Best wireless card for the job

[gregoriahson]

I need a new wireless adapter for my upstairs computer. It is currently using a linksys wireless g adpater that came with the computer I think.

So I want some opions on want card I should get next. Here are the ones I have been looking at so far.

Linksys WUSB600N Rated at 300mbps

D-link DWA-556 Rated at 300mbps

Linksys WMP300n Rated at 54mbps, but comes with a tower so that might help range?

So which of these do you think would be fastest? Or any other suggestions?

Oh yeah and has to be compatible with ubuntu 8.10

[waterhead]

You can always install the latest drivers on Ubuntu 8.10, if needed.

You can't really tell if a wireless will work in Linux by the name on the outside. It is the chips on the inside that will determine if it works, or not.

Most of the 802.11g cards should work, but some will be easier to set up than others. As for the higher speed 802.11n cards, Linux support is just emerging. Some of the best n drivers are available from the chip manufacturers web site, and not from the Linux people.

Ralink has Linux drivers available for it's cards, including the "n" cards:
Ralink Technology: Linux

Also, Broadband has released a driver that supports some of its "n" cards:
Broadcom Corporation - Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA driver

There also is a Driver for Atheros chips that may support some "n" wireless:
ath9k - Linux Wireless

There are others that are listed as supporting "n" wireless. take a look at this list:
Drivers - Linux Wireless

The bottom line is this. You are best off buying the card from a local store and trying it. If you can't make it work, return it and try another.

[gregoriahson]

K I ended up getting the linksys pci. How do i install those drivers. Sorry for my noobness haha

[waterhead]

That was fast!

To know what to do first requires some information. Please read the post linked to below, and the post the information that it describes how to find.

Wireless Setup - Start Here

[gregoriahson]

I got it. Found a little tutorial

[waterhead]

You wanna let everyone else in on the solution? You posted the card info first, then deleted it. I will post it anyway:

Here is the card.

03:08.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM43XG [14e4:4329] (rev 01)

It is loading these wireless drivers.

Module                  Size  Used by
wl                   1496016  0 
ieee80211_crypt        14596  2 ieee80211_crypt_tkip,wl
ndiswrapper           250624  0

I see NDISwrapper in there. That doesn't get loaded by itself, so you must have installed and loaded it. Are you following a guide somewhere else? Installing NDISwrapper, without knowing anything about your wireless, is a sure way to screw things up. I recommend uninstalling NDISwrapper before you become frustrated at things not working!

[gregoriahson]

This worked for me, but it is not that stable. If i push it on bittorrent t o say 1000kbps dl speed and 100 upload it will crash. Also I have tried MANY things and I now have some error screens at bootup.

Could you help me get rid of those?

Or should I just boot a brand new 9.04 and do the steps below that worked?

ORR do you have an alternate method of making it work with more stability?

I am a man with many questions

(1) Open System/Administration/Synaptic Package Manager

(2) Click "Search"

(3) Enter "ndiswrapper" in the search string and click "find"

(4) Be sure the main ndiswrapper package is marked and that the ndiswrapper-utilities-xxxxxx (don't know what yours will say) is also checked. If not, click in the box in front of each and say to mark for installation

(5) On the left-hand side of the screen, click on the "All"

(6) Click "Search"

(7) Enter "network-manager" in the search string and click "find"

( Be sure both the main network-manager package and the network-manager-gnome package are checked. If not, click in the box in front of each and say to mark for installation

(9) If you had to check any of the boxes in steps (4) or (, click "Apply" and wait for the software to install.

(10) Exit Synaptic Package Manager

Now download the archive attached to this message and extract it to your desktop. It will create a folder called "wmp300n" on your desktop.

(1) Open a terminal window

(2) Type:

ndiswrapper -l <--- lower case "L". For anything that shows in that list, do the following:

- sudo ndiswrapper -r xxx where xxx is an item returned above

repeat (2) until nothing shows in the ndiswrapper list

(3) Type:

sudo ndiswrapper -i ~/Desktop/wmp300n/bcmwl5.inf
sudo depmod -a
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
sudo ndiswrapper -m

(4) Type:

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

This will open an editor window. Go to the bottom of that list and add the following if they are not already there:

# broadcom default no firmware, using ndiswrapper instead
blacklist bcm43xx

Be sure to press "enter" once or twice after the last line, then save the file, exit the editor, exit the terminal window and restart your PC.

Once your PC is back up and you are logged on, click the network-manager icon on the top bar and see if any wireless networks are listed - if so, your card should be working now and you should be able to connect to a wireless network by clicking the circle in front of the name. If the network uses WEP or WPA protection, you'll need to specify the key type and the key when you try to connect.

[waterhead]

I wouldn't use NDISwrapper unless the Linux driver doesn't work. You want to use the latest version of the Broadcom Linux STA driver. I don't think that those instructions will work. They refer to the b43 driver, and I don't think that driver will work with your card.

See this link about the Broadcom STA driver:

http://dir.linuxforums.org/category/53/program/583/

In Ubuntu, it is available through the linux-backports-modules package. The driver module that it loads is called wl. You should remove and uninstall NDISwrapper so that it won't cause any problems.

[gregoriahson]

My broadcom sta driver will not activate. This is the original problem i had. I click activate and the screen pauses and then nothing happens....

Weird right. As I said before I am getting some errors or warnings during bootup but they flash too fast to be read. Should I just re install linux completely and start anew??

[waterhead]

My broadcom sta driver will not activate. This is the original problem i had. I click activate and the screen pauses and then nothing happens....

Weird right. As I said before I am getting some errors or warnings during bootup but they flash too fast to be read. Should I just re install linux completely and start anew??

What screen is it that you are referring to?

As I pointed out before, you also had the NDISwrapper module loading. If you configured it to use the wireless card, it will conflict with any other driver. You also should have a wired connection when you enable a new or different driver. It most likely will have to download and install it.