Networking

Networking hardware commonly includes switches, routers, wireless access points, and/or firewalls.

Wi-Fi

Brands

These are Wi-Fi chipset manufacturers from order of best to worst Linux support [2]:

  1. Mediatek

  2. Qualcomm

  3. Intel

  4. (Other brands)

  5. Realtek

morrownr created a USB Wi-Fi guide that showcases consumer Wi-Fi devices that use chipsets that are natively supported by the Linux kernel.

Broadcom

Broadcom has many different Linux kernel drivers. brcm80211 is the official open source driver that Broadcom contributed directly to the Linux kernel. The proprietary driver wl provides better and more stable support. [5]

  • Install the wl driver.

    • Arch Linux [5]:

      $ sudo pacman -S linux-headers broadcom-wl

    • Debian (non-free repository) [6]:

      $ sudo apt-get install linux-image-$(uname -r) linux-headers-$(uname -r) broadcom-sta-dkms

    • Fedora (UnitedRPMs repository) [7]:

      $ sudo dnf install kernel-devel kernel-headers broadcom-wl-dkms

  • Blacklist all of the open source drivers and conflicting drivers. [5][6][8]

    $ sudo -E ${EDITOR} /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom.conf

    blacklist b43
blacklist b43legacy
blacklist bcm43xx
blacklist bcma
blacklist brcm80211
blacklist brcmsmac
blacklist brcmfmac
blacklist brcmutil
blacklist ndiswrapper
blacklist ssb
blacklist tg3

  • Configure the wl driver to load on boot.

    $ sudo -E ${EDITOR} /etc/modules-load.d/broadcom.conf

    wl

  • Reboot.

Speed

These are the maximum speeds for each Wi-Fi standard [3][4]:

Consumer Name

IEEE Name

Specification Speed (Mbps)

Real-World Speed (Mbps)

Real-World Speed (MBps)

Wi-Fi 1

802.11b

11

5.5

0.7

Wi-Fi 2

802.11a

54

20

2.5

Wi-Fi 3

802.11g

54

20

2.5

Wi-Fi 4

802.11n

600

100

12.5

Wi-Fi 5

802.11ac

1300

740

92.5

Wi-Fi 6

802.11ax (5 GHz)

10000

1150

143.8

Wi-Fi 6E

802.11ax (6 GHz)

10000

1800

225.0

Virtualization

GNS3

The Graphical Network Simulator 3 (GNS3) is a free and open source software for setting up virtual lab environments consisting of switches and routers. Virtual images are provided by most of the major network manufacturers that can be used with GNS3. [1]

The GNS3 Marketplace provides many templates that mirror configurations and hardware that production devices use.

History

Bibliography

  1. “[GNS3] Frequently Asked Questions.” GNS3. Accessed May 7, 2018. https://gns3.com/software/faq

  2. “Need Your Help: We need to let Comfast know what we think about multi-state adapters… #70.” GitHub morrownr/USB-WiFi. July 27, 2022. Accessed September 27, 2022. https://github.com/morrownr/USB-WiFi/issues/70#issuecomment-1196277552

  3. “How Fast Is a Wi-Fi Network?” Lifewire. June 16, 2021. Accessed September 27, 2022. https://www.lifewire.com/how-fast-is-a-wifi-network-816543

  4. “Wi-Fi 6 vs Wi-Fi 6e: What’s the difference?” Tom’s Guide. September 19, 2022. Accessed October 29, 2022. https://www.tomsguide.com/face-off/wi-fi-6-vs-wi-fi-6e-whats-the-difference

  5. “Broadcom wireless.” ArchWiki. October 21, 2022. Accessed November 3, 2022. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/broadcom_wireless

  6. “wl.” Debian Wiki. February 15, 2022. Accessed November 3, 2022. https://wiki.debian.org/wl

  7. “Step-by-step – broadcom-wl-dkms Fedora 35 Installation.” Step by Step Linux Tutorials for Beginners & Pros. October 6, 2021. Accessed November 3, 2022. https://tutorialforlinux.com/2021/10/06/step-by-step-broadcom-wl-dkms-fedora-35-installation/2/

  8. “WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx.” Official Ubuntu Documentation. December 5, 2017. Accessed November 3, 2022. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx