Linux Compatible Wireless Devices

Good news! The new Linux-friendly wireless cards, with updated Ralink chipsets, are now available. We have PCI and PCMCIA cards (RT2561 family chipset) and USB dongles (RT2571 family).

Interestingly, the USB dongle is probably the nicest (technically) of the new cards, whereas the USB version was always the problem child of the old family. And we have two versions available: with and without external antenna.

Once again Ralink have made their drivers available under the GPL, and the serialmonkey project has been developing them for inclusion in Linux distributions, and has achieved the distinction of having the drivers included in the kernel mainline from version 2.6.22. This means that all of the devices will work "out-of-the-box" with the most recent distributions.

For earlier distributions we still supply our setup CD with each order. This contains the Ralink drivers and our own setup scripts and will allow you to get wireless up and running until such time as all distributions support this great chipset fully.

• Edimax 54 Mbps Wireless PCI card
• Edimax 54 Mbps Wireless PCMCIA card
• Edimax 54 Mbps Wireless USB stick
• Edimax 54 Mbps Wireless USB stick with Antenna
• Buffalo wireless access point and router
• WiFi Specials
• Comtrend RT2500 54 Mbps Wireless PCMCIA card

These products all use a Ralink chip set. Ralink have 'got the message' on Free Software, and have released their drivers under the GPL, so let's support them! For their pains Ralink won Linux Journal's Editors Choice 'Product of the Year' award in August 2005.

Out of this was born an Open Source project to develop the drivers, which aims to produce a feature-rich driver supporting all the Ralink varieties, PCI, PCMCIA, USB and mini-PCI. The serialmonkey drivers have now been incorporated into the kernel main-line from version 2.6.22, and along with the new Devicescape wireless architecture this means that new Linux distributions can support the Edimax devices without any need for driver builds.

Most notably the latest Ubuntu, version 8.04 Hardy Heron, enables the Edimax cards and sticks to work "out of the box" and furthermore the devices can be configured for all of WPA, WPA2 and WEP encryption using Network Manager. A further feature is that the removable devices can be plugged and unplugged whenever you like!

Ralink RT2561 and RT2571 chipsets

These appear to be the current wireless chipsets used by manufacturers like Belkin and Edimax. The RT2561 is used on PCI and PCMCIA cards, and the RT2571 on USB sticks. Note that for USB wireless, Belkin are no longer using a Ralink chipset, even though they are still using the exact same part number for the USB dongle. Confusing, eh?

As far as GNU/Linux wireless support is concerned, Ralink have released their drivers to the community, and the serialmonkey project is working on a new unified driver.

We have sourced cards using these chipsets, and have done a lot of work in selecting cards and drivers which work, and producing some setup scripts to help you get going with wireless on Linux. These will help until such time as all the distributions move onto the latest kernel. Meanwhile we are supplying these cards with a CD with drivers and setup scripts. This is the current status:

• RT2561 (PCI and PCMCIA)
  • Works 'out-of-the-box' with Ubuntu Hardy 8.04
  • Works 'out-of-the-box' with Fedora Core 9
  • - supports WEP, WPA, WPA2 and hot-plugging
  • Works reliably with Debian Etch and Ubuntu 6.06 and 6.10
  • Works 'out-of-the-box' with Ubuntu Feisty 7.04
  • Works 'out-of-the-box' with Ubuntu Gutsy 7.10
  • Works reliably with openSUSE 10.2, but needs work from a SUSE expert on the ifup/down scripts
  • Works reliably with Fedora Core 6 and Fedora 7
• RT2571 (USB)
  • Works 'out-of-the-box' with Ubuntu Hardy 8.04
  • Works 'out-of-the-box' with Fedora Core 9
  • - supports WEP, WPA, WPA2 and hot-plugging
  • Works reliably with Debian Etch and Ubuntu 6.06, 6.10, 7.04 and 7.10
  • Works reliably with openSUSE 10.2, but needs work from a SUSE expert on the ifup/down scripts
  • Works reliably with Fedora Core 6 and Fedora 7

See here for an extract from the README on our support CD which is supplied with all these cards.

Please note that we have only tested these cards on Intel x86 machines.

Ralink RT2500 chipset

The RT2500 chipset performs well and is supported fully by Ubuntu, Debian Etch, and SUSE 10.2 - just as it appears to have been discontinued. It's well worth using if you can find some old stock cards using this chipset. Our stock of these has been exhausted, but if we can find more of either PCMCIA or PCI versions, we will snap them up.

The PCI and PCMCIA versions will run 'out-of-the-box' on Ubuntu 5.10, 6.06, 6.10, 7.04, 7.10, 8.04 and Debian Etch. (click here for documentation); the rt2570 version of the USB stick also runs on an up-to-date Ubuntu 5.10, 6.06, 6.10, 7.04,7.10 and 8.04

We're told by a customer that 'It works perfectly with FreeBSD 6.1 if used with wpa_supplicant according to the directions in the FreeBSD handbook.'
Thanks, Milo, for that information :-)

SUSE Linux 10.0 has both rt2500 and rt2570 drivers : other distributions may vary, but if yours does not include Ralink support, then we include a CD containing the source with your order or you can download the source from http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/

For some reason, Novell removed support for the rt2500 from SUSE 10.1, we believe that they intend to re-introduce it at some time. Meantime, look here for a very useful HOWTO on getting the rt2500 up and running on SUSE 10.1.

Note: openSUSE 10.2 now includes full support for the RT2500.

The serialmonkey forums have some good advice from TomG on setting up the rt2500 under Fedora Core 5 here.

All of these devices will run at 54Mbps, although the USB device needs a USB2 slot to do this: if run on a USB1 machine, it will be limited to 11 Mbps.

Edimax 54 Mbps Wireless PCI card

£19.45

This card uses the RT2561 chipset and works "out of the box" with Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. It can be configured using Hardy's Network Manager to support both WEP and WPA encryption.

The card also works "out of the box" with a fully updated Ubuntu 7.10 and supports both WEP and WPA encryption. With Ubuntu 7.04 the card works with the built-in driver but requires some manual configuration.

We also supply a CD with the card on which there is a serialmonkey-modified Ralink driver and scripts which we have written and which allow you to get it working quickly on Debian Etch and Ubuntu 6.06 and 6.10. We've also got it working reliably on openSUSE 10.2, where more work is needed on the network setup scripts. Any volunteers?

This card and driver also work well with Fedora Core 6 and Fedora 7.

The card comes with a handy separate antenna and lead, which helps obtain best performance by allowing you to choose a good location for the antenna.

Our price includes recorded delivery within the UK, and VAT. There are no hidden extras, and it comes with our support CD.

Edimax 54 Mbps Wireless PCMCIA card

£19.45

This card uses the RT2561 chipset and works "out of the box" with Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. It can be configured using Hardy's Network Manager to support both WEP and WPA encryption and in addition is hot-pluggable.

The card also works "out of the box" with a fully updated Ubuntu 7.10 and supports both WEP and WPA encryption. With Ubuntu 7.04 the card works with the built-in driver but requires some manual configuration.

We also supply a CD with the card on which there is a serialmonkey-modified Ralink driver and scripts which we have written and which allow you to get it working quickly on Debian Etch, Ubuntu 6.06, 6.10. We've also got it working reliably on openSUSE 10.2, where more work is needed on the network setup scripts. Any volunteers?

This card and driver also work well with Fedora Core 6 and Fedora 7.

Our price includes recorded delivery within the UK, and VAT. There are no hidden extras, and it comes with our support CD

Edimax 54 Mbps Wireless USB stick

£19.95

This card uses the RT2571 chipset and works "out of the box" with Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. It can be configured using Hardy's Network Manager to support both WEP and WPA encryption and in addition it's hot-pluggable.

We also supply it with a CD on which there are a serialmonkey-modified Ralink driver and some scripts which we have written and which allow you to get it working quickly on Debian Etch, Ubuntu 6.06, 6.10, 7.04 or 7.10. We've also got it working reliably on openSUSE 10.2, Fedora Core 6 and Fedora 7, where more work is needed on the SUSE network setup scripts. Any volunteers?

The price includes recorded delivery within the UK, and VAT. There are no hidden extras, and it comes with our support CD as well as a handy USB extension lead.

Edimax 54 Mbps Wireless USB stick with Antenna

£22.95

This card uses the RT2571 chipset. Electrically it is similar to the plain Edimax USB stick we sell and it is just as reliable, but it's in a nicer case and has an external antenna. Together with the extension cable, this gives a lot of flexibility in antenna positioning, and allows you to obtain a better signal.

The card works "out of the box" with Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron and can be configured for WEP or WPA encryption with Network Manager. It is also hot-pluggable.

We supply the card with a CD on which there are a serialmonkey-modified Ralink driver and some scripts which we have written and which allow you to get it working quickly on Debian Etch, Ubuntu 6.06, 6.10, 7.04 or 7.10. We've also got it working reliably on openSUSE 10.2, Fedora Core 6 and Fedora 7, where more work is needed on the SUSE network setup scripts. Any volunteers?

The price includes recorded delivery within the UK, and VAT. There are no hidden extras, and it comes with our support CD as well as a handy USB extension lead.

Buffalo wireless access point and router

£36.00

This neat Buffalo device is a broadband router, bridge and 802.11b/g wifi access point. It has an ethernet WAN port to connect to your Cable or DSL modem (or network) and 4 ethernet LAN ports. It is the extra power model: we've used it ourselves to provide excellent wifi coverage at more than one UK FLOSS conference. It comes with the standard Buffalo firmware: for a small extra charge we can supply it flashed with Tomato - please enquire if you want this.