As I understand it, there is the potential for 802.11g cards to disrupt, or at least use, frequencies that are used by the military. Manufactureres have, according to rumor, been pressured not to release information that would allow users to select these frequencies. Open Source software does not provide any means for manufacturers to do this, and aparantly locking down the available frequencies in the hardware is impractical.
This is just rumor - I have seen no confirmation that there has been any pressure on the manufacturers, nor can I confirm that this potential is anythnig more than an excuse to stick to a propietary model.
That said, http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Linux.Wireless.drivers....
Lists two 802.11g device driver projects, the Prism54 driver at http://prism54.org/ and the Intell IPW2200 at http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/.
A little searching finds the prism-based Tekram TM-802G available from pcbay.com at $22.98 shipped.
This article says that Intel is releasing Linux drivers for it's Centrino platform: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39156340,00.htm
Here's an article from someone who picked up a prism based Netgear WG511 for $35 a year ago - gotta be cheaper now: http://toys.lerdorf.com/archives/15-802.11g-Netgear-WG511-and-Linux.html
So it's just a matter of putting in the effort to find one that works, even if you really want 11g speed for $25.
I just snagged two of the TM-802G models with 3-day shipping from PCBay for a total of $49.62, I will report back on my trail-n-tribulations of making it work a couple of my notebooks.
Later, Steven (Tallen)
On Sun, 31 Oct 2004 10:54:16 -0500, Jonathan Hutchins [email protected] wrote:
As I understand it, there is the potential for 802.11g cards to disrupt, or at least use, frequencies that are used by the military. Manufactureres have, according to rumor, been pressured not to release information that would allow users to select these frequencies. Open Source software does not provide any means for manufacturers to do this, and aparantly locking down the available frequencies in the hardware is impractical.
This is just rumor - I have seen no confirmation that there has been any pressure on the manufacturers, nor can I confirm that this potential is anythnig more than an excuse to stick to a propietary model.
That said, http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Linux.Wireless.drivers....
Lists two 802.11g device driver projects, the Prism54 driver at http://prism54.org/ and the Intell IPW2200 at http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/.
A little searching finds the prism-based Tekram TM-802G available from pcbay.com at $22.98 shipped.
This article says that Intel is releasing Linux drivers for it's Centrino platform: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39156340,00.htm
Here's an article from someone who picked up a prism based Netgear WG511 for $35 a year ago - gotta be cheaper now: http://toys.lerdorf.com/archives/15-802.11g-Netgear-WG511-and-Linux.html
So it's just a matter of putting in the effort to find one that works, even if you really want 11g speed for $25.
Kclug mailing list [email protected] http://kclug.org/mailman/listinfo/kclug
Jonathan Hutchins wrote:
As I understand it, there is the potential for 802.11g cards to disrupt, or at least use, frequencies that are used by the military. Manufactureres have, according to rumor, been pressured not to release information that would allow users to select these frequencies. Open Source software does not provide any means for manufacturers to do this, and aparantly locking down the available frequencies in the hardware is impractical.
This is just rumor - I have seen no confirmation that there has been any pressure on the manufacturers, nor can I confirm that this potential is anythnig more than an excuse to stick to a propietary model.
The answer is almost all of those points. And of course the usual FUD . Open Source coders to my experience are arguably LESS likely to be a problem of disrespecting REAL band usage constraints. Knowing the potentials for havoc makes one cautious in violating hard limits of spectrum separation . True- there are always going to be those who " Bring a gun to a knife fight" but WE have fewer of those .
My personal work with software defined radios-Motorola , Drake , Alinco confirm that "band notching" or "Selective TX Inhibit" causes instability and usability issues compared to cost factors . Snipped of the esoterica -
"Either you can have the gear be cheap-unhackable-or stable pick any 2 ."
Oren
www.campdownunder.com
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Jonathan Hutchins -
Oren Beck -
Steven Hildreth