WiFi/wireless networking works with FreeDOS and some network adapters.
It seems to be limited to 802.11b cards with a maximum of 11 Mbps.
Encryption is WEP, so the network will be insecure.
Wireless devices connected via USB can not yet be used with FreeDOS.
Cards that claim to have DOS drivers (no guarantees) are for
instance:
PCMCIA
* Cisco Aironet 352 (CSCOAIRPCM352) 802.11b
* Cisco Aironet 351 (AIR-PCM351-RF) 802.11b
* Cisco Aironet 352 (AIRPCM352R)
* Cisco Aironet 352 (AIRPCM352B)
* Alvarion BreezeNET PRO.11 (511410)
* Alvarion BreezeNET PRO.11 (511419)
* Motorola spectrum24 LA 4111 (LA-4111-1000-US) 802.11b
* Motorola Spectrum24 LA-3021 (LA3021102FB) 802.11
* Intel PRO/Wireless 2011B (WPC2011BWWP100) 802.11b
* Proxim ORiNOCO Classic Gold (8410-WD) 802.11b
* NetBotz (nbac0227) 802.11b
PCI
* Proxim ORiNOCO 11b (8422-WD) 802.11b
For the cards from Lucent (spin-offs: Avaya and Agere), f.i. the
"ORiNOCO", Agere has written a working packet driver for DOS called
WVLAN42.COM, that can be found here, see:
http://www.szivarvanynet.hu/download/radionet/Drivers/Avaya/Dos/ (*01).
The installation of the Cisco Aironet PCM 3xx or LMC 3xx client
adapters on a DOS system is described here:
* http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk722/tk809/
technologies_tech_note09186a00801beda4.shtml (*02)
* http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/wireless/wlan_adapter/350_cb20a/
user/ms-dos/configuration/guide/dosinst.pdf (*03)
* http://www.cisco.com/cgi-bin/tablebuild.pl/aironet-utils-dos (*04)
Roberto Perotti wrote an installation report, see:
http://www.perotti.ic.cz/wavelan/ (*05) about the Orinoco/
Lucent/Agere/Avaya cards and FreeDOS.
Christof Lange reported to the Arachne list to have a Avaya PCMCIA
card working in DOS, see:
http://www.freelists.org/post/arachne/Arachne-and-wifi (*06).
(*01) Link is still OK, see also:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130718153456/http://www.szivarvanynet.hu/
download/radionet/Drivers/Avaya/Dos/
(everything in ONE LINE, NO free space!)
(*02) Link is still OK, see also:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/wireless-mobility/wireless
-lan-wlan/25106-DOS-Aironet.html
(everything in ONE LINE, NO free space!)
OR:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210815083705/https://www.cisco.com/c/
en/us/support/docs/wireless-mobility/wireless-lan-wlan/25106-DOS-
Aironet.html
(everything in ONE LINE, NO free space!)
(*03) Link is still OK, see also:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/wlan_adapter/350_cb20a/
user/ms-dos/configuration/guide/instlcfg.pdf
(everything in ONE LINE, NO free space!)
OR:
https://web.archive.org/web/20150420115042/https://www.cisco.com/c/en/
us/td/docs/wireless/wlan_adapter/350_cb20a/user/ms-dos/configuration/
guide/instlcfg.pdf
(everything in ONE LINE, NO free space!)
(*04) Sorry, no new link found. Old link requires login.
(*05) Link is no longer available, new link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20110527113653/http://perotti.ic.cz/wavelan/
(*06) Link is still OK, see also:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200407212649/https://www.freelists.org/
post/arachne/Arachne-and-wifi
Copyright © 2007 Ulrich Hansen, Mainz (Germany), updated 2010,
2020 and 2022 by W.Spiegl.
For more information see here.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
A copy of the license is included in the section entitled
"GNU Free Documentation License 1.2".