On Saturday 16 March 2002 17:34, Kent West wrote:
> I've got two Debian (Sid) boxes in different parts of the house. Can I
> put in a wireless NIC into each one of them, and them talk to each
> other, or must I have a Wireless Access Point as an intermediary?
Wireless NIC's can, as far as I am aware, operate in two different
modes,
one of which allows them to speak directly to each other, and the other which
requires a separate wireless access point. So, you should be able to do what
you want to do. I don't know if something specific at the driver level is
required for this, however.
>
> Also, as long as I'm on the subject. Typically I'd buy some name brand
> I'm more familiar with, like D-Link or Netgear, but the Siemens box
> specifically mentions that Linux is a compatible OS. For that reason,
> I'd like to throw my money toward Siemens. Any technical reasons not to?
Don't know the answer to this. I have been contemplating adding some
wireless to my network, and have been looking at Linksys for a very practical
reason - my LAN currently employs Linksys cable-ethernet router and two
Linksys hubs, and I have a Linksys adapter in my Linux Desktop. My experience
has been that mxiing vendors can sometimes cause the network to be
unreliable, but I don't quite understand why that has occurred.
I don't know details about the Siemens products, but will surf their
site,
because if they are supporting Linux drivers (esp if GPL'd) that would be a
real plus.
One thing to keep in mind: It is not at all uncommon to find that
wireless
hardware from one vendor will not work with wireless hardware from other
vendors, so it makes sense to select a vendor for, at least, all of your
wireless needs and stick with that vendor. This is esp. true if software
encryption is employed.
>
> And one more: why can't I find a PCI wireless NIC, instead of a PCI
> wireless NIC adapter plus a wireless PCMCIA NIC? To me, that seems
> stupid. (But then, someone mentioned that the Apple wireless Airport
> basestation does the same thing; puts a wireless PCMCIA nic in an adapter.)
Linksys now makes a PCI NIC that is wireless in addition to their
wireless
PCMCIA card and their PCI adapter for the PCMCIA card. Check their website. I
do not know if the wavelan driver used for the PCMCIA card works for the PCI
card, however - it may not, since this seems to be a very new product.
Good luck.
N
