Atheros - madwifi.org unaccessible

http://madwifi-project.org/wiki/About/ath5k
ath5k is a completely FOSS Linux driver for Atheros wireless cards. It is based on MadWifi and the OpenHAL. In ath5k we've gotten rid of the entire 2-module-layer HAL architecture, ath5k now just calls hardware functions directly.
We've been working on ath5k for some time (that's why you'll find ath5k_* named files inside madwifi-old-openhal and dadwifi-openhal branches) but the actual new mac80211 driver interface was put together by Jiri Slaby whose work was committed on wireless-dev's new ath5k branch. ath5k is based on madwifi-old-openhal branch and some bits of his code came from dadwifi-openhal. Jiri is now part of the MadWifi team and we are working together on advancing ath5k. ath5k is now part of the wireless-2.6 tree.
Madwifi.org DNS servers down?
A temporary fix.
add the following line to your /etc/hosts file:

217.24.1.134  snapshots.madwifi.org
Btw.
http://snapshots.madwifi-project.org/ resolves to this address.
See also: http://madwifi-project.org/wiki/UserDocs/GettingMadwifi

217.24.1.134  madwifi.org
217.24.1.134  snapshots.madwifi.org
217.24.1.134  svn.madwifi.org
217.24.1.135  lists.madwifi.org

 
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath5k
http://madwifi-project.org/wiki/About/ath5k

MadWIfi is working on providing a driver for users which does not require compiling a wireless-2.6 git kernel. In the meantime if you want to help test the latest driver you will need to compile a recent kernel. If you want to get the very latest then read the hacking ath5k guide to get ath5k. If you don't want to deal with git then please try out an mm (Andrew Morton) release from kernel.org. You will now find the mm releases have the ath5k driver.

To enable ath5k, you must first enable mac80211:

Networking  --->
  Wireless  ---> 
     Improved wireless configuration API 
     Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack (mac80211)

Please note that there is another 802.11 networking stack:

 Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack

You do not need this. This option enables the old SoftMAC stack we hope to kill one of these days. You can still safely enable this though.
You can then enable ath5k in the kernel configuration under

Device Drivers  --->
  [*] Network device support  --->
        Wireless LAN  --->
             Atheros 5xxx wireless cards support

You can also get current ath5k code by downloading compat-wireless package from wireless.kernel.org.
For user discussion and non-developement problems there is a mailing-list ath5k-users.
Supported Chipsets ¶
MAC chips ¶

AR5210
AR5211
AR5212

PHY chips ¶

RF5110
RF5111/2111
RF5112/2112
RF2413
RF5413
RF2425

For more infos check out Chipsets

Hacking ath5k

ath5k is currently available through different places.

• 
  
  
  
  
  The Linux wireless compatibility package
• 
  
  
  
  
  The Linux kernel from version 2.6.25 and up
• 
  
  
  
  
  ath5k on RHEL5

Developers are encouraged to work using the git repository. If you are not familiar with git please check out our Linux wireless git-guide. Alternatively you can use the Linux wireless compatibility package but please be sure to post patches in unified diff format (diff -u). To learn how to submit patches please read our Submitting patches guideline.  

Documentation available

Read this section on Atheros specifications and documentation.  

Enabling ath5k

To enable ath5k in the kernel configuration, you must first enable mac80211:

Networking  --->
  Wireless  --->
     Improved wireless configuration API
     Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack (mac80211)

Please note that there is another 802.11 networking stack:

 Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack

You do not need this. This option enables the old SoftMAC stack we hope to kill one of these days. You can still safely enable this though.

You can then enable ath5k in the kernel configuration under

Device Drivers  --->
  [*] Network device support  --->
        Wireless LAN  --->
             Atheros 5xxx wireless cards support

supported chips

AR5210   - 802.11a   (Crete/fez)
AR5211   - 802.11ab  (Oahu) (draft g -OFDM only- supported by hw but not by ath5k)
AR5212   - 802.11abg (Venice)
AR5213   - 802.11abg (Hainan)
AR2413/4 - 802.11bg  (Griffin)
AR5413/4 - 802.11abg (Eagle)
AR5423/4 - 802.11abg (Condor) (PCI-E)
AR2425   - 802.11bg  (Swan) (PCI-E)
AR2417   - 802.11bg  (Nala) (PCI-E)

To try the driver you can do this:

modprobe ath5k
sudo ip link set wlan%d up
sudo iwconfig wlan%d essid any
# Make sure you get auth'd and then assoc'd
# Then either set an IP manually or get it via DHCP
ping gw

You'll probably see an immediate rate drop to 1M, this is because of how we currently handle rate control. You should be able to keep at least at 11M for 802.11b/g but for now set this manually:

iwconfig wlan%d rate 11M

MORE...