[plug] N-Wireless pci network card

[Lucas van Staden]

William Kenworthy wrote:
> My sony laptop has an intel chipset - supported in the kernel (no
> drivers needed, though I needed a firmware package from somewhere ... -
> works very well.
>   
That sounds promising, do you know what the chipset is, or what the card 
mode/name is?
If not, drop me the laptop model, and I'll dig.
> I have an tp-link pci network card (atheros chipset) in another machine,
> and had fedora and gentoo on it briefly before I had to install windoze
> and that worked under linux, but I cant remember the details other than
> no issues.  Other atheros cardbus cards Ive tried in laptops in the past
> were mostly disasters (using madwifi drivers - workability was highly
> version dependent, one would be ok, the next hardly worked at all.
>
>   
One of the cards I have is tp-link, which uses the ath9k driver 
(atheros), so I suspect it may be the same.
The ath9k cards I have seem to work 'no issues', but after a while 
you'll notice that they drop and reconnect A LOT.
If you have permanent remote connections open, that becomes an issue

dmesg for me is full of:

[434824.488850] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:22:75:22:c6:fc (try 1)
[434824.492127] wlan0 direct probe responded
[434824.492135] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:22:75:22:c6:fc (try 1)
[434824.494263] wlan0: authenticated
[434824.693525] wlan0: associate with AP 00:22:75:22:c6:fc (try 1)
[434824.697478] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:22:75:22:c6:fc (capab=0x411 
status=0 aid=1)
[434824.697486] wlan0: associated
[434983.004571] No probe response from AP 00:22:75:22:c6:fc after 200ms, 
disconnecting.
[434983.783822] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:22:75:22:c6:fc (try 1)
[434983.787069] wlan0 direct probe responded
[434983.787076] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:22:75:22:c6:fc (try 1)
[434983.789994] wlan0: authenticated
[434983.984530] wlan0: associate with AP 00:22:75:22:c6:fc (try 1)
[434983.988472] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:22:75:22:c6:fc (capab=0x411 
status=0 aid=1)
[434983.988481] wlan0: associated
[435284.720149] wlan0: disassociated (Reason: 4)

> Rather than try different cards, different drivers (including using
> ndiswrapper and/or driverloader - ndiswrapper was excellent on a
> broadcom chipset in a dell that wasnt supported in the kernel at the
> time) might be a better approach.
>
>   
Have not considered trying to use ndiswrapper, as for different drivers, 
so far seems it is only the ath9k drivers that support any of these cards.
I did see some mention of madwifi in some forums, where people were 
discussing the same issue,
but the general concensus was that the madwifi drivers were even worse, 
and in most cases, did not give n-wireless speeds.

As far as I understand the ath9k drivers are replacing the madwifi 
drivers. (sure I read that on some posts, but don't quote me on that)

> BillK
>
>
> On Wed, 2009-08-26 at 13:25 +0800, Lucas van Staden wrote:
>   
>> Hi,
>>
>> Can anyone recommend a wireless-N network card that is stable, and which 
>> does not use the ath9k driver?
>>
>> I now have 4 wireless-N cards (all different brands), but they all use 
>> the ath9k drivers, which seems to have some connectivity issues.
>> With all of them I've had the issue where they disconnect and reconnect 
>> randomly. The ath9k bug tracking system is full of people complaining 
>> about the same issue.
>> Using the latest wireless-compat drivers has not solved my issue.
>> The connection issue would not normally be noticed, as it is quite fast 
>> to reconnect, but it drops my vpn to the uk, which is getting frustrating.
>>
>> I now have my work machine back on g-network, and thus have the 
>> wireless-g router running just for one machine.
>> I am hoping to try a card with a different chipset/driver, before I give 
>> up, and replace the router (belkin), which could be the issue,
>> but until I try another chipset based wireless-N card, I can't be sure.
>>
>> -Lucas
>>
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