Having got the wireless networking on my laptop working (by the looks), at the beginning of the week I bought a couple of new interface cards for my router.

(Although I do have one of those little boxes that people think of when I say 'router', the machine I call 'my router' is an old PC with Linux on it and a second network card. It's a better router than the hardware one would ever be.)

After looking at old, incomplete and occasionally contradictory compatibility lists, I gave up trying to shop for a card that would work and ordered one that might, and that didn't cost too much for me to write off if need be. Since by all accounts trying turn my Linux machine into a wireless access point is a little ambitious, I also got a third wired card with the right chipset (after last time I learned my lesson) so that I could plug in a standalone WAP if need be.

After a while wondering why it didn't work (turns out at least one of the PCI slots on that motherboard doesn't do anything), it was relatively easy to install the wireless card. So then I looked at the access point package, and found that it only supports three drivers, and this card wasn't one of them.

Frustrated at having got so far with it, I did some more research and ordered another card, having found one that was described - in one place at least - as being of the right chipset. Today it arrived, I got it home and stuck it in the machine, powered up...

It's the same bloody chipset.

I've since found a much better listing of cards, and apparently only the second revision of that card has the one I need.