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Old 8th February 2016
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shep View Post
For the record, I'm using an Edimax EW-7128g which is also listed in ral(4). I googled and there are some available used in the $10-20 range and a "new" one in box for $24..
Interesting. Do you know which Ralink chipset the Edimax EW-7128g uses? I don't see it in the documentation from the manufacturer.

Strangely, Edimax describes the EW-7128g as "(For Middle East Only)". Does anyone know what that implies (in this context)? Amazon seems to be selling one in the US.
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Old 8th February 2016
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Quote:
Do you know which Ralink chipset the Edimax EW-7128g uses?
802.11g EW-7128G man: 1814 dev: 0201 PCI Ralink rt2x00 green Driver available from manufacturer: http://www.ralinktech.com/support.php?s=2 , or http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com

Specifically: RaLink RT2561

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Does anyone know what that implies (in this context)?
Wifi has country codes that impact the available channels.
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Old 8th February 2016
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shep View Post
Specifically: RaLink RT2561
Excellent, thanks! With that, the man page becomes more useful.

This sounds positive:
Quote:
The RT2501 chipset is the second generation of 802.11a/b/g adapters from Ralink. It consists of two integrated chips, an RT2561 MAC/BBP and an RT2527 radio transceiver. This chipset provides support for the IEEE 802.11e standard with multiple hardware transmission queues and allows scatter/gather for efficient DMA operations.
But this:
Quote:
The ral driver does not make use of the hardware cryptographic engine present on the RT2500, RT2501 and RT2600 chipsets.
And this:
Quote:
On the RT2500, RT2501 and RT2600 chipsets, host AP mode doesn't support power saving. Clients attempting to use power saving mode may experience significant packet loss (disabling power saving on the client will fix this).
Not so great.

Any experiences with specific wireless PCI NIC's on OpenBSD, Post them here! I need to choose a product and make a purchase so I can dump FreeBSD and install OpenBSD and move on with actually using the computer (Whoa, I just had a JEFFK moment )
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Old 8th February 2016
e1-531g e1-531g is offline
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Maybe if driver doesn't use hardware crypt engine, it is using software based? If yes, it is good. For current CPUs it is not a big task. Only if you really care about power saving for ultra-long use of laptop/ultrabook you should care for hardware crypto.
In Linux there are a lot of advice for owners of Wifi cards to not use hardware crypto, because this in lot of driver causes slower performance and/or instability. I know that also basing on my experience. I have a Wifi card (it is not supported on OpenBSD), for which default is to use software based crypto and when I switched to hardware crypto engine on that card, I have had instabilities.
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Old 8th February 2016
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Quote:
Originally Posted by e1-531g View Post
Maybe if driver doesn't use hardware crypt engine, it is using software based? If yes, it is good. For current CPUs it is not a big task. Only if you really care about power saving for ultra-long use of laptop/ultrabook you should care for hardware crypto.
My desktop/workstation is a single-core Sempron with 1GB RAM, so it is prudent (in my case) to be frugal about such things. Also, since I am buying a NIC, and I have a choice, I might as well choose one that was well designed and has an excellent software stack and good integration into OpenBSD.

Any NIC suggestions and/or references will be most appreciated!

Quote:
Originally Posted by e1-531g View Post
In Linux there are a lot of advice for owners of Wifi cards to not use hardware crypto, because this in lot of driver causes slower performance and/or instability. I know that also basing on my experience. I have a Wifi card (it is not supported on OpenBSD), for which default is to use software based crypto and when I switched to hardware crypto engine on that card, I have had instabilities.
I wonder if those issues are peculiar to specific driver/NIC combos, or if it is a face-plant of the fundamental technology?
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Old 8th February 2016
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Unless your connection is extremely fast, I do not think you will see much of a performance difference with hardware based crypto.

FreeBSD citing a security risk, disabled Intel and Via random number generators with version 10 and rely on software. Although I can't find it, I recall that OpenBSD relies on /dev/random and the Intel/Via RNGs are disabled by default.

More here.

I've run OpenBSD on an old ECS Desknote with a Via 733mhz cpu, 512mb ram and an ralink based usb adapter. Local sftp transfers do not seem any slower than a dual core, amd64 based system with 2gb ram.
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Old 8th February 2016
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I just placed a purchase order for an Edimax EW-7128g. Thanks for the pointer shep. I'll report back once it's up and running.
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Old 16th February 2016
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seems to be pretty good source and guide.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compar...rivers#OpenBSD
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Old 17th February 2016
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The Edimax EW-7128g NIC with the RaLink RT2561 chipset using the ral(4) driver is working nicely. It's only been a few days but it seems to be maintaining a robust connection to the wireless network.

The device was recognized and configured during OS installation - no extra firmware files needed - and (so far) it has been a pleasure. I'll probably tune the dhclient configuration then set up ifstated to monitor the connection and restore it if it disconnects.

Thanks again for the pointer, shep!
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