[ale] Various Random Thoughts and Issues Regarding Wifi Adaptors

[Thompson Freeman]

I'm generally happier using a wired connection to network,  
but having purchased a Nokia N770, and then a used lappie,  
I decided to go for convience. I have sort of learned  
enough about Wifi/802.11xxx to possibly be dangerous to  
self and those near me. I've got things largely working on  
the laptop under Ubuntu 6.4(Dapper Drake?). As such, I  
thought I'd share with people who actually get these things  
working well, and maybe learn something from the exchange.

The laptop is an old IBM ThinkPad with 384 MB ram, and a P  
III running at 900 MHz. FWIW, I'm booting the 2.6.15-27-386  
kernel, with the builtin sound, networking, and such  
working (haven't tested the IR stuff, as I haven't seen the  
need). Getting wireless going, however, is a little more  
challenging.

So far, I've got something like results from six wireless  
adaptors, running supposedly native drivers, although I'll  
admit I can fool myself there. _One_ of the six seems to  
work well, which rather suggests to me that wireless  
adaptors and linux is more a miss affair than a hit.

The one adaptor I've found so far that seems to work well  
is a ZyXel ZyAIR G102 PCMCIA. At least it shows relative  
signal strength and works out of the box to connect to a  
local hotspot.

Other adaptors. A NetGear MA111 USB also shows signal  
strength, but very weak reception. I have yet to get it to  
connect to a AP. A Linksys WUSB54gv4 may sometimes connect,  
but shows a signal strenth of 100% always. Durn shame too,  
because it would be a nice unit to war drive with... A  
Linksys WPC54Gv3 PCMCIA adaptor might sometimes sort of  
work, but I'm real frustrated with it. And last - a ZyXEL  
ZyAIR G220v2 usb device which I picked up last night after  
seeing web notes that it worked - needs a self-compiled  
driver so I have _no_ idea how well it works 'cause at the  
moment it doesn't (and I don't have development packages  
loaded for Ubuntu).

So far, it seems that you need to try before you buy if you  
want to use linux and wireless in the same breath. The  
device vendors seem to be very willing change things around  
enough to make linux support "iffy" even if you have  
reasonable assurance that things should work. Sales  
packaging will happily not admit to version revisions, and  
product coding seems designed to encourage mistakes. In  
short, "screw the customer" by way of obfustication seems  
to be the order of the day. Nothing new, but aggrivating.

Just as frustrating, there doesn't seem to be any resource  
where you can get good information on the web with respect  
to these adaptors. Admittedly, getting the information  
together would be a huge undertaking, and the manufacturers  
would quickly invalidate many findings, so the effort may  
not be worth undertaking. Still, if I may fantasize(sp?)  
for some more lines...

The idea came to me last night while I was reviewing my  
notes. How about a user group setting up camp outside a  
place like Fryes (with management permission of course),  
and running a series of tests on wifi adaptors as they are  
either purchase or brought in for test. Now I know both the  
setup and coordination would be complicated and maintaining  
any semblence of order near impossible, but the information  
which could be generated might be most interesting. I was  
thinking of a scripted series of tests performed under  
different distributions and hardware to get a handle on how  
relatively good a link can be established, how much trouble  
is getting the thing working if it isn't "out of the box"  
ready, and so forth. If a given device type can be averaged  
out over a number of different trials, an idea of QC can  
also emerge. Ultimately, of course the idea is to support  
the manufacturers who provide the community the best  
product.

I've rambled enough, but appreciate the opportunity to  
vent/observe. Thanks for the bandwidth.