Wireless network A wireless network is a computer network that uses wireless data connections between network nodes. Wireless networking is a method by which homes, telecommunications networks and business installations avoid the costly process of introducing c ...

cards for computers require control software to make them function (

firmware In computing, firmware is a specific class of computer software that provides the low-level control for a device's specific hardware. Firmware, such as the BIOS of a personal computer, may contain basic functions of a device, and may provide ...

device drivers In computing, a device driver is a computer program that operates or controls a particular type of device that is attached to a computer or automaton. A driver provides a software interface to hardware devices, enabling operating systems and o ...

). This is a list of the status of some

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

drivers for

802.11 IEEE 802.11 is part of the IEEE 802 set of local area network (LAN) technical standards, and specifies the set of media access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) protocols for implementing wireless local area network (WLAN) computer c ...

wireless network cards. Simplified Structure of the Linux Kernel

Linux

Status

Driver capabilities

DragonFly BSD

FreeBSD

Status

Driver capabilities

NetBSD

OpenBSD

The following is an incomplete list of supported wireless devices:

Status

Driver capabilities

Solaris and OpenSolaris

Darwin, OpenDarwin and macOS

Notes

References

*http://support.intel.com/support/notebook/sb/CS-006408.htm *The SourceForge IPW websites
ipw 2100ipw2200
an
ipw3945
*Th

for the Ralink and Realtek cards
Kerneltrap
for the list of OpenBSD drivers *Th
OpenSolaris website
for the list of OpenSolaris and Solaris drivers *https://web.archive.org/web/20070927014705/http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2084 *https://web.archive.org/web/20060908050351/http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/wiki/index.php/Rt2x00_beta *http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Wireless.html *rt2x00 README from cvs *https://lkml.org/lkml/2007/2/9/323

External links

Seattle Wireless
Linux drivers
Seattle Wireless
Mac OS drivers
wireless.kernel.org WikiCurrent Stable Linux kernel: Wireless
a 2006 presentation by

Theo de Raadt Theo de Raadt (; ; born May 19, 1968) is a South African-born software engineer who lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is the founder and leader of the OpenBSD and OpenSSH projects and was also a founding member of NetBSD. In 2004, De Raadt wo ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Open-source wireless drivers Free software lists and comparisons Wireless networking Wireless drivers Linux drivers