which Wifi cards can be used for a WAP?

[Sam Leffler]

Brian Reichert wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 02, 2005 at 11:28:42AM -0500, Brian Reichert wrote:
> 
>>	I guess everything listed here, with a URL to an up-to-date list:
>>
>>	 <http://customerproducts.atheros.com/customerproducts>
> 
> 
> In perusing many of these cards specs, I see many of them offer a
> 'turbo mode' of 108 Mbps.
> 
> - Is this something magically supported by the hardware?  By that,
>   I mean: if I use a compatible WiFi card in a laptop, they'll just
>   negotiate the higher rate, and as such the kernel driver has no
>   impact?

Turbo mode is an Atheros-specific thing that bonds two channels to 
double the effective bandwidth.  I know of no other vendor that 
implements it.  There are various techniques for increasing the 
effective bandwidth of an 802.11 medium; none are standardized (yet).

> 
> - I'm seeing 'turbo 802.11g' vs. 'Super G'.  I haven't found any
>   thing that tells me if these are synonyms, or if they are
>   incompatable unofficial extansions of a spec.  Does anyone here
>   know?
> 

SuperG is a label for a number of different features that are 
implemented as Atheros-specific protocol extensions.  Other vendors can 
implement most of them (Atheros has released the details of these 
extensions) but it's unlikely you'll find many vendors picking them up. 
  I have code that implements most of SuperG (only compression is 
missing) but haven't committed any of these yet (not sure when I'll do 
this and/or if all warrant going in FreeBSD).

Turbo 11g is the use of Atheros Turbo mode in the 2.4GHz band.  This is 
only possible on channel 6 as you need to bond two channels and is 
permitted only when non-Turbo-capable stations are detected. 
Consequently it's really only useful in the 2.4 band in a private 
environment.  OTOH you can operate in 11a (5GHz) with more freedom and 
SuperG can easily get you transfer rates upwards of 60 Mb/s.

	Sam