I’ve got a bunch of RouterBoard 532A units soon to be deployed in the field, and am hoping someone can suggest some very inexpensive wifi cards for them. The use will only be for technician access once every few months for administration of other equipment on location, we’re not talking about running customers over it. (we’re deploying them as router/firewall between wireless backhauls and Canopy CMMs, and accessing devices on a tower via laptop wifi from the parking area is simpler than utilizing 900mhz and 5.2ghz CPE)
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
j
anything you can find with an atheros chipset theoretically should work
Well, we got four cards sporting Atheros AR5211A, AR5111A, and AR2111A chips - these comprise the AR5001, correct? Board silkscreening brands them as Philips.
None of the four show up under ‘Wireless’ when inserted in the RB532A and I see nothing in logs… 
Suggestions?
j
R52 cards using the AR5414 chipset are under $40 from most distributors.
You didn’t define cheap. Is that cheap enough.
Tom
Multiplied by 30-40 towers that ends up being a significant expenditure for something that will rarely be utilized, therefore harder to justify. The idea was that if we could equip most of the towers with these now while the RB532s are still in the shop for perhaps $20 per router and ‘easy’ labor that would be acceptable. We may end up going the $40+/tower (plus antennas) route for just a select few towers, the ones where 100% of gear is over 100ft up - I was hoping we could swing doing it for all towers just for consistency and convenience.
Have I missed something? Is there any driver installation or selection, or is having the wireless package installed all that should be required? Did we just luck out and grab one of the only atheros-powered boards not supported?
j