USB cards supporting HOSTAP

[Lee Garrett]

Rub?n Gonz?lez wrote:
> Hi evrybody,
> 
> I'm looking for some models of cards that support HOSTAP drivers interfacing
> via USB. I'm a Debian 4.0 user with Linux Kernel version 2.6.18. I would
> appreciate if anybody could tell me two or three afordable cards and its
> respective manufacturers. I've found two models that can run with MADWiFi
> drivers. One is F5D7050 Ver.4000 (Belkin) and the other is Wireless USB
> adapter SNU6500 (Phillips). Does anybody know if they are both also
> compatible with HOSTAP?
> 
> Thanks a lot.

Hi there,

I've had a look on the madwifi website, and it lists the Philips as supported
[1]. But this contradicts to the compatibility main page, which lists all USB
as unsupported [2].

My guess would be that USB devices with atheros chip are not supported by
madwifi or ath5k, as I looked for an madwifi supported USB wlan stick some
months ago. As far as I can say I think rt2x00 drivers are closest to being
supported by hostapd (through nl80211), although you need an 0.6.x version of
hostapd and pretty new drivers for your ralink usb stick. Some users have
reported that it worked for them, it didn't work for me (yet).

Hope it helps, as I have the same starting point as you have (Debian system
and need a usb wlan stick to work with hostapd).

Kind regards,
Lee

*[1]http://madwifi.org/wiki/Compatibility/Philips#WirelessUSBadapterSNU6500
*[2]http://madwifi.org/wiki/Compatibility and
http://madwifi.org/ticket/33