Too far away from the router... is WiFi a good solution?

StringCheesian · l33t Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Posts: 887

Our router (shared by the whole family) is on the opposite side of our large appartment from my bedroom where my computer is.

I dual boot, and for Windows the USB to phone line jack converter that came with the router (for SBC dsl, brand name is 2wire) works ok, but not at all with Gentoo (nor any Linux distro).

So what would you recommend?

BWoso · Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2004 3:23 am Post subject:

WiFi would be a great solution. I personally have not tried to set up a wireless card but I know many people who have them set up on their gentoo boxes.
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StringCheesian · l33t Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Posts: 887

Ok, can anybody recommend a good linux-friendly wireless networking card?

tSp · Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2004 4:33 am Post subject:

tactless · Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2004 2:45 pm Post subject:

I have heard that there are external antennae that connect to a standard NIC via a standard RJ45 ethernet cable - making the PC unaware that it's on wifi. A good solution for high compatibility.
Beyond that - the long distance could mean signal strength issues. I'd try and run a cable first.
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Mben · Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2004 3:09 pm Post subject:

tal82k · n00b Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 70

StringCheesian, I read online that the 2Wire PC port (I am assuming is HPNA) could be used on linux using the orinoco drivers. There was also another module (I don't remember which but i could find out) that was meant to work on mandrake and I am sure through a little tweaking could work on gentoo. I hope this was helpful.

Paladine01 · Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2004 9:55 pm Post subject:

Are you telling me that you are over 100 meters away from the router? Your apartment has more floor room than a football field!?!?!?

I'd get a 100 meter wire if I were you.

StringCheesian · l33t Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Posts: 887

Paladine01/tactless: My mom doesn't want me to run an unsightly cable through the living room.

tal82k: I read that too, but it's talking about the PCI card. All I've got is the ethernet/usb adapter version of it that plugs in the computer's USB port and the a phone jack. Hmmm... maybe I could install a PCI card for HPNA.

Mben: Cool! And then I could still try out experimental OSs that don't have wireless support yet, like SkyOS, MenuetOS, etc.

psylo: 2 Walls: the one separating my room from the living room, and the one between the living room and master bedroom. I don't know what's in them, but they are interior walls.

MHD · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 18 Jun 2003 Posts: 88

My netgear wg511 works a dream! (oh and the linksys wrt54g router is a nice bit of gear to)

The wg511 uses the prism 54 chipset which there is plenty of info on... (search then forum)
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StringCheesian · l33t Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Posts: 887

I got a wireless game adapter (Linksys WGA11B) and it's working great! Thank you, Mben, and everyone else!

tactless · Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2004 10:05 am Post subject:

sushyad · n00b Joined: 29 Jul 2003 Posts: 22

I have a wireless card and a USB adapter working with my Gentoo boxes pretty nicely:

1. Netgear pcmcia card connected through a Belkin pci-to-pcmcia adapter.
2. DLink USB wireless adapter. Gentoo worked out-of-the-box with this one.

I don't recall the exact model of the items, but I can check when I get home.

As far as the signal strength is concerned, I had the access point behind two 8 inch concrete walls about 10 meters from the wireless mythtv box, and still /proc/net/wireless posted signal strength around 50.

nightcanton · Apprentice Joined: 26 Feb 2003 Posts: 249

I would would like to know which USB adapter that was. I've gotten a Linksys WMP54G and a Netgear WG311 pci cards working with wireless. But they took a few tweaks. But the USB adapter out of the box...if it was G it would be a better solution.

StringCheesian · l33t Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Posts: 887

sushyad · n00b Joined: 29 Jul 2003 Posts: 22

ok, when I said out-of-the-box, I meant bare minimum configuration

DWL-122 USB wireless adaptor works beautifully. I would recommend this one to anyone.

You will need to follow these steps to get it working:

1. If you have 2.6 series kernel, you will need to emerge at least pre 17 release of linux-wlan-ng:

patrickbores · Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2004 6:51 am Post subject:

These instructions are good, but I'm getting errors loading the modules:

Jeremy_Z · l33t Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 671 Location: Shanghai

You might have changed your gcc version .. try recompiling the kernel, then the modules. I had the same prob.
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