Which WLAN card for old Toshiba Laptop running Linux?

esuhl

I've got an old Toshiba Satellite 220CS gathering dust, and I'd like to buy a wireless adapter so I can install Linux and use it to connect to my wireless network (maybe as a thin-client if it can't take the pace!).

Would anyone know what type of PC Card slot I've got on my laptop or which WLAN cards are compatibile with both the laptop and Linux?

I think the laptop was manufactured in 1997 with a 133MHz chip and 32MB RAM - would a wireless card need a more powerful system to work?

Many thanks in advance if anyone can help!

ollyshaw

You can utilise a great deal of wireless cards under linux via ndiswrapper, although i would reccomend a PCMCIA card. I have mine running with a belkin card i got a year or 2 ago. Your specs may be a little low, but its worth a shot.

Olly

esuhl

Thanks ollyshaw. Are there different types of PCMCIA card - I vaguely remember hearing of "Type I", "Type II" and something like CardBus (or am I getting confused here?)

If so, would you (or anyone else) know which type I need for a Toshiba Satellite 220CS?

Thanks!

edit--->

Oh, I've already got a USB wireless adapter - the Netgear WG121. I had assumed that this wouldn't be compatible with Linux as I couldn't find any Linux drivers and thought that as PCMCIA WLAN adapters are more common, I'd probably have more luck getting one of those to work. Is this right, or would it be worth a go with the WG121?

Many, many thanks in advance!!!

hendersonb

Which distro are you using/planning to use? Most of them have a list of hardware that is known to be compatible. A lot of USB wifi stuff works under linux nowadays also so if you already have this then save your money and use this if it is supported under your distro.

Seemingly Mandrake 10 supports your USB Wifi adapter

http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Networking_and_USB_-_Some_hints_and_notes

sjh_3

If you want to make life super-easy for yourself under Linux, you want to look for a wireless PCMCIA card based on the Prism chipset. The Prism chipset has the best native support under Linux (i.e. no need to use ndiswrapper and Windows device drivers). Prism-based devices are supported out-of-the-box for Linux kernels 2.6.5 and later, although you might in some cases need to install additional userspace utilities (such as the wireless tools package including iwconfig) to configure your wireless card, depending on your distribution.

The official website of the Linux Prism drivers is here:
http://prism54.org/

I personally use the Netgear WG511 (PCMCIA/CardBus wireless card) under Gentoo Linux.

You asked about Type I/II/CardBus devices - unless your laptop is really old (10 years) or a really cheap design (lack of features) it likely supports all those types of plug-in card.

By the way, a brief scout of the Prism drivers forums suggests that your Netgear WG121 USB wireless device is Prism chipset-based and should work under any modern Linux distribution. Give it a try!

sjh

esuhl

I'm not sure which distro to use, hendersonb - I've only been using Linux for a few weeks so haven't explored too many possibilities yet. Also I thought I might be limited by the hardware so thought I'd choose that before I decide on the distro.

I've got SUSE 10 installed on my main PC, which I really like, but there's no way that will run on a 133MHz laptop! I'm willing to try anything as long as it can run a GUI and comes with a web browser (that can handle javascript, flash etc.), email, and .doc file editor. I might try a portable version of Linux (like Damn Small Linux or Puppy Linux) or set the laptop up as a "thin client" (if I can figure out how!)

Thanks for your advice, sjh. I'll see if I can find a distro with Prism chipset drivers. Unfortunately the laptop is over 8 years old so might not be compatible with all types. But that'll be a nice bit of money-saving if I can get away with not buying a PCMCIA card!

Thanks guys/gals :-)

nim_2

The Prism chipset is for the 11Mbit 802.11b standard - bit old now, and may drag your whole network down to the slower speed depending on how its set up.

Not sure about Prism II chipsets and their support. I would avoid using ndiswrapper if at all possible - its unreliable, may not be supported into the future (the kernel folks would happily kill it off), may make your whole system flakey, and does not encourage hardware vendors to support Linux.

The main problem with WiFi cards is finding out what chipset is in a card before you buy it and put it in your machine - often 2 cards with exactly the same model number and packaging can have different internals - and so need different Linux drivers.

I am told that the Belkin 802.11g cards (I have just bought a F5D7010uk) are reliable and consistant - based on a RT2500 chipset. They are also cheap - just below £20 in Dixons/PC World/etc - you may be able to find them cheaper elsewhere. I did not risk the slightly more expensive pre-N card they have - more likely to be a problem to support.

The RT2500 based cards work out the box with Ubuntu and probably Suse too. Might have problems with Fedora.