2.6. Wireless Cards

Before considering using SmallWall as an access point, read this FAQ entry. If you spend more then two hours trying to find and configure a wireless card, you have already paid (with you time) for an AP that will outperform it significantly.

These cards are broken into two lists - readily available cards, and discontinued / difficult to obtain cards.

2.6.1. Unsupported Cards

Currently all AC wireless cards and most N cards are incompatible with SmallWall. These require drivers that are only found in FreeBSD 10+, while SmallWall is on 8.4. They also require "hostap" support. They may be supported when SmallWall is on a newer version of FreeBSD.

2.6.2. Readily Available Cards

The following list, to the best of our knowledge, is very old. Please report any findings to Lee Sharp.

Not all wireless cards support hostap mode! (i.e. can function as an access point) This is a limitation of the hardware itself, not SmallWall or FreeBSD. If this list does not say "no hostap" next to the card, it should support hostap.

Note

The SmallWall Documentation Project does not endorse any vendors you may find through froogle.google.com. We simply link there for your convenience. The searches provided may also bring up unrelated hardware in addition to the compatible hardware.

miniPCI

2.6.3. Discontinued / Difficult to Obtain

Note

Some of the following do not support hostap. To determine if they do, search Google for the card name and FreeBSD, to determine which driver the card uses. If it is 'wi', it will work. Cards that use drivers other than wi do not support hostap.

  • Accton airDirect WN3301

  • Addtron AWA100

  • Adtec ADLINK340APC

  • Aironet 4500/4800 series (PCMCIA, PCI, and ISA adapters are all supported)

  • Airway 802.11 Adapter

  • Avaya Wireless PC Card

  • BayStack 650 and 660

  • Blue Concentric Circle CF Wireless LAN Model WL-379F

  • BreezeNET PC-DS.11

  • Buffalo WLI-CF-S11G

  • Cabletron RoamAbout 802.11 DS

  • Corega KK Wireless LAN PCC-11, PCCA-11, PCCB-11

  • ELECOM Air@Hawk/LD-WL11/PCC

  • ELSA AirLancer MC-11

  • Farallon Skyline 11Mbps Wireless

  • Farallon SkyLINE Wireless

  • ICOM SL-1100

  • Icom SL-200

  • IBM High Rate Wireless LAN PC Card

  • IO Data WN-B11/PCM

  • Laneed Wireless card

  • Lucent Technologies WaveLAN/IEEE 802.11 PCMCIA and ISA standard speed (2Mbps) and turbo speed (6Mbps) wireless network adapters and workalikes

  • Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE 802.11

  • Melco Airconnect WLI-PCM-S11, WLI-PCM-L11

  • Melco WLI-PCM

  • NCR WaveLAN/IEEE 802.11

  • NEC Wireless Card CMZ-RT-WP

  • NEC Aterm WL11C (PC-WL/11C)

  • NEC PK-WL001

  • NEL SSMagic

  • Netwave AirSurfer Plus and AirSurfer Pro

  • PLANEX GeoWave/GW-NS110

  • Proxim Harmony, RangeLAN-DS

  • Raytheon Raylink PC Card

  • Sony PCWA-C100

  • TDK LAK-CD011WL

  • Toshiba Wireless LAN Card

  • Webgear Aviator

  • Webgear Aviator Pro

  • Xircom Wireless Ethernet adapter (rebadged Aironet)

  • ZoomAir 4000