USB wireless network adapters

Product	Chipset	USB ID	2.4/5ghz/Max	Security	Speed	Source
Fritz	Atheros
Z-Com XG-762N	zd1211b	079B:0062	only 2.4ghz b/g		12mbps	Zorander
DWL.G122	PRISM_A021	2001:3703	only 2.4ghz b/g	WEP64/128		forum
D-Link DWA-110 (b/g)	rt73	07d1:3c07	only 2.4ghz b/g	WPA2/AES1)	7.8/CIFS	shadowbr
EDUP wireless USB Adapter 11g	Atheros				15/NFS	Hades666
D-Link DWA-140 (see bottom of this page)	rt2870		b/g/n	WPA2/AES	30/NFS	seb
Digitus DN-7043-1 (Ultra Tiny Device!)	Ralink rt3070	148f:3070	b/g/n	WPA/TKIP (possibly others too)		Used with wireless-mod-rt.app.bin-1.2.4.zip

More adapters with hardware details here

• Atheros chipset :
• RAlink chipset :
• Zydas chipset :
• PRISM chipset : 802.11b very stable 11mbit 802.11g is 54mbit speed
• BROADCOM chipset:

NOTE : For security reasons it is very important keep your wireless network protected with WPA2 or WPA encryption. If is not possible use strong WPA2 use WPA or WEP128²⁾ Don't use WIRELESS open authentification access on your AP. WPA2/WPA/WEP is decrease network performance but is better have slower wireless LAN then open to criminal attacks!

rezmus' original post on avsforum can be found here

If you want wifi to start on boot, get one of the wifi adapters based on:

• Zydas 1201 (11b)
• Zydas 1211/1211b (b/g)
• RaLink 2870
• RaLink rt73
• Atheros Otus

Download one of zorander's experimental packs with drivers for these adapter and basic tools and put on the root dir of pen/hdd with firmware.

Edit net.config in your root dir of firmware pen/hdd:

ifconfig $MDEV up
iwconfig $MDEV essid your_ap_name

for wep:

ifconfig $MDEV up
iwconfig $MDEV essid your_ap_name key "s:yourasciipass"

“s:” is used for ascii pass, if you think in hex you don't have to use it ;>

For wpa we need wpa_supplicant tool.

1) in the root dir of your firmware pen/hdd make a file wpa_supplicant.conf:

ctrl_interface=/tmp/wpa_supplicant
network={
ssid="your_ap_name"
# uncomment next line if your ap doesn't broadcast ssid
#scan_ssid=1
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
psk="yourpass"
}

This is just a basic setup, if you want more than wpa-psk, want to force specific encryption algorith, etc., read very well commented config example here.

2) add to net.config

ifconfig $MDEV up
wpa_supplicant -Bw -Dwext -i$MDEV -c/boot/wpa_supplicant.conf

-Dwext should be fine for Zydas, for RaLink, use -Dralink, and for Otus -Dotus should work.

Other settings (dhcp,static ip) you can set like for wired usb lan.

After boot and some time you should have working wireless, if your chipset and vid/pid are supported.

It works much better when you follow this entry in the wdtvforum.

There is quite some discussion about this chipset in this thread, however it's not very straight forward to get it working.

However, the rt2870 does work very well, I expected the CPU to permit much less then the rate I've gotten in the end, which is around 30 MBit/s over NFS.

Now, to get it work do the following:

• I've tested it with B-Rad's WDLXTV
• Get wireless-mod-0.3-sebmod.zip
• unzip it on the usb-drive connected to your wd-tv
• edit the RT2870STA.dat, especially the params SSID, AuthMode, EncrypType and WPAPSK – see file README_STA for hints
• that's it really, boot your WD-TV with the WiFi-Dongle connected and everything may work! (also DHCP+mounting of everything)
• (make sure there's only one RT2870STA.dat on the USB-drive, no file with the same name in subdirs…this is because I've solved this sub-optimal with find)
• don't bother to try wpa_supplicant, it won't work!

Hints for the people who maintain all this stuff:

• This app-cramfs is a modification of the file found here (forums like this drive me crazy!)
• Changes:
  • wpa_supplicant doesn't work with this rt2870sta because it's not compiled right, see file os/linux/config.mk in the driver-source (both WPA_SUPPLICANT-params must be y)
  • the hotplug-net.agent is missing a “ifconfig $INTERFACE up” before udhcpc is started, diff to my version
  • I hexed the rt2870-module to load /tmp/RT2870STA.dat instead of loading it from /etc/Wireless/RT2870/, of course this can be done in the driver-source
  • that's all I remember – as I've said, diff the upstream and my version

(Side note: I've had problems accessing my Synology NAS with NFS over the D-Link DIR-655, turning off jumbo frames at the Synology solved the problem)