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Unfortunately, your WG121 is not among those, but the Linux Prism GT driver project at least mentions it (although with a pretty disturbing "unknown status" and a "success rate" close to 90%, which seems kinda oxymoronous), so maybe it's worth a try. Atheros chipsets are supported by the MadWifi project, too...

Microsoft USB wireless adapters actually work very well with the Redhat and Fedora Core Linux distributions... if you use the open source Linux-Wlan NG drivers. I would seriously recommend them to anyone who wants to use 802.11b with Linux.

Also, 802.11* wireless network cards. I dont know of any 802.11* wireless network cards that have 100% open source drivers for linux except for 1 or 2 that have been Reverse Engineered by someone. For those, you dont get technical support, you may not get warranty service and the manufacturers would probobly shut down the Open Source driver projects if they had a way to do it.

Likewise, I've also been able to use the Linux-WLAN-NG drivers to make various wireless adapters work under Redhat Linux versions 7.2 and 9. The devices that I have actually used successfully are:

• Proxim RangeLan-DS PC Card (oddly enough I can't get this card to work under Windows 98 or XP)
• Linksys WPC-11 v.3 PC Card
• Microsoft(!) MN-510 USB wireless adapter (works pretty well with Kismet)

I noticed that the README file included in the download mentioned a "BroadCom" wireless card. I'm curious as to whether or not this is the newer Linksys PCI wireless card (WMP11) which used to work with Linux-WLAN-NG before they changed the friggin' chipset from Prism2 to Broadcom.

When I went wireless on my Linux laptop about a year ago the only card I could get supported was the Lucen Orinoco. It's a great card. But now, many months later there is the WLAN project and many many cards are supported. The future will be the same. More support is coming. The major problem I see though is the manufaturers. They write drivers for windows. Most of them arn't about to write them for linux. Meaning that every piece of hardware will be a few months behind while a group of dedicated programers do the dirty work for the company.

Cisco has not only drivers for linux but also their config tools: cisco Aironet 350 linux drivers

Cisco Aironet 5 GHz 54 Mbps Wireless LAN Client Adapter 802.11a cards don't mention linux drivers on the data sheet, but hopefully they will soon.

If you're interested in linux and 802.11 stuff check out linux wlan project and wlan resources for linux

And this FAQ says "the OneDriver software that ships with AirForce solutions uses the same driver for 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g, so that customers of our 802.11b solution will be able to upgrade to the newer high-speed standards without changing their PCâ(TM)s software image."

Mailing list discussions seem to indicate that there are developers willing to write drivers to support Broadcom chipsets, but Broadcom is not "forthcoming with specs."

The mailing list for linux-wlan users generates most false positives for me. People discuss drivers for Linux, but still use e-mail software form Microsoft.

If they use the Intsil (sp?) PRISM chipset or something compatible enough, perhaps the drivers from the Linux WLAN project may work.

If not, I bet Mark's planning to make 'em work.

Airsnort currently requires a Prism-II based card, IIRC (they have the ability to listen on all channels simultaneously). The Linux-wlan site has a list of cards with this chipset.

So, can you (or anyone) just arbitrarily sniff on an unencrypted RF network without knowing anything about the network (like the SSID, for instance)? If so, how?

Yes.

I have a home 2.4GHz wireless network. I live in a fairly large (416 unit) apartment in downtown Saint Louis.

Every time the linux-wlan package starts, it lists all the other wireless networks it can see. When I first set the package up, I noticed on Channel 6 that there was an SSID listed named "dave". Low and behold, configure anything on my network to SSID "dave" and I have full access to this guy's network. He lives downstairs somewhere, from what I can tell.

Now, granted, I'm not trying to break in to this guy's network. I'm just saying that for a total of a $115 investment (Pentium 166 I obtained for free + Zoomair 2.4GHz card) I am able to see what 2.4GHz wireless networks are within my reach. If I had a laptop with Linux, I can roam around and find out even more I'm sure.