[Techtalk] Netgear MA401 and Red Hat 8.0 on an HP laptop

[Akkana Peck]

> Michelle Murrain wrote:
> > 
> > I'm trying to get a newly bought Netgear MA401 to work on a RH 8.0

txjulie at austin.rr.com writes:
> Take it back for a refund.
[bad netgear experiences snipped]

Carla Schroder writes:
> Ooo, hardware wars! Yay, my turn! Intel, Linksys, and DLink. Don't need no 
> steenking Netgear, and I appear to have a 3com jinx. I always have trouble 

I've had bad experiences with both Netgear and Linksys NICs --
but Michelle was asking about 802.11b pcmcia cards, not PCI NICs.

My Netgear MA401 works fine with the wvlan_cs driver (plug and
play on Redhat), but web searching shows someone else using the
same model number with the orinoco driver, and Michelle's card seems
to be yet a third chip which doesn't work with either driver. :-(

This isn't by any means limited to Netgear.  Linksys is just as
bad about changing chips without changing model number, and
apparently their latest 802.11b PCMCIA cards don't work and they're
rather unhelpful to people who call up asking about linux support,
according to a recent SVLUG posting:
http://lists.svlug.org/archives/svlug/2003-February/043677.html
which includes a link to an online petition asking for Linux
support on Broadcom chips.

Alas, the only solution may be to return the card and buy something
else, preferably also writing a letter to the manufacturer explaining
why you returned the card and that you have advised all your friends
to do the same.  (Please do this when you can -- manufacturers
invariably use the excuse "We don't get many requests for Linux"
or "We don't think there are enough Linux users to make it worth
the effort", and the fact that we tend to just shrug and give up
rather than pestering them just reinforces that opinion.  Consider
signing the Broadcom petition, too, if you care about wireless support.)

	...Akkana