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Linux, wireless standards and encryption

From a wireless standpoint, the Linux OS could handle some of the wireless standards such as 802.11g but it lacks the usability for them. Does the new kernel provide a support base to work with various devices such as Netgear, Linksys, Aironet and other wireless devices? In addition, does the kernel provide the proper support for 802.1x and 802.1u (AES) encryption?

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Linux does support 802.11g and it is not a kernel function -- you need a wrapper. Use NDISWrapper (http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net) for 802.11g support. You do not have the kernel source installed in your /usr/src directory (as it talks about in the error). These are most likely required for reference as the NDISWrapper package sets itself up. To get these source files, I believe you can just check the appropriate site. For example, if you are running RedHat Linux, visit www.redhat.com. You will need to download the kernel source for whichever version you are running. I have it up and running and it works very well with 802.1x and 801.u.

This was first published in February 2004

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