top-quark.blog
Wireless Adventure!
Sun, 08/22/2004, 04:06(Executive summary at the end), finally put up pics
So, I'm a cheapass. Everyone knows this; I'm pretty sure I'd be one even if I had a gazillion dollars.
Got this 802.11g wireless card off Pricewatch.. IIRC, it was the cheapest one around. Surfing the net with it is great, but not too terribly fulfilling. Particularly, I'm fond of wardriving and signals fun, so NetStumbler is a favorite tool of mine. Problem is, the drivers included with the card are uber-generic, and NetStumbler pretty much pukes chunks (says no cards detected).
"I think it's the drivers", I say aloud. I'm a fucking nerd. Anyhow, a lot of cards are just OEMed.. I have no idea who the hell makes this card, since it's so fucking generic. It's called "802.11g Wireless LAN CardBus PC Card". Given enough crackrocks, I could come up with a more palatable name.. maybe something like the "Verbose2000g XTREME EDITION" or something. The packaging, for chrissake:
Yeah; not even a goddamn brand name. So, I try an FCC ID search first. The FCC ID is "MQ4WG2K4", which tells us it's made by a Taiwanese company called "AboCom". Net search doesn't come up with anything relevant, so it looks like I'm trodding on new soil here. Aside from pics of ghetto-fab tech setups from my homeland, the FCC listing is otherwise useless, so let's dig hardware. I love hardware.
Well, time to look at the chipset... breaking and entering time, that is (more the former than the latter). A little while later, delicately prodding with specific tools (pointy end of a compass), and it's open. Here are its guts, along with the chosen tools:
Sooo.. looking at the board, our main chip is a TI, which for the dim-witted, is Texas Instruments.
Specific Chip markings read:
TI TNETW1130GVF 3BZ3408 CD
That "NET" bit tells me it's probably the culprit, but I write down the other chip numbers. It's not like I can look em up on the fly, because I'm lazy, and the card I'm dissecting is the one I use to connect to the net.
Well, shits & giggles, here's the other big chips, along with the dirt I dug up:
ATMEL320 (NE OF MAIN CHIP) 24C08N S127 C (EEPROM; not recommended for new designs!) RADIA (S OF MAIN CHIP, #2 IN SIZE) RC2422B HK0344 A111 (RF stuff? Made in Hong Kong?) RADIA (SOUTHMOST CHIP) RC2326 SG0349 3BF3R2K (RF stuff? Made in Singapore?)
On the way out of the hardware, I see this little gem:
I'd noticed in the OEM drivers an option to switch antennas. This looks like tracks for a surface-mount antenna connector socket, so I'll probably revisit this. Probably MCX is my guess... gotta figure out what kind of plug goes there. I've drilled a hole for it anyway.
Massage the whole thing back together, and hallelujah, the damn thing works. Good, because I'm not putting this much effort into messing with something I've killed.
Well, the small shit checks out to be just small shit, so it's got to be the TI. Google for TNETW1130GVF and get some Seattle hippy coffee-addict wireless page that talks about an example piece of hardware, find out that dropping the "GVF" gives more data (TNETW1130), then finally we find out that the chip is in the "ACX111" family. Now we're getting somewhere, except that the only stuff I can find on that is for Linux nerds. I don't care about linux drivers, but I read along the way that the following have similar chipsets:
US Robotics 5410
Dlink G650+
Fuck, I like USR. Let's read up on them. Netstumbler.org forums shows that it sorta works in NS, you just need the 4.0 drivers. Go to USR's support page, and like an idiot I download 5.0 drivers. I don't know that then, so I keep installing like the dumbass I am. Uninstall old drivers, sucker Win2k into accepting the USR ones, and....
Net works. Cool. Actually seems a good bit speedier and less crappy.
...but NetStumbler doesn't work. Assorted voodoo fails. Go back and reread the post, figure out I'm using the wrong drivers. Shit. Download 4.0 drivers, uninstall old ones, install 4.0, lather, rinse, repeat. Netstumbler works. Yay.
So you, uncaring habitual reader, or battle-wary Googler, now know how to get a cheapass card to work in NetStumbler. I think I put in 3 hours to save something like $10 on a name-brand card. But, I've no money and lots of time.
I know I ramble, and most of you don't care, so here's the executive summary, you lazy bastard:
|
1) Don't take apart your card like I did. If you want to mess with the antenna, good. Lemme know how it goes; I'll probably never get around to it otherwise.
2) Just install the USR 5410 v.4 drivers. 3) Use NetStumbler for evil and such |
Have fun, kids. If this article's been helpful to you, lemme know. That means a comment or something, so I don't look like a total computer nerd, blogging away his life. If you have a job open, I'd like that. Also, please remember me for the holidays, inheritances, oversized checks (publisher's clearinghouse-style), and marriage requests (not from guys).
Til next decade..
Comments about "Wireless Adventure!" :
I love school
Hi Warren, I haven't talked to you in awhile so I visited your site. Cool stuff. I got a wireless card too, if thats what you were talking about. The card is a Netgear if you cared. Talk to you later. Come back to CU, it's great at this shithole. Bye.
-left by Daniel Walendzik ( )
Wireless Adventure
http://www.ktinet.com/products.asp?productID=55 sounds like the card your describing ;)
-left by TRIaXOR ( )
Nerd
You are my hero. I love you with all my heart.
-left by BJ Blaskowitz ( )
www.phoebemicro.com sells these cards I get them from my wholesaler for a whopping $19
-left by ANdrew ( )
driver for our wireless card
Found your blog googling around. I'm a cheapass just like you and purchased the exact same lame generic wirelss card to save $10. Always worked for me until spyware got the best of my dell inspiron and i had to reformat and reinstall it all. Had to spend some time finding the right drivers for some of my junk, but i had the original CD for my wireless card. Woohoo. And my "Woohoo," I mean: it doesn't freaking work. The instant I physically put the card into my pc/mci slot - boom - dreaded WinXP blue screen / memory dump / etc. ....
-left by DRP ( )
This Safecom wireless card uses the same chipset as your card. http://safecom.cn/code/sub/category.asp?prdid=317&subcatid=41 The drivers for it would probably work for your card too. A word of warning: DO NOT BUY THE BELKIN F5D7011 PCMCIA CARD! I have got one for my laptop, that I have had for 2 months, and I have been trying all the drivers for it but none work. The only way it works is too use some Dell Drivers, which are for the same card, but they only support 54Mb not the 125Mb like I really want!
-left by Oak Tree ( )
You are a God. Gracias for your wise wise words.
-left by Rob Watson ( )
Kick ass. You are an inspiration to us all.
-left by Aprecciative Reader ( )
I am glad to see that someone kept their pocket microscope from middle school and put it to good use
-left by Matt ( )
You would be a lot funnier without all the vulgar words.
-left by HumptyDumpy ( HAHA!)
None of the above worked when I tried to to make this no-name brand card work on my dell d600. However I did find the solution here that works: http://www.xterasys.com/files/xn2423g2523G_7_0_1_33.exe It seems to be a Xterasys 802.11G Wireless LAN Cardbus PC Card
-left by DROP DEAD FRED ( )