I think you may be confused between the 650 and 650+. Despite the similar names, they use entirely different chipsets. I think the 650 has very good Linux support, but I know for sure that the 650+ has major problems under Linux, since I bought two of them only to find they don't work!
The 650+ uses the Texas Instruments ACX100 chipset, and they are not willing to release the necessary specs to write drivers for it. Check the ACX100 project on sourceforge to get the details. The only known driver is a binary-only module that will only work for an obscure Mandrake kernel version (PCI version only), and I have only heard of one person who got it to do anything at all.
You might be right about the (lack of) speed difference between the 11Mbps and 22Mbps products, but I haven't tested them. As always, take marketing-speak with a pinch of salt... It can't be entirely bullshit though, or I would have expected to hear a lot more complaints. Does anyone know more about the difference between the two standards that could explain?
You can create an 'attack tree' for a OTP as well. Key points:
They depend on an absolutely random key for total mathematical security, as long as the message. This is impractical, so most computer techniques will use a pseudo-random generator. If you can find out or spoof the seed, you can recreate the pad.
The problem of key distribution. This is one of the main reasons public-key cryptography was invented. If you can get a copy of the pad, you can break any message sent using it. This degenerates into a similiar tree for breaking PGP, etc.
A one-time pad must be used once. If you can persuade the sender to encrypt two messages with the same pad, it is very possible to generate the pad from the two crypt-texts, and bingo!
So, although OTP's are theoretically secure, in practise you must be very careful to use them properly. Remember, process not product!
Slashdot Mirror
The 650+ uses the Texas Instruments ACX100 chipset, and they are not willing to release the necessary specs to write drivers for it. Check the ACX100 project on sourceforge to get the details. The only known driver is a binary-only module that will only work for an obscure Mandrake kernel version (PCI version only), and I have only heard of one person who got it to do anything at all.
You might be right about the (lack of) speed difference between the 11Mbps and 22Mbps products, but I haven't tested them. As always, take marketing-speak with a pinch of salt... It can't be entirely bullshit though, or I would have expected to hear a lot more complaints. Does anyone know more about the difference between the two standards that could explain?
Key points:
So, although OTP's are theoretically secure, in practise you must be very careful to use them properly. Remember, process not product!