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Old 05-27-2004   #1 (permalink)
enjoi
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The BEST WiFi PCMCIA card I can get?

I started to experiment with Wardriving with my Apple iBook and AirPort card. While that's all fun and good, I've upgraded my equipment. I've got a brand new PC notebook, and I want to know some suggestions for THE BEST PCMCIA wifi card I can get. I want it to be b/g compatible, and want it to work with netstumbler. I'm also thinking about adding an external antenna later on down the road. I've read things about the orinoco gold cards... should I go with that, or something else? Right now, all im worried about it antenna support, b/g compatibility, and a very high compatibility rate with software (Netstumbler, Windows, Linux). I'll primarily be running Windows on this notebook, and Debian as well.

Thanks,
Adam
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Old 05-27-2004   #2 (permalink)
Dutch
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Quote:
Originally Posted by enjoi
I started to experiment with Wardriving with my Apple iBook and AirPort card. While that's all fun and good, I've upgraded my equipment. I've got a brand new PC notebook, and I want to know some suggestions for THE BEST PCMCIA wifi card I can get. I want it to be b/g compatible, and want it to work with netstumbler. I'm also thinking about adding an external antenna later on down the road. I've read things about the orinoco gold cards... should I go with that, or something else? Right now, all im worried about it antenna support, b/g compatibility, and a very high compatibility rate with software (Netstumbler, Windows, Linux). I'll primarily be running Windows on this notebook, and Debian as well.

Thanks,
Adam
If you are going to run Linuxx, then avoid anything with the Broadcom chipset. No drivers available there.
B/G compatible and Linux compatible doesn't leave that many choices except for an Atheros 5001x chipset based card, which NS .4 supports natively and with NDIS 5.1 drivers as well under Windows XP/2K.

If you are going to run Win98, the only choice is an Orinocco CLASSIC Gold/Silver card (Hermes chipset).
My recomendation would be an Orinocco Classic Gold for your wardriving needs, and whatever Atheros based card you might lay your hands on, for your normal WLAN needs.
That way you get the best of two worlds: Exxtraordinary stable support for the wardriving with regards to NS, and high speed for your normal WLAN usage.

Look at it this way: You select the best tool for the task you are about to do. To allegorize it: You COULD use a 6" wrench to drive a nail into the wall, but the best tool would be a hammer.. Same goes with the wardriving, the Orinocco has a proven trackrecord and just plain WORKS. Get whatever other card that covers your need for the evveryday stuff, but consider the wardriving a specialist task that needs the correct tools.

And after all it is not that hard to swap between PC-cards in a laptop IMHO... :-)

Just my 0.02€'s worth...

Dutch
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Old 05-28-2004   #3 (permalink)
enjoi
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Wow. Very thorough. Thanks for the post. Think I'm going to get a Classic Gold Orinoco card. Sure, I'd like to have Linuxxx compatibility, but it isnt on the top of my list. Is it easy to add an external antenna to the Orinoco card?
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Old 05-28-2004   #4 (permalink)
wrzwaldo
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Quote:
Originally Posted by enjoi
Wow. Very thorough. Thanks for the post. Think I'm going to get a Classic Gold Orinoco card. Sure, I'd like to have Linuxxx compatibility, but it isnt on the top of my list. Is it easy to add an external antenna to the Orinoco card?
Yes. Get a pigtail with an MC connector on one end and whatever you need to connect to your antenna on the other and your set.
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