Description

Wi-Fi® a/b/g/n Dual-Band Long-Range Low-Power PCI Express® Half-Mini Card

Forget about proprietary Wi-Fi drivers and firmware, and connect to Wi-Fi networks with enhanced performance and battery life at any range! The Wi-Fri™ ND2H works with free software, supports both 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz radio frequency bands, maintains strong signal strength and reliability at long range and in a congested spectrum, reduces power consumption through high integration and dynamic downshifting, and fits most laptop computers.

Freedom-Respecting

Most Wi-Fi cards require running proprietary drivers in your operating system and/or loading proprietary firmware. In particular, all Wi-Fi 5 and 6 (IEEE 802.11ac and 802.11ax) cards unfortunately require at least proprietary firmware.

The Wi-Fri ND2H on the other hand is fully supported by drivers that anyone is free to study, modify, and redistribute, and no proprietary firmware needs to be loaded onto it by your operating system. The firmware is part of the hardware, stored within the chipset and modifiable by no one, including the developer.

This freedom-friendly Wi-Fi card meets the requirements of the Free Software Foundation’s “Respects Your Freedom” certification program. “Fri” means “free” in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish!

Dual Frequency Bands

The 2.4-GHz Wi-Fi band has only three non-overlapping channels, which are shared with cordless telephones, baby monitors, Bluetooth devices, car alarms, microwave ovens, wireless video cameras, amateur radio transmitters, and other common devices. Such heavy congestion can severely limit Wi-Fi performance.

The wider 5-GHz band is split into many more channels, which can be combined to more than double a channel’s bandwidth. Fewer types of devices interfere with 5-GHz traffic. And the band’s shorter wavelength and higher signal attenuation reduce access point coverage area, resulting in fewer clients competing to transmit. This large low-traffic 5-GHz band enables enhanced Wi-Fi performance with the Wi-Fri ND2H.

Strong Signal at Long Range

Transmit beamforming (TxBF) utilizes the Wi-Fri ND2H’s dual antennas to direct signals to specific clients, improving signal strength and reducing interference with other clients. Low-density parity-check (LDPC) coding detects and corrects transmission errors to improve reliability and performance in a noisy spectrum. These and other features deliver strong rate-over-range performance.

Low Power Consumption

The Wi-Fri ND2H’s chipset integrates components such as low-noise and power amplifiers, switching regulators, and EEPROMs to reduce power consumption in every operation mode. Dynamically downshifting from 2x2 MIMO to 1x1 SISO saves power by driving only one antenna when possible.

Ubiquitous Form Factor

The Wi-Fri ND2H implements the PCI Express 1.1 x1 system bus interface in a PCI Express Half-Mini Card (Type H1) 1.2 form factor. It’s mechanically and electrically compatible with all PCI Express Mini Card (also known as “Mini PCI Express”, “Mini PCIe”, “Mini PCI-E”, and “mPCIe”) sockets, commonly found in laptop computers since 2005 as well as PCI Express Mini to PCI Express card adapters (for use with desktops, workstations, and servers), some single-board computers, and other devices. It fits Half-Mini-only sockets, dual-use (Full- or Half-Mini) sockets, and dual head-to-head sockets (connector A only).

It also fits Full-Mini-only sockets using the optional bracket, which is designed and manufactured by Libiquity in the USA using freedom-respecting software and manufacturing equipment. Parametric CAD source files for the bracket are available and licensed under GNU General Public License version 3 or later.

Driver Support

Linux and GNU Linux-libre version 2.6.36 or later (version 2.6.38 or later recommended), ath9k driver. Supported GNU/Linux, GNU/Linux-libre, and BusyBox/Linux distributions include (but are not limited to):

• Trisquel 5.0 STS (Dagda) or later
• Guix System all versions
• Parabola GNU/Linux-libre 2011.05.24 or later
• Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre all versions (excluding upcoming HyperbolaBSD)
• Dragora GNU/Linux-Libre 2.2 or later
• gNewSense 3.0 (Parkes) or later
• Alpine Linux 2.2.0 or later
• Arch Linux 2011.08.19 or later
• CentOS 7.0-1406 or later
• Debian 2.1 (slink) or later
• Devuan all versions
• elementary OS 0.2 (Luna) or later
• Fedora 15 (Lovelock) or later
• Gentoo Linux 11.0 or later (11.2 or later recommended)
• Linux Mint 11 or later
• Manjaro all versions
• MX Linux all versions
• openSUSE 11.4 or later (12.1 or later recommended)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 or later
• Slackware 13.37 or later
• Tails 0.8 or later
• Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) or later

FreeBSD 10.0-RELEASE or later, ath(4) driver

Microsoft Windows XP or later

Laptop Compatibility Note

The proprietary boot firmware systems (commonly known by their “BIOS” or “UEFI” interfaces) of many laptop computers refuse to boot upon detecting any Wi-Fi card other than those sold by the laptop vendor. The Wi-Fri ND2H is likely to be rejected by such computers. Users of free boot firmware systems such as libreboot and coreboot, including owners of Libiquity Taurinus computers, are unaffected.

Installation Service

Do you own a Taurinus computer and need professional installation? E-mail us at <sales@libiquity.com> for a quote.

Chipset manufactured by and card designed by Atheros Communications, Inc. Card manufactured by Delton Technology (Guang Zhou) Inc. for Liteon Tech Corp. and sold by either Liteon Tech Corp. or SparkLAN Communications, Inc. Card refurbished and sold under a Libiquity brand and with the Respects Your Freedom mark as a guarantee of free software compatibility.