Hi all, I'm looking for a compact USB wifi card for use with a laptop. Unfortunately the internal wifi on my work laptop (13" retina macbook pro) is pretty flaky under fedora. My priorities (in order) are: - reliable under fedora - compact enough I can leave it in at all times, including while transporting the laptop - decent range. My temporary borrowed USB wifi is pretty slow in the corner of the office. Any recommendations? Cheers, Bianca
On Fri, 23 May 2014 12:31:08 Bianca Gibson wrote:
- compact enough I can leave it in at all times, including while transporting the laptop - decent range. My temporary borrowed USB wifi is pretty slow in the corner of the office.
These two are probably exclusive no matter which one you get. Have you considered just getting a big one with good performance and unplugging it before you leave? You could have a second wifi device for use elsewhere. One thing I've done in the past is to buy an extra PSU for my laptop so when I'm working at an office every day I don't have to carry a PSU to/from work. The same approach can apply to other things. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
Bianca Gibson <bianca.rachel.gibson@gmail.com> wrote:
Unfortunately the internal wifi on my work laptop (13" retina macbook pro) is pretty flaky under fedora.
It might be worth tracking the relevant bug reports (or writing your own if necessary). When I have to work around bugs, I usually make sure they're properly reported - it helps the community and makes me feel better.
On 24 May 2014 15:02, Jason White <jason@jasonjgw.net> wrote:
It might be worth tracking the relevant bug reports (or writing your own if necessary).
When I have to work around bugs, I usually make sure they're properly reported - it helps the community and makes me feel better.
Probably a good idea, I'll look in to it tomorrow. Bianca
Hello Bianca, On Fri, 2014-05-23 at 12:31 +1000, Bianca Gibson wrote:
Hi all, I'm looking for a compact USB wifi card for use with a laptop. Unfortunately the internal wifi on my work laptop (13" retina macbook pro) is pretty flaky under fedora.
There is quite a nice USB wifi adapter available for the Raspberry Pi. I have not tried using, yet, but supposed to be Linux compatible, at least with Raspbian. Mine came from the "Buy Raspberry Pi Australia" website.
My priorities (in order) are:
- reliable under fedora
- compact enough I can leave it in at all times, including while transporting the laptop
Not fully compliant, depends on how you pack the laptop. Whatever you get, might be beneficial to use a USB extension cord.
- decent range. My temporary borrowed USB wifi is pretty slow in the corner of the office.
Mostly the very small devices will have a less sensitive antenna. Getting a good match to "free space" is possible, but considerably more difficult. The larger antennas can also be made broader spectrum, which helps.
Any recommendations?
Hope the above helps with pointers and things to consider.
Cheers, Bianca
Regards, Mark Trickett
On 23/05/2014 12:31, Bianca Gibson wrote:
- reliable under fedora - compact enough I can leave it in at all times, including while transporting the laptop - decent range. My temporary borrowed USB wifi is pretty slow in the corner of the office.
...pick one. ;-) But seriously, if I were you, I would spend more time on sorting out why the Wi-Fi is flaky. Might be that it's missing a proprietary firmware blob or something? The other thing is, most PCs have their internal Wi-Fi in the form of a mini-PCIe card hidden under a panel similar to (if not the same as) the one you would use to replace the RAM. This means the Wi-Fi card is often replaceable. I have a one or two mini-PCIe Wi-Fi cards lying around that I salvaged from otherwise broken PCs that work well in Linux. There are far too many cards that work under Linux to list them all, but you may be able to obtain a card or smashed up laptop off eBay that you can salvage a card from. Down the rabbit hole you go...
This one can be had for $9: http://www.eachbuyer.net/300mbps-usb-wireless-adapter-wifi-lan-network-card-... and the Chip: Reatek 8192SU is supported in linux but for $9 no big loss if there is a problem. On 24/05/14 23:33, Jeremy Visser wrote:
On 23/05/2014 12:31, Bianca Gibson wrote:
- reliable under fedora - compact enough I can leave it in at all times, including while transporting the laptop - decent range. My temporary borrowed USB wifi is pretty slow in the corner of the office. ...pick one. ;-)
But seriously, if I were you, I would spend more time on sorting out why the Wi-Fi is flaky. Might be that it's missing a proprietary firmware blob or something?
The other thing is, most PCs have their internal Wi-Fi in the form of a mini-PCIe card hidden under a panel similar to (if not the same as) the one you would use to replace the RAM.
This means the Wi-Fi card is often replaceable. I have a one or two mini-PCIe Wi-Fi cards lying around that I salvaged from otherwise broken PCs that work well in Linux. There are far too many cards that work under Linux to list them all, but you may be able to obtain a card or smashed up laptop off eBay that you can salvage a card from.
Down the rabbit hole you go...
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Jeremy Visser <jeremy@visser.name> writes:
I would spend more time on sorting out why the Wi-Fi is flaky. Might be that it's missing a proprietary firmware blob or something?
I thought the blobs mostly changed it from "doesn't work" to "works at all" -- not "works badly" to "works well". Am I sadly misinformed? http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html#39
On 26 May 2014 10:25, Trent W. Buck <trentbuck@gmail.com> wrote:
Jeremy Visser <jeremy@visser.name> writes:
I would spend more time on sorting out why the Wi-Fi is flaky. Might be that it's missing a proprietary firmware blob or something?
I thought the blobs mostly changed it from "doesn't work" to "works at all" -- not "works badly" to "works well". Am I sadly misinformed?
Changing from one version of a firmware blob to a different version can certainly change things; it's worth checking that your source for the firmware blob was up to date. (Not quite the same as adding a previously-missing blob)
On 24 May 2014 23:33, Jeremy Visser <jeremy@visser.name> wrote:
On 23/05/2014 12:31, Bianca Gibson wrote:
- reliable under fedora - compact enough I can leave it in at all times, including while transporting the laptop - decent range. My temporary borrowed USB wifi is pretty slow in the corner of the office.
...pick one. ;-)
But seriously, if I were you, I would spend more time on sorting out why the Wi-Fi is flaky. Might be that it's missing a proprietary firmware blob or something?
The other thing is, most PCs have their internal Wi-Fi in the form of a mini-PCIe card hidden under a panel similar to (if not the same as) the one you would use to replace the RAM.
This means the Wi-Fi card is often replaceable. I have a one or two mini-PCIe Wi-Fi cards lying around that I salvaged from otherwise broken PCs that work well in Linux. There are far too many cards that work under Linux to list them all, but you may be able to obtain a card or smashed up laptop off eBay that you can salvage a card from.
Unless you have a Thinkpad, or some HPs, and possibly others. If you replace the mini-PCIE card on my Lenovo, the system refuses to boot at all. http://support.lenovo.com/en_AU/diagnose-and-fix/detail.page?DocID=HT001309 -Toby
On 26/05/2014 2:22 PM, Toby Corkindale wrote:
If you replace the mini-PCIE card on my Lenovo, the system refuses to boot at all. http://support.lenovo.com/en_AU/diagnose-and-fix/detail.page?DocID=HT001309
Some IBM server systems have the same problem with non-branded accessories such as a network card or a RAID card for instance ... this practice of brand lock-in should be banned. A.
participants (9)
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Andrew McGlashan -
Bianca Gibson -
Jason White -
Jeremy Visser -
Mark Trickett -
Robert Brown -
Russell Coker -
Toby Corkindale -
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