Best Draft N Adapter With Opensuse?

Here is the current situation. I am connected to Internet via LAN (ethernet) right now. Soon I am planning to change ISP (internet service provider), which offers IPTV (IP television) and Internet connection. They supply a simple DLink switch with the package, which splits one line going to IPTV Decoder (Motorola with 160GB drive) and another to PC for internet. Instead of this switch I am planning to buy a better 802.11n router. I have choosen:

1. D-Link DIR-615 or D-Link DIR-655 (depends on my budget)
2. Linksys WRT300N

I do have one built-in WiFi with my P5K-E motherboard, based on Realtek rtl8187L chipset, which does work with openSUSE 10.3, but has only 802.11g support. I am hoping that by adding a better 802.11n PCI/PCI-E adapter I can have much better speed with my wireless router. Even though the internet connection is going to be 10Mbps, access to local network resources is available at 100Mbps, hence want something better than 802.11g/54Mbps bandwidth.

Again from what I have seen in the market, from Linux support point of view, followings are what I saw as best options:

1. D-Link DWA-547 RangeBoosterN PCI Draft N adapter (Atheros AR5008 [AR5416] chipset) - think best for now
2. D-Link DWA-556 Extreme N PCI-E adapter (Atheros AR5008 [AR5418] chipset) - costlier than DWA-547
3. LINKSYS WMP300N PCI (chipset? do not know which one I will get in Russia)- has got really cool external antenna

From what I have read so far, MadWiFi is now supporting those D-Link wireless adapters pretty good (yes?), and D-Link adapters will be the best option with D-Link router. Or maybe some other router/adapter combo (I find D-Link best for now)?

Basically, I need an adapter with very good Linux support, i.e. no ndiswrapper, but any native Linux driver, WPA2-AES working encryption, with 100% that will work with openSUSE 10.3+ distribution.

BTW, as I have not seen one yet, is it really possible to have a throughput of 100+Mbps with draft N hardware in Linux, expecially with the above router/adapter combination?

There is a HCL list you can check to see how well the chipset is supported in openSUSE, find it here : http://en.opensuse.org/HCL

I'm not very savvy on MadWIFI so can't comment on that.

I remember reading the N draft is not implemented in the kernel yet, thus you won't get full speed out of your N card. This might not get implemented before 2.6.26 or later. I don't know if MadWIFI works around this, but just thought to mention it.

If the above is the case then I would think it's best to stay with the built in wificard and wait until the final N spec has been set and implemented. In the meantime keep your eye on the HCL to see what openSUSE 11.0 will bring (having new kernel, wireless stack and rewritten drivers).

Just my 2cents!

Cheers,
Wj

Madwifi support for these n cards is indeed improving signifcantly though it is still in the alpha stage. However it is still only works in abg modes. I Have an Atheros 5418 card that came in my Lenovo T60 and a Dlink DIR-655 which has the same 5008 chipset. N works great in windows but that is essentially meaningless to me. Not even ndiswrapper will sqeeze any n functionality out of the same Windows driver in Linux. WJM's comment about lack of kernel support is interesting and might explain why this is.

Though I have no direct experience with it, and so can't say for sure, my impression is that your best bet for draft n in linux right now is the intel 4965agn (note the absence of "b", not that it really matters). Intel's open source driver is built into the kernel as of 2.6.24. I have however heard that compatibility is not the greatest with the atheros chips in the dlink routers you list. I'm not exactly sure what the best router to match with the intel chips is.

On the other hand, the future is looking bright for the Atheros cards as Atheros has finally decided do something about the sketchy linux support of their newer cards and hire an ath5k (open source madwifi) developer with the goal of getting ALL of their hardware FULLY supported in the kernel:http://lwn.net/Articles/278132//