[clue-tech] going wireless

[Peter Kuykendall]

The Airlink 101 works with Backtrack.

A great site for finding good deals for hardware online is 
www.pricewatch.com.

- Pete

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roy J. Tellason" <rtellason at verizon.net>
To: "CLUE tech" <clue-tech at cluedenver.org>
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2008 8:40 PM
Subject: Re: [clue-tech] going wireless


> 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
> _______________________________________________
> clue-tech mailing list
> clue-tech at cluedenver.org
> http://www.cluedenver.org/mailman/listinfo/clue-tech
>