Host ap Going the way of the Dodo?

[James B Hiller]

Hi.

On Mon, 8 Sep 2003, Wuss912 wrote:

> Is host ap going to be supporting more types of cards or is it going to be
> fading away as it is getting more difficult to find compatible cards?

Jouni addressed this point for another similar question within the
last 2-3 weeks.  I'd give you the specific reference, but don't
have it at my disposal (on travel, away from usable resources).  You
should be able to find his response in the mailing list archive.

As to the difficulty of finding compatible cards - I really believe
that is somewhat overstated.  Review the following URL:

http://www.linux-wlan.org/docs/wlan_adapters.html

and pick one in the card configuration of your choice, and let
your favorite search engine do the rest.

> Also does anyone have a good source for cheap hostap compatible cards
> (preferable somewhere that can ship to Europe cheap)

This is by no means an endorsement, but I've been able to lay hands
on the DLink DWL-520, both Rev A1 and B1, through
networkingoutlet.com for USD 39 + shipping (didn't price shipping
to Europe).  I think this is probably as cheap as things could
be expected.  If your window is a little wider (say, USD 60-70),
you can undoubtedly get a few more cards than that, of more
current vintage.  And in the worst case, you can get the
Netgear MA 311 from Best Buy or Circuit City via their web sites,
and pay whatever they charge for overseas shipping.

Main point to all this is, believe a little bit of searching
will show that the Prism chipset is still widely available; and
beyond that, HostAP is not of necessity beholden to that
architecture.

jbh