Re: [Wirelessdriver-support] Re: PowerBook G4 15"/OS X 10.3.2/Proxim Orinoco Silver 802.11b/g (Barry Hawkins)

[Barry H. <ly...@al...>]

On Dec 21, 2003, at 5:17 PM, Amanda Walker wrote:

> On Dec 20, 2003, at 11:14 PM, Barry Hawkins 
> <ly...@al...> wrote:
>> 	This may be a quick question that confirms my fears.  Is the Proxim
>> Orinoco 802.11b/g card able to work with this driver in a 15" 
>> PowerBook
>> G4 with no AirPort Extreme card installed running Panther (OS X
>> 10.3.2)?  I had hoped/gambled on the unit using its 802.11b as a
>> fallback if the 802.11g didn't work, but neither this driver nor the
>> IOXperts driver recognizes the presence of the card.
>
> The Orinoco combo cards are based on an Atheros chipset, not the 
> Lucent/Agere/Intersil/whoever-owns-them-now chip set that the 
> WirelessDriver and IOXperts driver support.  The b/g and a/b/g 
> chipsets are completely different, and would require a new driver 
> written completely from scratch.
>
> Because of the nature of the Broadcom and Atheros chipsets, it's 
> highly unlikely that there will ever be a completely open source 
> driver for them, though Sam Leffler has done a good job striking a 
> deal with Atheros for his Linux and FreeBSD drivers (the module that 
> talks to the hardware is distributed in binary only).  The big issue 
> is that much, much more of the radio operation is exposed to the host, 
> which makes the FCC very concerned about who should be able to twiddle 
> the virtual knobs.  Operating at frequencies and power levels that 
> you're not licensed for is a big no-no, especially since some of the 
> allowable bands are surrounded by military-use bands :-).
>
>
> Amanda Walker
> (author of the IOXperts driver)
>
Amanda,
	Thanks so much for responding.  I regretfully assumed that all Proxim 
Orinoco Silver cards used the same chipset, and I now own one of these 
relatively-useless items.  It's ironic that I bought it trying to get 
away from the Broadcom chipsets on AirPort Extreme cards 8^).
	Is there a best-bet PCMCIA card you could recommend that uses the 
Lucent/Agere/Intersil/Corporate-entity-du-jour?  Also, has the Broadcom 
and Atheros regime taken over with the 802.11g range of products?

Regards,
-- 
Barry C. Hawkins
All Things Computed
site: www.allthingscomputed.com
weblog: www.yepthatsme.com