Intersil sells the Prism2 chipset to wireless card manufacturers and for ["802.11b"] wireless gear the Prism2 chipset is pretty much the standard. A long time ago both Aironet (now Cisco) and WaveLan (now Lucent/Orinoco/Avaya/Agere) diverged from the base Prism2 chipset to make their own improved versions.

In the mean time Linux drivers have emerged to take advantage of the HostApMode abilities of the stock Prism2 cards which allows us to build a LinuxAccessPoint that supports InfrastructureMode.

The problem is that most of the the stock Prism2Cards stink in comparison to the Cisco/Lucent ones. Below we are trying to maintain a list of the best Prism2Cards which have external antenna connectors to facilitate the building of high quality OpenSource AccessPoints.

Make

Model

Card

Connector

Rx

Tx

Comments

[http://www.addtron.com/ Addtron]

[http://www.addtron.com/products/awp100.htm AWP-100]

PCMCIA

.

-76 dBm

>13 dBm

Looks like the Belkin and SMC

[http://www.addtron.com/ Addtron]

AWP-101

PCMCIA

Unknown

.

.

.

[http://www.belkin.com/ Belkin]

[http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=200340&pcount=&Product_Id=122691&Section.Section_Path=%2FRoot%2FNetworki%2E%2E%2EndCables%2FWirelessNetworking%2Fct_Id> F5D6020]

PCMCIA

.

.

13-20 dBm (50mW max)

Very Flat & Stackable - Appears to be the same as the SMC

[http://www.compaq.com/ Compaq ]

WL200

PCI

Reverse Threaded SMA

?

?

The PCMCIA version is the wl100. note: the WL210 and WL110 are difference chipsets.

[http://www.cellvision.net/ CellVision]

[http://www.cellvision.net/pics/specs/wireless%20networking%20product/Wlc%2D100.pdf WLC-100 (pdf)]

?

?

?

?

one image looks like DLink. sold for $65 at comready.com

[http://www.dlink.com/ D-Link]

[http://www.dlink.com/products/wireless/dwl650/ DWL-650]

CardBus see comments

[http://kevlar.burdell.org/~will/antenna/ Hackable]

-78 or -84 dBm

14 or 17 dBm

Dwl650Comments

[http://www.linksys.com/ LinkSys]

[http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?prid=156&grid=19 WPC11]

PCMCIA

.

.

14 dBm

.

[http://www.linksys.com/ LinkSys]

[http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?prid=196&grid=19 WMP11]

PCI

Looks like RP-TNC??

.

.

Comes with rubber ducky antenna

[http://www.musenki.com Musenki]

?

PCI

Reverse SMC

-87 dBm

18 dBm

.

[http://www.smc.com SMC]

[http://www.smc.com/index.cfm?action=products_show_product&productcode=SMC2632W SMC2632W]

PCMCIA

[http://www.guerrilla.net/reference/80211_mod/SMC2632_antenna_mod/ Hackable]

-76 dBm

50mw Max (17 dBm)

Smc2632wComments Appears to be the same as the Belkin

[http://www.teletronics.com/ Teletronics]

[http://www.teletronics.com/tii/products/wireless_lan/LANc11.html WL-11000]

PCMCIA

Dual Reverse MMCX

-83 dBm

15 dBm

It appears to be a Zcomax XI-300, they sell one with and one without the snap-on antenna

[http://www.zcomax.com/ Zcomax]

[http://www.zcomax.com/htm/xi300.htm XI-300]

PCMCIA

Dual Reverse MMCX

-83 dBm

13 dBm

has a detachable antenna ZcomaxXi300Comments

[http://www.zcomax.com/ Zcomax]

[http://www.zcomax.com/htm/xi300.htm XI-300B]

PCMCIA

None

-83 dBm

13 dBm

[http://www.zcomax.com/ Zcomax]

[http://www.zcomax.com/htm/future.htm ZFE-300]

PCMCIA

Dual MMCX (probably reverse)

.

.

comes with no antenna, Sold by Future Electronics

[http://www.zoom.com/zoomair/ ZoomAir]

[http://www.zoom.com/zoomair/zanics.shtml 4105]

PCMCIA

Reverse SMA

.

14 dBm

http://www.goonda.org/wireless/prism2/ Some good but slightly dated prims2/linux information -- DonPark


[CategoryDocumentation]