D-Link DWL-122 — 802.11b USB Wi-Fi for Linux and OpenBSD

I just ran across this link from Phoronix about an oldish 802.11b USB Wi-Fi adapter, a D-Link DWL-122, that reportedly works great in both Linux (with open-source drivers) and OpenBSD.

I took notice because lately I've been having problems with my CNet CWD-854 802.11g USB Wi-Fi adapter.

Luckily I've had no problems in Ubuntu 8.04 recently (earlier in the release I did have a few crashes that I attribute to the CNet adapter, but thankfully nothing recently).

While I need to do more tests in Debian, using the CNet adapter I couldn't connect at all. However, that adapter worked flawlessly in OpenBSD 4.4.

And though the CNet adapter does work at home in Ubuntu and did connect to the AT&T Wi-Fi at Starbucks, at the coffee mecca I couldn't get any packets through and actually view Web content with it. Luckily I have a backup NIC — an Orinoco WaveLAN Silver PCMCIA card — that works with every single thing I've ever tried it on, from a 1996-era Apple Macintosh Powerbook 1400 to a Macintosh G4 (with the case open; it won't close with the card attached) and a whole mess of Intel-based laptops in every Linux and BSD system.

I still have to test the CNet adapter on subsequent versions of Ubuntu, but given that it works so well in 8.04, I have high hopes that it'll continue to do so in 9.04 and eventually 9.10, neither of which I'm running at this point. I'd love to figure out what's going on at Starbucks (and I'll have to do a similar test at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf AND the Los Angeles Public Library).

If I do end up installing Slackware 13, I'll report on the CNet adapter there as well.