Re: wireless card for PCI 2.1

["Arne P. Boettger" <apb_(_at_)_wohnheim_(_dot_)_fh-wedel_(_dot_)_de>]

Hi Fred,

fred_(_at_)_linuxchips_(_dot_)_com (Fred Bulback) wrote:
> I'm looking for a wireless PCI card to stick into an older i386 box that I
> use as a gateway/router/firewall. My motherboard is PCI 2.1 compliant.
> 
> It seems that most (all?) of the wireless cards from the OpenBSD hardware
> compatibility list are listed as PCI 2.2 compatible by their
> manufacturers, with no claims that PCI 2.1 is supported at all. I know
> that one card in particular, the Dlink DWL520 will generally not work with
> a PCI 2.1 system.

I recently faced the same problem. I have an old Pentium 100 (no
idea about the PCI version) and have been searching for a while. You
need a 11Mbit card, there are no supported 22MBit or 55MBit cards.
Avoid the ADMtec cards, they dont't work. I finally got a Siemens
I-Gate with a Prism2 chip. It is a PCMCIA card in a
PCI-to-PCMCIA-adaptor, and after upgrading the firmware (you need a
windows 9x box for that) it even supports hostap.

> This leaves me in an uncomfortable position. I don't want to buy hardware
> that won't work in my machine, primarily because I'd be trying to get it
> second hand (eBay or whatever) with questionable return policies. I'd
> like to get something that I know for certain works.
> 
> So, the question is, does anyone know of a PCI 2.1 compliant
> wireless board?

Sadly the wireless products change quite quick and often the
manufacturers dont mention small changes like completely different
chipsets :-( 
But chances are good with the Siemens I-Link which I could get
without problems from eBay (in germany).

Ciao, Arne.
-- 
 ,``o. OpenBSD        -        Debian GNU/Linux        -        Solaris  >o)
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