[lug] cheap 802.11b for linux...

[Nate Duehr]

Ahhh... but the Prism II cards can ACT as a true base station under Linux,
at full 11Mb/s rates and all that rot, which is truly cool.

And Lucent won't release the "secret decoder ring" (grin) to do this to
their cards, so you end up doing the Ad-Hoc thing at 2Mb/s if you build a
router out of Lucent cards.

Of course the Lucent cards can do this, since the cards in their access
points are the same cards you stuff in a laptop -- one of my Lucent cards
even came out of my now-defunct (overheated) Apple AirPort base station...
they just won't allow the information about how to put the cards into the
right mode out to the open-source/free world... something for the
hackingsociety (reverseengineeringsociety?) to work on perhaps?  :-)

See www.sputnik.com for an example of an interesting linux-based application
of the Prism II access point mode.  Only works on real PCMCIA slots right
now, and not via PCI/PCMCIA adapters, but they're promising the
desktop-based cards will work soon... works in laptops now.  Bootable CD-ROM
with full access point capabilities for a Prism II chipset 802.11b card and
PCMCIA ethernet card in the other slot.

The sputnik stuff, a D-Link card mixed with with a TNC connector on the back
based on the Prism II chipset (D-link makes a PCI Prism II chipset card with
a real honest to goodness professional RF connector on it, amazingly
enough.)   Then...

A little hardline, N-connectors, SHORT coax jumpers (the loss out of coax at
2.4 Ghz is incredible) and a soldering gun to make it all play... and a
vertical antenna... voila... neighborhood 802.11b.

At least for three or four houses around... GRIN.  That anyone could use
just by logging in.

Of course, the security implications are kinda "interesting", and carrier's
Acceptable Use Policies might get injured in the filming of this segment.
:-)

--
Nate

> -----Original Message-----
> From: lug-admin at lug.boulder.co.us [mailto:lug-admin at lug.boulder.co.us]On
> Behalf Of Sean Reifschneider
> Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2002 12:12 AM
> To: lug at lug.boulder.co.us
> Subject: Re: [lug] cheap 802.11b for linux...
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 20, 2002 at 06:25:50PM -0700, Ed Hill wrote:
> >  http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/SUPPORTED.CARDS
> >
> >the (+/- $65) "PrismII based cards" (orinoco_cs driver) have only
> >"limited functionality".
>
> The limited functionality is, at least partly, that they don't
> work without
> a base-station.  Considering that the last Lucent Orinoco card I got was
> under $60 (found through pricewatch, older model), and that brand new ones
> are $69, I'd recommend that you go that direction.
>