Wifi Card for laptop

[Giorgos Keramidas]

On Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:55:35 +0100, Albert Shih <Albert.Shih at obspm.fr> wrote:
> Hi all
>
> I would like to buy a PCMCIA card for my new laptop (because FreeBSD
> do not recognise my internal wifi AND RJ45 ethernet card....sh**
> windows say it's Broadcom netXtreme 57xx gigabit ).

Hi Albert,

If you can find a PC-CARD (or `PCMCIA') that uses one of the supported
chipsets, then just go for it.

To see if the internal network interface card or wireless adapter work,
you can try running:

    % pciconf -lv

Save this to a text file:

    % pciconf -lv > pciconf.txt

Then you can use a USB flash drive to transfer the text file to a
machine that has email connectivity and post it here.  We can try to go
through the list of devices and check hardware compatibility for you.

If you do that, please include as much information as possible about the
FreeBSD version you are using, and any other bits you think are useful
to understand what hardware you are using (i.e. laptop model, laptop
maker, the output of the ``uname -a'' command, and so on).

> My local dealer have those card :
>
> 	Netgear WPN511 RangeMax
> 	Netgear WG511 | PCMCIA WiFi
> 	D-LINK DWA-610
> 	Trendnet TEW-421PC
> 	D-LINK DWA-645 RangeBooster N65 ...
> 	Linksys WPC54G
> 	Linksys WPC54GS Speedbooster
> 	Trendnet TEW-441PC

A list of the chipsets listed in the FreeBSD manpages is below.  See if
you can find out which chipsets these cards use, and try to find one
that matches at least one FreeBSD driver:

  an -- Aironet Communications 4500/4800 wireless network adapter driver

      o   Aironet Communications 4500 and 4800 series
      o   Cisco Aironet 340 and 350 series
      o   Xircom Wireless Ethernet Adapter

  ath -- Atheros IEEE 802.11 wireless network driver

      The ath driver provides support for wireless network adapters
      based on the Atheros AR5210, AR5211, and AR5212 programming APIs.

  ipw -- Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 IEEE 802.11 driver

  iwi -- Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG/2225BG/2915ABG IEEE 802.11 driver

      The iwi driver provides support for Intel PRO/Wireless
      2200BG/2915ABG MiniPCI and 2225BG PCI network adapters.

  iwn -- Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN IEEE 802.11n driver

      The iwn driver provides support for Intel Wireless WiFi Link
      4965AGN PCI-Express network adapters.

  ral -- Ralink Technology IEEE 802.11 wireless network driver

      The ral driver supports PCI/CardBus wireless adapters based on the
      Ralink Technology RT2500, RT2501, and RT2600 chipsets.

  rum -- Ralink Technology USB IEEE 802.11a/b/g wireless network device

      The rum driver supports USB 2.0 and PCI Express Mini Card wireless
      adapters based on the Ralink RT2501USB and RT2601USB chipsets.

  wi -- Lucent Hermes, and Intersil PRISM IEEE 802.11 driver

      See the online manpage for a large listing of supported cards.

  wpi -- Intel 3945ABG Wireless LAN IEEE 802.11 driver

      See the online manpage for more details about supported cards.

  zyd -- ZyDAS ZD1211/ZD1211B USB IEEE 802.11b/g wireless network device

      See the online manpage for a large listing of supported cards.

You can find the original manpages online too.  Some of the manpages
[like ral(4) and rum(4)] have more detailed device listings, that may be
interesting to skim through.

> Or maybe you can help me to make my internet RJ45 card working ;-)

Let's see what ``pciconf -lv'' shows.  It may be a supported NIC, but
not in the `GENERIC' kernel configuration.  Loading a module may bring
it up, and then you will at least have *some* sort of networking.