11Mbps wireless desktop PC networking Reliable, 802.11b standards-based networking USB Powered, No need to open the PC WEP encryption to ensure privacy. Supports Win98/Me/2000 5 year limited warranty
(for Linux support - see below)
There is a GPL driver for the various Atmel-based USB drivers:
I strongly recommend reading the HOWTO as it is invaluable for getting the MA101 up and running with Linux.
Note that there are two revisions of the MA101 (you can tell by looking at the sticker under the unit).
Rev A doesn't seem to be supported by the 'official' driver anymore as the developer dropped Intersil support: use the 20021209 release if you have a Rev A unit.
Rev B is definitely supported.
I have noted packet loss of ~ 40% when running the 029921209 driver with a Red Hat 2.4.18 kernel. Upgrading to 2.4.20 and the 2.1.1 driver is meant to fix that, but I found that setting "RTS threshold" to 200 with the lvnet tool (that comes with the driver) solved the problem.
There is no external antenna socket, and the MA101 comes with a five year warranty; if you're happy to void the warranty, adding an external antenna is quite easy. Nodomainname has more information.
There is also information on creating a USB cantenna, which you could do with a MA101