[SPARCbook] wlan

[Mike Parson]

On Fri, Feb 27, 2004 at 04:20:59PM +0000, Lionel Peterson wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm not aware that any 802.11b card works right, but I might
>> be wrong. I have the 3com version of that card and I think
>> there is a *BSD driver that could be converted. It's on my
>> todo list, but sadly not too high up it.

I don't think the card listed on ebay is a 'b' card, it's the old
WaveLAN/IEEE 2Mb/s card, which I thought was the one that worked with
the 2.6 wlan driver.

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: sparcbook-bounces at sunhelp.org
>> [mailto:sparcbook-bounces at sunhelp.org] On Behalf Of Mike Parson
>> Sent: 27 February 2004 15:31
>> To: sparcbook at sunhelp.org
>> Subject: [SPARCbook] wlan
>>
>> Is this the card that (reportedly) works with our 3gx's/Sol 2.6?
>>
>> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3081134216&category=45000
>>
>> There's a whole bunch of them on ebay right now...
>
> A few WiFI thoughts:
>

> - OpenBSD supports PCMCIA controller in Tadpole laptops
> http://www.openbsd.org/sparc.html#hardware

Woo, didn't know this.  Might have to give OBSD another look.

> - OpenBSD supports some WiFi cards on the SPARC
> platform (Linksys WPC11, Orinoco cards, others)
> http://www.openbsd.org/sparc.html#hardware

> If you insist on Solaris, www.lynnsoft.com has PCMCIA drivers that
> support WiFI, but they don't seem to support Solaris 7 (only 8 and 9)
> - I have an email in to them. Their driver, if it works is $100. They
> also have drivers for x86 Solaris & WiFi cards.

And I'm running 2.6, which I really doubt they'd be willing to support,
and I don't think I'd pay $100 for the driver anyways, wireless on my
sparcbook is more for the fun of it than any serious work.

> That si the best I can come up with, as well as the more traditional
> "get a couple WAP11s and make a WiFi bridge" for about $130.

My current 'wireless' solution is the Linksys WGA11b 'Wireless Game
Adapter' which means you don't need to be near an ethernet port, but
you still gotta have external power, which most of us need with our
sparcbooks anyways due to our batteries being next to useless ;)

-- 
Michael Parson
mparson at bl.org