Whither 802.11a in Linux?

Revar asks: "My local net admin recently installed an 802.11a 54Mbps wireless network. Under Windows, the speed is great and at 5Ghz, it has much less interference then the 2.4Ghz 802.11b wireless. The problem is, I cannot seem to find any 802.11a PCMCIA cards that have Linux or MacOS X support. Are there any, or is no-one actually working on this?" Whenever new hardware is released patience, when wating for Linux support, is a necessary virtue.

Comments

Cisco cards will have Linux and OS/X support.

[Mordant]

Cisco are very good about supporting both Linux and Mac - they will have the drivers, once they have the cards.

Right now, their 1200 access-point does 802.11a, but it's primarily focused on AP-to-AP wireless backbone connectivity (the AP can hold both an 802.11a and an 802.11b radio simultaneously). When they come out with the cards later this year, they'll give you the driver support you want.

Some info on possible 802.11-a Linux support

[j-turkey]

Check this out for some more info.

The short of it is a description of 802.11-a. The main page contains tons of info to get you started working on your own drivers -- or there may be some gems in there too (I.e. identifying a 5 GHz card or driver that works with your system).


-Turkey

Re:d-link 650

[Enry]

Don't waste your time with WEP. If you want to secure your transmission, use SSL/SSH for web sites. Or alternatively, PPTP to a landline PC.

802.11 *a* not *b*

[Andy Dodd]

The D-Link DWL-650 is an 802.11b 2.4 GHz card - It works wonderfully under Linux (Prism2 chipset)

The 650H (high-power 100 mW) does not work well at all - These appear to be repackaged Symbol cards - Expect frequent lockups, if it works at all. Someone was working on a driver for the Symbol Spectrum24, but work stopped.

The 650+ (Enhanced 802.11 - 22 MBps, apparently a "halfway" implementation of 802.11g) uses the TI ACX100 chipset - Also no drivers for this exist.

And for 802.11a, the DWL-A650 has no support whatsoever.