[CentOS] CentOS 4.x friendly WiFi Cards??

Brian Watters wrote:
> Thanks for the fast reply .. I guess I should be a bit more specific ..
> 
> This is for a laptop and thus I need a PCMCIA card? .. 

If you have PCMCIA slot (almost all laptops do), than answer is yes. 
Newer laptops also have those mini-PCI slots or whatever they are 
called.  If your has one, you can also go with that type of card (and 
leave PCMCIA slot free for other things).

Couple of things to note.

Some laptops will accept mini-PCI cards only from the same manufacturer. 
  Translated, you pay double price for (for example) Intel card than if 
you bought it directly from Intel (usually those are exactly same cards, 
with only PCI ID changed).  I heard some HP laptops are famous for that 
(some people claimed they managed to hack BIOS to accept their non-HP 
cards).

If somebody tells you that card xyz works perfectly for them, and you go 
and buy one, it might not work for you.  Your card might be completely 
different.  Manufacturers of WiFi cards (all of them) are famous for 
completely redesigning cards (including the change of chipset) and 
selling it under exactly same name.  Some will change revision number, 
some won't bother with revision numbers.  However revision number often 
is not visible on the box.  Translated, by looking at the card, it is 
sometimes impossible to tell if it will work under Linux, or what driver 
it will require.  For Windows you basically get installation disk that 
contains drivers for all versions of the card that ever existed.

In other words, carefully choose store where you buy.  You definitely 
want to buy somewhere where you can simply return card for full refund, 
no questions asked (in case card doesn't work for you).