seeking better mini-PCI wifi for Dell Inspiron 8500

Can anyone tell me about a better wifi card (and drivers etc) for my
Dell Inspiron 8500 laptop? The box has an Intel Pro/2100 mini-PCI card
that is 802.11b only. I would like to find an A/B/G card that has good
linux support (no Broadcom with wrapper drivers please).

Once I find a usable part, can I simply buy that from any OEM part
source?
What about drivers and utilities and all that?

I see that Intel has a Pro/2200 and a Pro/2915 card that are the same
physical size.
Intell says that I need to ask my OEM [aka Dell] about integration and
compatibility. Ha Ha -- I am my own OEM in this situation, n'c'est
pas? [Sort of like those "ask your sys admin messages that Redmond is
so fond of.]

saint wrote:
> Can anyone tell me about a better wifi card (and drivers etc) for my
> Dell Inspiron 8500 laptop? The box has an Intel Pro/2100 mini-PCI card
> that is 802.11b only. I would like to find an A/B/G card that has good
> linux support (no Broadcom with wrapper drivers please).
>
> Once I find a usable part, can I simply buy that from any OEM part
> source?
> What about drivers and utilities and all that?
>
> I see that Intel has a Pro/2200 and a Pro/2915 card that are the same
> physical size.
> Intell says that I need to ask my OEM [aka Dell] about integration and
> compatibility. Ha Ha -- I am my own OEM in this situation, n'c'est
> pas? [Sort of like those "ask your sys admin messages that Redmond is
> so fond of.]
>

You may be able to simply buy a 2200 card cheaply. I did that about a
year ago for a D600 that I had. It is a direct replacement. if you are
in the US try this;

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_g...pro+2200/skd=1

The native Linux drivers are getting very mature.

Rich Piotrowski
--
"Now are you talking about what it is you know
or just repeating what it was you heard."
Grace Slick
To E-mail use: rpiotro(at)wi(dot)rr(dot)com