> >>>> I'm talking about the USB wireless adapter (I don't think I can
> >>>> connect the antenna to my laptop directly),
> >>>> not the passphrase key...
> >>>
> >>> Ah. I've got a Hawking HWUG1 USB WiFi adapter that works fine
> >>> with Gentoo (I had to download driver source from somewhere).
> >>> It's got an R-SMA connector for use with external antennas.
> >>
> >> I've had good luck using these together:
> >>
> >> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833164015
> >
> > Yup, that's the one I have. That's a good price on it, too.
> >
> >> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833164110
> >
> > I've also got one of those antennas and it's exellent. It
> > provides a little (1-2dB) more gain as my double-biquad
> > reflector, but it's a lot cheaper (assuming your time is worth
> > much), and a bit easier to use, since it will sit nicely on a
> > table or windowsill.
>
> Seems a nice combo, indeed.
> A curiosity: by itself, the Hawking USB adapter has more or less
> sensitivity than the simple Airport glued to my Macbook motherboard?

I think it depends a lot on the maturity of the drivers. As I said,
my Netgear PCI card uses the madwifi drivers and vastly outperforms
the Hawking adapter. The Hawking's drivers are fairly new (rt2x00)
and madwifi has been around for quite a while now.

I do have another rt2x00 adapter that performs noticeably worse than
the Hawking. It's a Linksys and it has no external antenna.

Also worth noting is that this item:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833315075

uses rt2x00 but has some type of failure issue. Possibly heat
related, possibly not. I've experienced it firsthand.

- Grant
--
gentoo-user@(protected)