Originally Posted by
cindy
Can you please explain a little further? If I install an ethernet card with a Linux driver so that Knoppix recognizes the ethernnet card and then connect a "bridge" to the ethernet card, will I also need to install a Linux driver for the bridge?
No, if you use a standard ethernet card that Knoppix supports it will detect it and set it up at boot time. As long as there is DHCP available everything will be configured properly for you.
If that ethernet NIC is wired to your router then you're done (assuming the router is set up / has been working fine with Windows).
If you wire the Ethernet NIC to a wireless bridge, then it should still work. Clearly there is some setup information that the bridge needs to connect to the access point (like the SSID for starters, and any encryption keys to be used). These are normally set up through a "web interface" in the device. If previously set up in Windows then you should need to make no changes. If not then you can set it up using a browser under Linux, but you might have to do a manual netcardconfig the very first time to get valid IP configuration information, since you would not have access to a DHCP server at that point. Of course, some hardware may have a different type of interface, I'm only speaking in generalities.
It's certainly worth mentioning that bridges are not common. And as a result of that not inexpensive. In the ppast two weeks I've seen many wireless routers offered for $10 or less after rebate. I know the highly prized Linksys 802.11g WRT54G was available for under $40. But bridges are not sold in great numbers and not inexpensive. In a quick check of the
Linksys website I had to search to even find one, it didn't seem to show up on the basic lists of products. The nice things about a bridge are that you can support multiple computers (and other ethernet devices) in an area with one wireless device. Say for example you wanted to wirelessly connect a cluster of computers in an upstairs computer room to a high speed modem and a wireless router downstairs without running wires between floors and without using multiple wireless cards in each compuiter (but mostly bridges like this find their use in an office setting, not in the home). And when using a bridge you eliminate wireless setup issues in the computer. The down side is that the computer still has to be wired to something (the bridge), that the bridge generally costs more than a wireless card will cost (particularly if you shop for deals on the card), and you can't run some
hacker style wireless network detection programs or
encryption breaking programs over a bridge, these require a compatable wireless network card in your computer. Unfortunately, because the card makers and chip makers have been unwilling to give out technical details that would let the Linux community write their own high quality drivers, many cards are not supported under Linux, or are only supported by "wrapper" software that attempts to let Linux use the driver that has been written for Windows.
I would find it handy to have a wireless bridge myself. But although I have several wireless routers and wireless cards, I do not have a bridge and none of my wireless routers can be used in a bridge mode (which I see as a major oversight on the part of the router makers that would make their product highly desirable at minimal or no extra cost to them).
I'm not in a position to tell you what cards are directly supported in Knoppix. I expect that you can collect some of that information by reading old articles in this forum, and maybe more by Google searches. A wiki article in the
documentation section of this webiste on "Wireless cards supported under Knoppix" would certainly be a valuable addition to our documentation and could be enhanced as more people add their cards to the list, but does not yet exist. Maybe someone will start it (maybe you?).
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