New Laptop, wireless and dvd burner Options

[securitybreach]

I just got an Dell Inspiron 2200 laptop with a 'Dell Wireless 1470 Dual Band WLAN Mini-PCI Card' and a 'Sony DVD +- RW DW-D56A' burner. I have zero experience with wireless under windows or linux. I have a couple of questions.

First, what distribution would you suggest to use with an integrated wireless cards? I found this site http://tuxmobil.org/minipci_linux.html but I did not see the Dell wireless card. I know that this card is probably an Intel card but I do not know which one. I have a friend who got a similiar wireless card working under Mepis Linux.
I have downloaded Slackware 10.2 and was wondering how hard would it be to get ndiswrapper working on Slackware?

Also, anyone know of any good sites that explain how to connect to "open" wireless networks? I used netstumbler yesterday under windows and found a few open networks but do not know how to connect to them. For instance, how could I connect to a hot-spot in windows or linux?
Thanks in advance.

This post has been edited by securitybreach: Sep 16 2005, 11:37 AM

[Peachy]

Unless the notebook says Centrino on it somewhere you can bet the wireless controller was not made by Intel. Best guess is that you have a Broadcom chipset. Try Knoppix 3.7 and version R6 of the Broadcom driver.

[securitybreach]

Thanks for the info. It is actually an Intel Pentium M not for sure if its Centrino

This post has been edited by securitybreach: Sep 16 2005, 12:29 PM

[Peachy]

Actually, Centrino is not a processor; it's a marketing label to describe a system that conists of a Pentium M, 855/915M chipset, AND an Intel wireless solution. It must have those three components to be called Centrino.

Try the command lspci to determine the exact chipset.

[securitybreach]

Not in Linux but the Intel chipset identifier says:

Chipset

Detected Chipset:
Mobile Intel® 82915GM/GMS/910GML Express Chipset family

Chipset Components

Memory Controller:
Mobile 82915GM/GMS/82910GML

Integrated Graphics:
Mobile Intel® 82915GM/GMS, 910GML Express Chipset Family

This post has been edited by securitybreach: Sep 16 2005, 12:34 PM

[teacher]

My best off the cuff experience for just working is Suse 9.3. If you are running a KDE window, there is a program that can sit down in the systray area that allows you to right click and connect. It will find what is there and allow that.

In Windows you right click on the icon in the systray for the wireless network. Then you tell it to scan for available networks, pick one that reads open, and connect. It is quite simple. More places are locking down now or charging. Enjoy any free ones you can get. I used mine a lot while traveling. It is a nice convenience.

My best off the cuff experience for just working is Suse 9.3. If you are running a KDE window, there is a program that can sit down in the systray area that allows you to right click and connect. It will find what is there and allow that.

In Windows you right click on the icon in the systray for the wireless network. Then you tell it to scan for available networks, pick one that reads open, and connect. It is quite simple. More places are locking down now or charging. Enjoy any free ones you can get. I used mine a lot while traveling. It is a nice convenience.

Also, you can go to the tips and look under wireless for some of the basics...

[securitybreach]

Thanks Julia for the info. Also, I like your new avatar

[teacher]

Thanks Julia for the info. Also, I like your new avatar

Let us know how it goes. Thanks! I changed how I look in real life so figured I needed to update the old avatar.

[Peachy]

Yes, but notice it doesn't say anything about an Intel wireless chipset, so I think your Dell mini-PCI wireless card uses the Broadcom chipset because Dell has been using them in other models. I second Julia's recommendation of SUSE 9.3, too.

[burninbush]

Kanotix 2005-03 has a lot of wireless hardware detection, too.

It's the only livecd to find a pci wireless card in a system I threw together recently from a garage-sale p3 and stuff laying about my workbench. One day soon I'll inquire of the gurus here what to say to it to get it talking to my router [card works fine with win2k, so I'm hoping it's just setup answers needed for Kanotix].

But even Kano doesn't notice the built-in wifi in a new HP laptop.