[clue-tech] going wireless

[Roy J. Tellason]

On Monday 08 December 2008 09:58:47 pm Angelo Bertolli wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 8, 2008 at 8:29 PM, Roy J. Tellason 
<rtellason at verizon.net>wrote:
> > On Monday 08 December 2008 01:34:58 pm Angelo Bertolli wrote:
> > > Roy J. Tellason wrote:
> > > > I recently acquired this Sony laptop that isn't "new" enough to come
> > > > with any sort of wireless built into it.  I've shrunk the installed XP
> > > > down to 3G or so and have been running Slackware on the rest of it for
> > > > a while now.
> > > >
> > > > I'm looking to get some idea of what I need to do to get wireless
> > > > going with this machine.  There's some work that I'm looking at that
> > > > seems to require it.  I don't even know if I want a pcmcia card or
> > > > something that'd plug into a USB connector,  or if I have an open
> > > > slot inside somewhere.
> > > >
> > > > A bit of reading on the subject tells me that there are issues with
> > > > what appears to be the same adapter using different chipsets from time
> > > > to time. Other than that,  I've not really much of a clue as to what I
> > > > need to do here.
> > > >
> > > > Recommendations for both hardware and software would be appreciated.
> > >
> > > Yes, you generally can't determine compatibility based on the brand.
> > > They can have different chipsets.  However, the good news is, just
> > > about everything works now.  I don't have a single wireless device that
> > > I can't get working with ndiswrapper.
> >
> > I used that for something before,  I can't recall just what at the
> > moment, but I also recall running into something on one of the web pages
> > that I was browsing yesterday or so that stated that this wasn't a good
> > option for at least some applications,  that the mode the app wanted to
> > use wasn't usable with ndiswrapper.
>
> I'm not sure... it might take a little bit more resources, but other than
> that, I don't see why it would be incompatible with any software.  It's a
> kernel module, yes.  Sometimes it doesn't support everything your wireless
> can do (e.g. monitor mode), 

That might've been it,  perhaps.

> but unless you're trying to use kismet or airmon-ng, 

And I don't recall whether those were among the applications I was seeing 
listed yesterday or whenever it was.

> it shouldn't be a problem.  (And by the way, BackTrack 3 seems to have
> drivers for just about any wireless device in that case: 
> http://www.remote-exploit.org/backtrack.html.)

And that's one of the sites I was looking at.  :-)  I do think they said that 
some stuff wouldn't work,  though,  and that they supported certain chipsets,  
but not others,  I'm going to have to go back and look (this not-quite-2 boy 
woke me up too early today,  _and_ yesterday,  so I'm a little sleep-deprived 
at the moment.  :-)

> > > The best advice I can give is not to buy the cheapest thing if it's
> > > really new.  If you buy a card that's already a year old, you'll have a
> > > good chance of it working with at least ndiswrapper.
> > >
> > > (Too bad ndiswrapper doesn't have its hardware list anymore.)
> >
> > I did see some hardware listed here and there.  Now if I knew what
> > software I might want to run most I could load that up and get something
> > handy to test cards with,  if I end up getting something local...
>
> If you go to a local store that takes returns like microcenter, and you
> test out the product within a reasonable amount of time,  you can take it
> back if it doesn't work well...  actually that's probably a pretty good
> solution for you.

Actually since it's a laptop I was thinking about taking it along with me,  
and seeing what might be received from there,  which would give me some 
indication that the card was indeed working.  Dunno about "microcenter",  but 
then I'm not around there where the rest of you guys are.  The downside to 
this is that it might end up costing me way more that way than if I bought 
something online,  but OTOH if I knew what I needed to get that might work I 
could probably just buy something online...

I think I'll give 'em a call tomorrow and see what they have.  In the meantime 
I'm seeing some fairly inexpensive stuff listed in places like this:

http://www.txmicro.com/

Any other sites that you guys might point me at?

-- 
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space,  a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed.  --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James 
M Dakin