Does FBSD 7 support 802.11N cards? G suggestions?

[Gerard]

On Thu, 15 May 2008 06:54:53 -0500
Walter <walterk1 at earthlink.net> wrote:

> (Sorry Roland; re-sending after I noticed my reply went directly
> to you rather than the List.)
> 
> Roland Smith wrote:
> 
> >On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 12:23:44PM -0500, Walter wrote:
> >  
> >
> >> <>I'm trying to get a Broadcom-based wireless-N card running
> >> under FBSD 7. ...
> >
>  > See Chapter 20 of the FreeBSD handbook, especially §20.2.
> 
> 20 is The Vinum Volume Manager 
> <http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/vinum-vinum.html>.
> Did you mean 29 Advanced Networking 
> <http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/advanced-networking.html>, 
> and 29.3 Wireless Networking 
> <http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/network-wireless.html>?
> Or http://www.freebsd.org/releases/7.0R/hardware.html#ETHERNET
> 
> >>If "N" isn't supported, is there any problem anyone knows about
> >>with the LevelOne WNC0301 or with LinkSys WMP54G cards?
> >>CircuitCity has the LevelOne for $25 and the WMP54G for $39.
> >>Can someone advise me?
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >The problem is that a lot of wireless manufacturers have the habit of
> >changing wireless chipsets without changing model numbers. So a
> >revision X might work while revision Y won't.
> >
> >Try and look at the card. Sometimes the chipset is visible and you
> >can look for it in the manual pages. But often it is enclosed in a
> >metal cover.
> >
> >In my experience, asking shop clerks which chipset a card uses only
> >produces puzzled looks.
> >
> >Second best thing is to download the driver for the revision of the
> >card that you want to buy. Unpack the driver and read the .inf
> >files. That will probably yield the chipset type. If not, use
> >strings(1) on the drivers themselves.
> >
> >Roland
> >  
> >
> It's a crap shoot?  Yikes.  I guess I'll just pick one and take
> my chances, but - no fault to FBSD - it appears to be a sorry
> state of affairs in the computer driver arena.  I can guess
> the latest rev listed on the support web site is what I'll get
> when I buy the box?? (Maybe not, as I got a rev A router
> last December when the latest was rev B.)  Later I'll work
> on getting the driver downloaded and unpacked on my
> Windows machine (as my Mac won't process those .exe
> files).
> 
> Did I read that there's a way to use Windows drivers in FBSD 7?
> There are places I can download those for XP/Vista, so if I could
> use those - even if they're not the optimal solution - it'll get me
> going.

I have done something similar to that myself. Go to the linksys site
and download the latest available driver for your card. Then visit:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/config-network-setup.html

and follow the directions there.


-- 
“Gerard”
gerard at seibercom.net

	   THE DAILY PLANET

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