Multiple PCI HostAP Cards

[Christopher Dobbs]

>What happens is that hostap_pci probes 3 cards but only the last of them
>can be initialized.  The first two fail.  The working card gets wlan0.
>Later hostap_cs probes a PCMCIA card, which fails.  However, it's not
>unregistered, so it keeps wlan1.
>  
>
The PCMCIA card is a 100mW card from telatronix, It is not
usualy suported by the cardbus manager.

>The PCI cards seem to be identical.  The only difference is the IRQ they
>use.  It is possible that the cards don't work because of strong radio
>interference which confuses the firmware.  Or they draw too much power
>from the motherboard.  But I'm just guessing here.
>  
>
There is no problem with RF, inthat the individual slots are shelded.
A multi-meater has determained that the powerlevels are good.

>By the way, you are using hostap version 0.0.1, which is very old.  Try at
>least 0.1.3 or 0.2.0.
>  
>
I hadn't notided the 0.1.3 version, I'll try that. (The 0.1.1 version 
didn't work
for me)

>Firmware upgrade can also help with some inexplicable problems.  The
>latest available secondary firmware for Prism 2.5 is 1.8.0, although some
>users recommend 1.7.4 as the most stable firmware.  Primary firmware
>should be updated too.  See HOWTO for Prism firmware:
>http://linux.junsun.net/intersil-prism/
>  
>
I will update the firmware tomarrow at work so I can use the 2.3MB 
backbone. (
my home connection is only about 256KB due to RF problems [I have 
wireless internet])

>I have never used more than one PCI card, but the code seems to be safe.
>I don't see any potential problem.  Beside, the first card would not have
>problems with initialization if that was the reason.
>
>  
>
All in all, thankyou for your help.  I will try your segestions to see 
if they work.
If anyone is interested in my community area network software, I will 
have a page
on my web server at http://www.eracew.net/community/

Christopher Dobbs