• Roaming between APs works well, even with SSID's disabled and WEP encryption enabled. This functionality was tested with Linksys 802.11B WAPs. The 802.11 standard currently does not specify a standard for inter-access point communication, but it does specify client side re-association to APs with a better signal strength. As long as all AP's are of the same manufacturer and support roaming, this card should handle roaming between APs smoothly.
  
  
• The driver allows the user to configure a MAC address for wireless communications. This is handy for users who want to upgrade their 802.11b cards without having to re-register a new MAC address with network administration. Simply enter the MAC address from your old wireless card into the driver for the new wireless card, along with any SSID and security information as usual.
  
  
• Precise power output selections, noticeably saving battery life on laptops and other mobile devices. Often clients are close to the nearest AP, and easily able to use a minimal power output. This card has a maximum power output of 20dBm (100mw), and has five different power levels with a minimum of 0dBm (1mw). Power levels are specified in network profiles, allowing each profile to be configured with a specific power output. The card also supports two levels of power saving mode: Normal and Maximum. When using this method of power saving, the radio is disabled whenever network communication is idle. The LED on the card flashes off during this period, visibly showing when the card is idle.
  
  
• The network scanning utility shows Access Points with their SSID's disabled. It is necessary that the driver be configured with a profile that does not utilize WEP in order for scanning to work best.
  
  
• The Atheros driver is good for showing low level details about the card. The status windows show:
  • Profile Name
  • Network Type
  • Wireless Mode (2.4GHZ or 5GHZ, then transfer speed)
  • Current Channel
  • Link Status
  • Encryption Type
  • IP Address
  • Country
  • Transmit Power Level
  • SSID
  • Power Save Mode
  • Frequency (eg. 2.462 GHz)
  • Separate Transmit and Receive Rate
  • Transmit and Receive Statistics:
    • Multicast Frames
    • Broadcast Frames
    • Unicast Frames
    • Total Bytes
  • Frames transmitted ok, Frames retried, Frames dropped
  • Beacons Received
  • Frames received ok, Frames received with errors
  • encryption errors, duplicate frames, CTS frames, authentication rejects, association rejects
  • MAC address
    
    
    Snapshot of the Profile Management tab in the Atheros driver.
    
    
• Each profile allows the user to specify up to three different SSID's for each profile, preamble settings, power save mode, network type, preamble size, transmit power level, and wireless mode.
  
  
• Advanced Security Options - Pre-Shared keys (WEP), TLS, TTLS, PEAP, LEAP, and WPA.
  
  
• FreeBSD support available. I was unable to test the cards support in Linux, but I read that it is under progress as well. I did personally test the card in the latest FreeBSD-CURRENT (as of Aug 11, 2003). The driver has only been available in the current branch for about 2 months. The current branch of FreeBSD is the leading edge code, used for allowing supporters to test and help smooth out bugs. The driver does work and will be available in FreeBSD 5.2-RELEASE.
  
  This said, on my laptop, using a PCMCIA card causes the firewire driver to act a little funky. It did this with any PCMCIA card I tried, not just the Atheros card. If I removed the firewire driver from the kernel and recompiled, then the system would hang upon PCMCIA card insertion. This bug is new in the current branch, and I feel like it will be ironed out before the 5.2-RELEASE. Still though, if you are looking for stable driver support as soon as possible, you may want to stick with the PRISM chipset.
  
  I should also note that the card does support HOST-AP mode. It can be configured for 802.11B or 802.11G mode, making this card a simple upgrade to 54 Mbit (physical) by simply replacing their PRISM based HOST-AP card.
  
  
  Left: ifconfig ath0, Right: ping over wireless link from KDE inside FreeBSD
  
  
• The slightly larger antenna on this card might improve signal strength, but also may not fit snugly next to a parallel PCMCIA card. In most cases, this is not a problem because the bottom of this card is flat, and can be put snugly against another card in a 2 slot PCMCIA port.
  
  
  Left: Prism external (top) and internal (middle) vs Atheros internal(bottom)
  Right: Prism internal (top) vs Atheros internal (bottom)
  
  
• More pictures of the card, its driver, and usage in FreeBSD can be found here:
  http://www.twicedigital.com/~bepfountz/2003/atheros_80211g/

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http://ben.pfountz.com/