RALINK chipset Wireless NIC's

I see there are quite a few vendors selling cards build
with Ralink's chipset. I'm using one myself,
the SMCWPCI-GM which uses Ralink's RT61 chip.

Is this the most popular solution? Besides mine,
there are Gigabyte, Linksys and a few others that use it.
I took a look at the various web sites to get some idea of
driver support. Almost all the companies offered old drivers,
while Ralink themselves, offer their
reference drivers, updated frequently new as of
December 2006. I'm using it myself, since it
seems to contain the driver, utility and if I'm not mistaken,
even updated Firmware thrown into the package
somewhere.

In my case, the driver on the CDrom was almost a
year old, the driver at SMC site wouldn't install at all.
What with the slightly unusual installation procedures,
The hit and miss of the wireless signal itself
(I'm currently in an apartment. No Line of site,
5 - 8 of my "neighbors" showing up in the ste
survey). Im amazed it works at all.

Dave

On Mar 6, 5:00 pm, dave xnet <davexnet02...@ETEyahoo.com> wrote:
> I see there are quite a few vendors selling cards build
> with Ralink's chipset. I'm using one myself,
> the SMCWPCI-GM which uses Ralink's RT61 chip.
>
> Is this the most popular solution? Besides mine,
> there are Gigabyte, Linksys and a few others that use it.
> I took a look at the various web sites to get some idea of
> driver support. Almost all the companies offered old drivers,
> while Ralink themselves, offer their
> reference drivers, updated frequently new as of
> December 2006. I'm using it myself, since it
> seems to contain the driver, utility and if I'm not mistaken,
> even updated Firmware thrown into the package
> somewhere.
>
> In my case, the driver on the CDrom was almost a
> year old, the driver at SMC site wouldn't install at all.
> What with the slightly unusual installation procedures,
> The hit and miss of the wireless signal itself
> (I'm currently in an apartment. No Line of site,
> 5 - 8 of my "neighbors" showing up in the ste
> survey). Im amazed it works at all.
>
> Dave
The Airlink 101 usb wifi I bought uses the chipset. You may be able to
find the thread we did on RALINK in this newsgroup. As far as I can
tell, most of the sniffer software likes the Prism 2.5 chipset.

On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 01:00:51 GMT, dave xnet <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote in <(E-Mail Removed)>:

>I see there are quite a few vendors selling cards build
>with Ralink's chipset. I'm using one myself,
>the SMCWPCI-GM which uses Ralink's RT61 chip.
>
>Is this the most popular solution? ...

Wi-Fi heavyweights include Atheros, Broadcom, Conexant (Prism), Intel,
Marvell, and Realtek. I'm personally partial to Atheros.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 04:08:40 GMT, John Navas
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 01:00:51 GMT, dave xnet <(E-Mail Removed)>
>wrote in <(E-Mail Removed)>:
>
>>I see there are quite a few vendors selling cards build
>>with Ralink's chipset. I'm using one myself,
>>the SMCWPCI-GM which uses Ralink's RT61 chip.
>>
>>Is this the most popular solution? ...
>
>Wi-Fi heavyweights include Atheros, Broadcom, Conexant (Prism), Intel,
>Marvell, and Realtek. I'm personally partial to Atheros.
Hello John,
is Atheros the chip maker, or is it the OEM card maker?
If Atheros is the chip, which manufacturers/cards
should I look at?

Dave

On 6 Mar 2007 19:57:52 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>On Mar 6, 5:00 pm, dave xnet <davexnet02...@ETEyahoo.com> wrote:
>> I see there are quite a few vendors selling cards build
>> with Ralink's chipset. I'm using one myself,
>> the SMCWPCI-GM which uses Ralink's RT61 chip.
>>
>> Is this the most popular solution? Besides mine,
>> there are Gigabyte, Linksys and a few others that use it.
>> I took a look at the various web sites to get some idea of
>> driver support. Almost all the companies offered old drivers,
>> while Ralink themselves, offer their
>> reference drivers, updated frequently new as of
>> December 2006. I'm using it myself, since it
>> seems to contain the driver, utility and if I'm not mistaken,
>> even updated Firmware thrown into the package
>> somewhere.
>>
>> In my case, the driver on the CDrom was almost a
>> year old, the driver at SMC site wouldn't install at all.
>> What with the slightly unusual installation procedures,
>> The hit and miss of the wireless signal itself
>> (I'm currently in an apartment. No Line of site,
>> 5 - 8 of my "neighbors" showing up in the ste
>> survey). Im amazed it works at all.
>>
>> Dave
>The Airlink 101 usb wifi I bought uses the chipset. You may be able to
>find the thread we did on RALINK in this newsgroup. As far as I can
>tell, most of the sniffer software likes the Prism 2.5 chipset.
Thanks for the info. I'll use Google to see if I can find the
aforementioned thread -
which brands/models use this chipset?

On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 04:13:26 GMT, dave xnet <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote in <(E-Mail Removed)>:

>On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 04:08:40 GMT, John Navas
><(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 01:00:51 GMT, dave xnet <(E-Mail Removed)>
>>wrote in <(E-Mail Removed)>:
>>
>>>I see there are quite a few vendors selling cards build
>>>with Ralink's chipset. I'm using one myself,
>>>the SMCWPCI-GM which uses Ralink's RT61 chip.
>>>
>>>Is this the most popular solution? ...
>>
>>Wi-Fi heavyweights include Atheros, Broadcom, Conexant (Prism), Intel,
>>Marvell, and Realtek. I'm personally partial to Atheros.

>is Atheros the chip maker, or is it the OEM card maker?

Chips and modules.

>If Atheros is the chip, which manufacturers/cards
>should I look at?

I personally don't think a PCI adapter is a terribly good idea from an
antenna standpoint.

I'd suggest an Ethernet client bridge (Buffalo WLI-TX4-G54HP) instead,
or a good router that can run DD-WRT in bridge mode (e.g., Buffalo
WHR-HP-G54). Or the MIMO versions.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 04:13:26 GMT, dave xnet
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 04:08:40 GMT, John Navas
><(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 01:00:51 GMT, dave xnet <(E-Mail Removed)>
>>wrote in <(E-Mail Removed)>:
>>
>>>I see there are quite a few vendors selling cards build
>>>with Ralink's chipset. I'm using one myself,
>>>the SMCWPCI-GM which uses Ralink's RT61 chip.
>>>
>>>Is this the most popular solution? ...
>>
>>Wi-Fi heavyweights include Atheros, Broadcom, Conexant (Prism), Intel,
>>Marvell, and Realtek. I'm personally partial to Atheros.
>Hello John,
>is Atheros the chip maker, or is it the OEM card maker?
>If Atheros is the chip, which manufacturers/cards
>should I look at?
>
>Dave
Sorry to reply to my own post but I've just seen
the Airlink AWLH4030 is one such card.
Looks like a bargain ($25 ?)

Dave

On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 04:23:04 GMT, dave xnet <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote in <(E-Mail Removed)>:

>On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 04:13:26 GMT, dave xnet
><(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 04:08:40 GMT, John Navas
>><(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>>>Wi-Fi heavyweights include Atheros, Broadcom, Conexant (Prism), Intel,
>>>Marvell, and Realtek. I'm personally partial to Atheros.

>>is Atheros the chip maker, or is it the OEM card maker?
>>If Atheros is the chip, which manufacturers/cards
>>should I look at?

>Sorry to reply to my own post but I've just seen
>the Airlink AWLH4030 is one such card.
>Looks like a bargain ($25 ?)

It's a very good value. I've used it with good results. A small shop
in San Francisco sells them for $20, advertising on Craig's List.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 04:22:13 GMT, John Navas
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 04:13:26 GMT, dave xnet <(E-Mail Removed)>

>
>I personally don't think a PCI adapter is a terribly good idea from an
>antenna standpoint.
>
>I'd suggest an Ethernet client bridge (Buffalo WLI-TX4-G54HP) instead,
>or a good router that can run DD-WRT in bridge mode (e.g., Buffalo
>WHR-HP-G54). Or the MIMO versions.
Thanks for this info - I'm new to wireless and just seeing the
possibilities. Heard very good things about Buffalo in general.
The WLI-TX4-G54HP - I never knew such a device
existed.

I am experiencing the antenna problems you speak of.
When I get a bit more settled domicile-wise, I'll
sort it out. For now, it's acceptable.

When the PC that is now wireless was wired,
I used to be able to transfer files from one box to the
other (thru the router) at about 70% network utilization,
according to the tab on task mamnager.
This worked out at about 5 - 6 MBytes P/S.
Quite acceptable.

Now that one PC is wireless, Network utilization
shows only 20 - 22 %, with a corresponding loss
of Bytes P/S.

Dave

On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 05:17:53 GMT, dave xnet <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote in <(E-Mail Removed)>:

>On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 04:22:13 GMT, John Navas
><(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>>I personally don't think a PCI adapter is a terribly good idea from an
>>antenna standpoint.
>>
>>I'd suggest an Ethernet client bridge (Buffalo WLI-TX4-G54HP) instead,
>>or a good router that can run DD-WRT in bridge mode (e.g., Buffalo
>>WHR-HP-G54). Or the MIMO versions.

>Thanks for this info - I'm new to wireless and just seeing the
>possibilities. Heard very good things about Buffalo in general.
>The WLI-TX4-G54HP - I never knew such a device
>existed.

It's one of my top recommendations for difficult environments -- see
<http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_on_a_Boat>.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>