Stupid wireless questions

[Rogério Brito <rbrito@users.sourceforge.net>]

	Well, I have some questions here regarding wireless cards,
	with which I'd appreciate if I got any help.

	I'll probably be saving some money the next few months up to
	Christmas to buy me things for wireless access.

	1 - Is the airport card (the one that goes inside the iBook)
	    completely supported under Linux?
	2 - If one would purchase a PCMCIA card for a x86 notebook,
	    which brands would be recommended, regarding the quality
	    of support under Linux (and also availability)?
	3 - Can anything base station be used in place of Apple's
	    expensive base station? Would there be any loss of
	    functionality?

	I'm not exactly sure if I understand the concept of a base
	station. To me, all descriptions that I read sound just like a
	dedicated router (and possibly doing NAT) with ability of
	connecting via waves (and possibly through ethernet). Is that
	right?

	If it is, then a base station could be substituted with, say,
	an old computer with another (cheap) wireless card, right?

	Sorry for asking questions so basic here, but my training in
	the area of networks is not as strong as I'd like, and I have
	never even *seen* or used a wireless network in my life (not
	common here where I live) and I'm just speculating if I should
	buy the gadgets necessary after I graduate or if it will be a
	better investment to use the money saved for something else
	(like books).


	Thanks for any comments, Roger...

-- 
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 Rogério Brito - rbrito@users.sf.net - http://www.ime.usp.br/~rbrito
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