[Orinoco-users] WPA hardware dependent?

[Roberto Guida]

Hello everyone,
I would like to know if the WPA encryption method depends from the
hardware or if it is something only dependent from the software
(driver).. In other words, is it possible that my chipset doesn't
support it?
Or, if i use the hostap driver that supports WPA (and supports my
chipset too!) instead of the orinoco driver, i can connect to a WPA LAN..
thanx, rob

[Timothy Murphy]

Post by Roberto Guida
I would like to know if the WPA encryption method depends from the
hardware or if it is something only dependent from the software
(driver).. In other words, is it possible that my chipset doesn't
support it?

I'm pretty sure my Orinoco Gold PCMCIA card does not support WPA,
under Linux or Windows.
Actually, my Orinoco Silver PCMCIA card does not even support
104-bit WEP, although I have read that there is a firmware update
that allows this.

So I think it can be a restriction of the hardware, as well as the software.

[Pavel Roskin]

Post by Timothy Murphy
I'm pretty sure my Orinoco Gold PCMCIA card does not support WPA,
under Linux or Windows.

It might support WPA with lkm 7.18 (Agere's driver for Linux 2.4).

Post by Timothy Murphy
Actually, my Orinoco Silver PCMCIA card does not even support
104-bit WEP, although I have read that there is a firmware update
that allows this.
So I think it can be a restriction of the hardware, as well as the software.

It's a hardware restriction if the software relies on the hardware. If
the software does the encryption, the hardware is usually irrelevant,
although it may not like being circumvented.