looking for a PCMCIA wireless card with ra2500 chipset and external antenna.

kiranos · 05-01-2005

Hi I'm looking to buy a new wireless card for my laptop, I'm searching for an ra2500 chipset based card with removeable external antenna. It's for an PCMCIA slot.

Thanks in advance, I know this is hard to find, I've been looking like crazy but maybe one of you know of any?

Chutsman · 05-01-2005

If that RA2500 is the RaLink chipset, I gotta tellya there are much much better chipsets than that. In fact from the performance or rather non-performance of that chipset on my mini-pci wireless card in my Averatec, I would put RaLink at the bottom of the list.

If you want a pcmcia wireless card with an external antenna connector, you can't beat the Orinoco gold cards. Well, actually there are a few that are better but you'll pay much more for those.

Just my two cents.

kiranos · 05-02-2005

Hm so it's that bad? I want it to work with linux and I looked at some prism cards but at http://prism54.org/supported_cards.php it said:

Quote:

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:

We have a problem. Manufacturers started buying the SoftMAC chipsets, which are not yet supported and may never be, as drop-in-replacements for the FullMAC chipsets without changing PCI IDs and apparantly sometimes not changing even the FCC ID. That said, you are better off first testing a card before buying it. If you can't test a card and want linux support, I can recommend you just not buy a prism 802.11g based chipset for now.

So now what? Well we have the centrinos and ralink. More to come soon

and I dont think Intel has any with antennas (centrinos) so I thought ra2500 was the way to go when linux support is needed aswell. Or are there still better out there?

kiranos · 05-02-2005

As topic says I have another computer which is stationary and will use a PCI adapter, either b or g but it should have support for linux, anyone have any suggestions? should support monitor mode etc.

thanks in advance
Kiranos.

Chutsman · 05-02-2005

Sorry, don't know what will work with Linux. But if you will be using the notebook only for your home wireless network, the RaLink chipset will be okay. It is only if you're trying hotspots or you're on the fringe of a hotspot signal that the RaLink may not do as well as the better chipsets.

On my Averatec 3250 I opted to use a Belkin USB adapter, since at the hotspot I use regularly the signal was marginal for the on-board RaLink device. The Belkin works everytime and is small enough - about the size of a deck of cards.

Starpoint · 05-02-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiranos

Hi I'm looking to buy a new wireless card for my laptop, I'm searching for an ra2500 chipset based card with removeable external antenna. It's for an PCMCIA slot.

Thanks in advance, I know this is hard to find, I've been looking like crazy but maybe one of you know of any?

The Orinoco Gold card is supported by Linux and BSD... however if you are looking for a PCI card that is supported by the *nix os, are you going to be using it for stumbling or actual networking? there are alot of cards out there that work as network cards under alot of os's but stumbler is a bit more picky.

kiranos · 05-02-2005

I'm going to use it for testing mostly, I want to have a card that can both monitor the network and if I choose use the network plus yes netstumbler. I have read about the ra2500 source code being released to the public so the opensource community can edit it and improve it. Thats why I wanted to go with the ra2500 chipset. I saw that linksys WMP54Gv4 is using it, and I was thinking about that PCI adapter. But I'm looking for a PCMCIA card with antennas and a chipset that has opensource drivers to use with linux.

2, So does ra2500 work porly with netstumbler?

Starpoint · 05-02-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiranos

I'm going to use it for testing mostly, I want to have a card that can both monitor the network and if I choose use the network plus yes netstumbler. I have read about the ra2500 source code being released to the public so the opensource community can edit it and improve it. Thats why I wanted to go with the ra2500 chipset. I saw that linksys WMP54Gv4 is using it, and I was thinking about that PCI adapter. But I'm looking for a PCMCIA card with antennas and a chipset that has opensource drivers to use with linux.

2, So does ra2500 work porly with netstumbler?

That I could not tell you. When I got into wardriving I got onto this fine message board and I read / searched for the card that was universally accepted by all OS's and both Net and Mini stumbler... hence I own an Orinoco gold card.
You might need to ask the great search god " Google" to assist you.

kiranos · 05-02-2005

yea I have searched on google, just that I read Orinoco have changed how they create their cards. Now they dont support external antennas anymore. Only the classic card does this and I cant find it anywhere where I live not even online

Thorn · 05-02-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiranos

yea I have searched on google, just that I read Orinoco have changed how they create their cards. Now they dont support external antennas anymore. Only the classic card does this and I cant find it anywhere where I live not even online

Look on Ebay. For the most part the Classic Gold was never been available in stores. (It was more an enterprise card than consumer.)

Starpoint · 05-02-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thorn

Look on Ebay. For the most part the Classic Gold was never been available in stores. (It was more an enterprise card than consumer.)

here is a link

http://geek.pricegrabber.com/search_...sterid=923071/

this is the cheep link

http://www.emicrox.com/eShop/product...gd=DW54&seid=4

Thorn · 05-02-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starpoint

here is a link

http://geek.pricegrabber.com/search_...sterid=923071/

this is the cheep link

http://www.emicrox.com/eShop/product...gd=DW54&seid=4

Yeah, I should have said "brick & mortar" stores, meaning that it generally won't be found in places like Best Buy. Finding it online is easy. The hardest part is finding the best price.

kiranos · 05-02-2005

I've been looking on this card 8422-WD

Here is some info, http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Prod...82E16833167111R

what do you guys think of this? seems to be external antenna aswell inspite of what the site says.

proxim.com/learn/library/datasheets/802.11b_PCI_Adapter_A4.pdf

pdf file from proxim and it says it has external antenna, this would be great for my needs as it is both pci and pcmcia.

Thoughts?

wrzwaldo · 05-02-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiranos

I've been looking on this card 8422-WD

Here is some info, http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Prod...82E16833167111R

what do you guys think of this? seems to be external antenna aswell inspite of what the site says.

proxim.com/learn/library/datasheets/802.11b_PCI_Adapter_A4.pdf

pdf file from proxim and it says it has external antenna, this would be great for my needs as it is both pci and pcmcia.

Thoughts?

"We are very sorry, the page that you requested does not exist.

Newegg.com has been undergoing many improvements recently, which required some pages to be moved. Perhaps you can find what you are looking for in one of these areas;"

kiranos · 05-02-2005

http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Produ...82E16833167111

sorry about that.

05-01-2005	#1 (permalink)
kiranos Registered Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 8	looking for a PCMCIA wireless card with ra2500 chipset and external antenna. Hi I'm looking to buy a new wireless card for my laptop, I'm searching for an ra2500 chipset based card with removeable external antenna. It's for an PCMCIA slot. Thanks in advance, I know this is hard to find, I've been looking like crazy but maybe one of you know of any?

05-02-2005	#4 (permalink)
kiranos Registered Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 8	Plus I'm looking for a PCI Adapter wireless card with support for linux. As topic says I have another computer which is stationary and will use a PCI adapter, either b or g but it should have support for linux, anyone have any suggestions? should support monitor mode etc. thanks in advance Kiranos.

05-02-2005	#7 (permalink)
kiranos Registered Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 8	I'm going to use it for testing mostly, I want to have a card that can both monitor the network and if I choose use the network plus yes netstumbler. I have read about the ra2500 source code being released to the public so the opensource community can edit it and improve it. Thats why I wanted to go with the ra2500 chipset. I saw that linksys WMP54Gv4 is using it, and I was thinking about that PCI adapter. But I'm looking for a PCMCIA card with antennas and a chipset that has opensource drivers to use with linux. 2, So does ra2500 work porly with netstumbler? Last edited by kiranos : 05-02-2005 at 09:27 AM.

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05-01-2005	#2 (permalink)
Chutsman Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 12	If that RA2500 is the RaLink chipset, I gotta tellya there are much much better chipsets than that. In fact from the performance or rather non-performance of that chipset on my mini-pci wireless card in my Averatec, I would put RaLink at the bottom of the list. If you want a pcmcia wireless card with an external antenna connector, you can't beat the Orinoco gold cards. Well, actually there are a few that are better but you'll pay much more for those. Just my two cents.

05-02-2005	#5 (permalink)
Chutsman Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 12	Sorry, don't know what will work with Linux. But if you will be using the notebook only for your home wireless network, the RaLink chipset will be okay. It is only if you're trying hotspots or you're on the fringe of a hotspot signal that the RaLink may not do as well as the better chipsets. On my Averatec 3250 I opted to use a Belkin USB adapter, since at the hotspot I use regularly the signal was marginal for the on-board RaLink device. The Belkin works everytime and is small enough - about the size of a deck of cards.

05-02-2005	#9 (permalink)
kiranos Registered Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 8	yea I have searched on google, just that I read Orinoco have changed how they create their cards. Now they dont support external antennas anymore. Only the classic card does this and I cant find it anywhere where I live not even online

05-02-2005	#13 (permalink)
kiranos Registered Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 8	I've been looking on this card 8422-WD Here is some info, http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Prod...82E16833167111R what do you guys think of this? seems to be external antenna aswell inspite of what the site says. proxim.com/learn/library/datasheets/802.11b_PCI_Adapter_A4.pdf pdf file from proxim and it says it has external antenna, this would be great for my needs as it is both pci and pcmcia. Thoughts?

05-02-2005	#15 (permalink)
kiranos Registered Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 8	http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Produ...82E16833167111 sorry about that.