[YLUG] Wireless networking of desktop PCs

[Nicholas Thomas]

On Fri, 2009-09-25 at 08:58 +0100, Nigel Metheringham wrote:
> On 24 Sep 2009, at 22:23, Roger Leigh wrote:
> > I've seen both USB and PCI devices available; is one preferable
> > or are both equally decent in terms of hardware support, ease of
> > configuration and system overhead during operation?
> 
> Another alternative is to use an AP or similar and connect to that via  
> ethernet.  This may be particularly attractive if you have more than  
> one device in a small area that you want to connect.  Its also  
> completely OS agnostic other than the setup.

+1 to this. It's how my first wireless network was set up -
unfortunately, small ethernet APs that will act as a client to another
AP are surprisingly hard to get hold of, so make sure that what you buy
does this, if you decide to.

Alternatively, *any* Atheros *PCI* card (Linux driver: ath5k) will work
like a charm. USB Atheros devices don't work under linux - or didn't
last time I checked. And in general, USB wireless sticks tend to be
badly supported.

Everything in my houser that needs wireless has PC-Link cards - cheap,
generic Atheros cards. You can get them from the overpriced belkin
resell^W^Wcomputer shop just up the road from Somerfield's. Who I'm not
associated with in any way :D

/Nick