indicated I would
> have thought the Prism2/2.5/3 the most likley but you left it out of
> your summary, did I miss something?
> Given you say "Full feature set (AP and client, WPA/WPA2/802.11X
> authenticator and supplicant)".
> Oh, I just noticed "* 802.11b only (AFAIK)", bother.
> Any idea of just what to buy, where to get it and how much?
> 
> Regards,
> Chris G
> 
> On 7/6/06, Adrian Woodley <Adrian at screamingroot.org> wrote:
> > Chris,
> >
> > Thats a bit of a hard choice. For WPA support it pretty much comes down
> > to three chipsets:
> >
> > IPW2100/2200
> > * Intel chipset.
> > * 802.11a/g
> > * Good Linux support with out-of-tree kernel drivers.
> > * Works well with wpa-supplicant.
> > * Monitor mode.
> > * Laptop only.
> >
> > Prism2/2.5/3
> > * Hostap driver.
> > * Full feature set (AP and client, WPA/WPA2/802.11X authenticator and
> > supplicant)
> > * Monitor mode.
> > * 802.11b only (AFAIK)
> > * In in-tree kernel support.
> > * Not to be confused with Prism54g chipset.
> >
> > Atheros
> > * 802.11a/g
> > * Monitor mode.
> > * Supported by Madwifi drivers.
> > * Madwifi-ng has different API to standard Linux Wifi Extensions - needs
> > to be carefully matched to wpa-supplicant version.
> >
> > So really, for 54g stuff you've got a choice between Atheros/Madwifi and
> > IPW2100/2200, and even then IPW2100/2200 is only supported in laptops
> > (mini-pci/pccard) AFAIK.
> >
> > I've had varying success with madwifi, using both the original and "-ng"
> > versions. On the whole I've found its stability to be lacking and
> > generally not as good as the Intel chipset.
> >
> > All that said, there are big changes going on in the Linux Wifi stack
> > and all this will be changing soon. Software MAC will be intergrated
> > into most drivers, meaning more chipsets will support WPA/WPA2. This
> > will also mean a unified Wifi Extensions, so systems like wpa-supplicant
> > and hostapd will be easier to maintain.
> >
> > Adrian
> >
> > On Wed, 2006-07-05 at 15:11 +0800, Chris Griffin wrote:
> > > Sorry, I guess I assumed that if I was buying new I would go for
> > > 802.11g. Mainly wanted to get away from WEP due to inherent security
> > > issues.
> > >
> > >
> > > On 7/5/06, garry <garbuck at westnet.com.au> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Might be useful if you say which spec card you want to buy.
> > > >
> > > > I still use the Enterasys 802.11b cards, with Mandriva 2k6 they just work.
> > > >
> > > > HTH
> > > >
> > > > Garry
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Chris Griffin wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Greetings all,
> > > > >
> > > > > In light of the fact that such things change at such a rapid rate, I
> > > > > am looking at upgrading my WiFi cards and of course it is mandatory
> > > > > that they work flawlessly with Linux (I run, mostly, Fedora). Could
> > > > > someone please give me some clues as to what to get that, hopefully,
> > > > > will work out of the box?
> > > > >
> > > > > Regards,
> > > > > Chris Griffin
> > > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > > PLUG discussion list: plug at plug.org.au
> > > > > http://www.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
> > > > > Committee e-mail: committee at plug.linux.org.au
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > _______________________________________________
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> > > >
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> > > http://www.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
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> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > http://www.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
> > Committee e-mail: committee at plug.linux.org.au
> >
> _______________________________________________
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> http://www.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
> Committee e-mail: committee at plug.linux.org.au