Connecting to the Internet with Wireless
Setting up a wireless network connection can be one of the more challenging features to get working
in Linux. Despite improvements to open source drivers for many wireless devices, you can??™t
assume that any wireless card connected to a computer running Linux will just work.
Wireless card manufacturers have, for the most part, not released specifications for their equipment
that would allow open source developers to create Linux drivers. Most vendors simply produce
binary-only drivers for Microsoft Windows systems. As a result of this state of the wireless world,
the following wireless projects have emerged to help Linux users:
ndiswrappers (http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net)??”This project lets you
use wireless drivers in Linux that were created to run in Windows.
madwifi (http://madwifi.org)??”Supports drivers for wireless chipsets from Atheros
(www.atheros.com).
Intel PRO/Wireless for Linux (http://ipw2100.sourceforge.net)??”There are
several wireless driver projects to support drivers for Intel PRO/Wireless hardware.
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Getting on the Internet 5
In some cases, you may simply want to get the wireless interface built into your laptop to work. To
check the list of supported Linux wireless cards, refer to: http://rfswitch.
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