Linux knocks iBook offline

[Duane Attaway]

I don't believe the SMC 2435W follows the 802.11b rules when establishing
a connection.  As far as I know, there wasn't a legal 802.11b
specification for 22Mb/sec when this card was brought to market.  When no
other cards are using the proper 802.11b communications, the SMC 2435W
feels free to enter into the proprietary communications and stays there
until shut down.  Its internal radio software is not smart enough to
auto-negotiate after it starts.

If I remember right, the makers of 802.11g cards rushed to market their
cards a long time before the IEEE 802.11g standard was completed.  This
resulted in cards stating they were 802.11g compatible that didn't work
between brands.  Make sure your card is 100% IEEE 802.11 compatible.  Some 
cards offer to jump into proprietary value added speeds that are not 
compatible with other manufacturers.  So much for standards.

There may be firmware upgrades for all your cards if they start cross
licensing all their patents.  Most likely not if they don't have to...

On Sun, 14 Dec 2003, Jonathan Hutchins wrote:

> Got a strange problem here:  DLink DWL-800AP+, SMC 2435W card in a Winbook, 
> and an Airport 11g card in an iBook.
> 
> If the iBook goes to sleep/suspend while the Winbook is on line running SuSE 
> 9.0, it can't connect when it wakes back up.  If the Winbook is shut down, 
> the iBook can connect.  If the Winbook is brought back up, the iBook stays 
> connected until it goes to sleep again.
> 
> I haven't done a definitive test, but we never noticed this when the Winbook 
> was running Windows Me.
> 
> Any helpful hints where to start looking for the problem?  Tools?
> 
> 
> 
> 

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