Subject: Off-Topic: Beware of OrangeWire 802.11a driver for the Macintosh

From: Pekka Nikander <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2006 22:26:15 +0200

Some time ago, someone mentioned in this list the OrangeWare 802.11a  
compatible device driver for the Macintosh.
http://www1.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ietf/current/msg40249.html

Unfortunately it appears that their web page is optimistic and that  
in reality they do not support all of the cards that they list in  
their web site.  Furthermore, their e-mail support leaves a lot for  
improvement; I haven't tried phone support due to the transatlantic  
costs and time zone differences.

I was unfortunate enough to buy a D-Link Air Premier DWL-AG660, and  
that one definitely doesn't work.  If I plug the card to the laptop,  
the driver (OMI_80211g.kext) does not load.  Looking up the card ID  
with System Profiler gives Vendor ID: 5772, Device ID: 27, which  
translates to IOPCIMatch of 0x001b168c.  Adding this to the driver's  
Info.plist file makes the driver load on card insert, as it should,  
but still not the driver to recognise the card.  The Mac OS X itself  
does recognise card; it is listed as Atheros Communications Inc  
AR5001-0000-0000, and System Profiler shows info on it.

I have now sent four e-mails to their support, the first one last  
Wednesday.  I have got reply to one, and that was very unhelpful,  
basically asking if I had installed the driver as root or not, while  
I clearly indicated my findings above already in the first mail.

Hence, based on this experience so far, I would strongly advice  
making sure that the card that you plan to buy actually does work  
with the driver before buying a card.  From the drivers Info.plist,  
cards with the following parameters appear to work:

3COM Wireless:                              0xa7270013 0x102610b7
DLink AirPlus XtremeG (Atheros 5212a):      0x1025168c 0x2027168c
Linksys A+G (Atheros):                      0x00181737
ZAtheros:                                   0x0013168c

The last one is what I suppose to match with DWL-AG660, but it  
doesn't, as you can see.  Make sure that the IOPCIMatch code of your  
card, as generated from the Vendor ID and Device ID, matches one of  
the above.  Otherwise you are almost sure to be left out of luck.

--Pekka Nikander

PS.  If someone wants to buy an DWL-AG660 at Dallas (should work fine  
with Windows), please let me know.

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From: Lars Eggert <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2006 22:15:37 +0100

> Linksys A+G (Atheros):                      0x00181737

A Netgear WAG511v2 (Vendor ID 5772, Device ID 19) also works, I'm  
using one sometimes.

The OrangeWare driver also does not support WPA with any card AFAIK  
(not an issue at IETF though.)

Lars
-- 
Lars Eggert                                     NEC Network Laboratories

---

From: lconroy <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2006 23:52:41 +0000

Hi folks,
  I can confirm that the D-Link DWL-AG660 doesn't work with the  
Orangeware driver, and
that their e-mail support is quaint. They asked me to remove and re- 
install the driver.
Unsurprisingly, this doesn't make an iota of difference, and it still  
doesn't detect the card.

I don't assume that Orangeware are complete liars, so I wonder if the  
issue is with EU
as opposed to US versions of cards. There might be some voodoo for  
Hyperlan co-existence
in the EU variants of 802.11A cards, and this may confuse the drivers  
(and explain the
different vendor/model IDs). I wonder if a solution would be to buy a  
card in the US,
as these don't have the Francey signal strength modulation, and may  
have actually been
tested by the software vendor.

Any other experiences welcome, as I've just been told that the ship  
date for my MacBookPro
has now slipped to the end of March - thank you Apple.

all the best and good luck,
   Lawrence

On 6 Mar 2006, at 21:15, Lars Eggert wrote:
>> with the driver before buying a card.  From the drivers  
>> Info.plist, cards with the following parameters appear to work:

---

From: Pekka Nikander <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 21:23:21 +0200

Situation update:

It appears that there are (at least) two different versions of DWL- 
AG660, one that works with their driver and one that doesn't.   
Obviously, I have the latter.

They are now actively working with me trying to get the driver to  
work also with this version of the card.  Hence, even though I don't  
have a working system (yet), I am now satisfied with their e-mail  
support.

--Pekka Nikander

On Mar 6, 2006, at 22:26, Pekka Nikander wrote:

> Some time ago, someone mentioned in this list the OrangeWare  
> 802.11a compatible device driver for the Macintosh.
> that one definitely doesn't work.  If I plug the card to the  
> laptop, the driver (OMI_80211g.kext) does not load.  Looking up the  
> card ID with System Profiler gives Vendor ID: 5772, Device ID: 27,  
> which translates to IOPCIMatch of 0x001b168c.  Adding this to the  
> driver's Info.plist file makes the driver load on card insert, as  
> it should, but still not the driver to recognise the card.  The Mac  
> OS X itself does recognise card; it is listed as Atheros  
> Communications Inc AR5001-0000-0000, and System Profiler shows info  
> on it.
>
> basically asking if I had installed the driver as root or not,  
> while I clearly indicated my findings above already in the first mail.
>
> doesn't, as you can see.  Make sure that the IOPCIMatch code of  
> your card, as generated from the Vendor ID and Device ID, matches  
> one of the above.  Otherwise you are almost sure to be left out of  
> luck.
>
> --Pekka Nikander
>
> PS.  If someone wants to buy an DWL-AG660 at Dallas (should work  
> fine with Windows), please let me know.
>
>