GNOME Network Manager

The GNOME Network Manager "is a set of co-operative tools that make networking simple and straightforward. Whether wireless or wired, Network Manager allows you to quickly move from one network to another: once a network has been configured and joined once, it can be detected and re-joined automatically at a later date." -gnome.org

See http://www.gnome.org/projects/NetworkManager/

Mobility

"Network Manager attempts to make networking invisible. When moving into areas you've been before, NetworkManager automatically connects to the last network you chose to connect to. Likewise, when back at the desk, NetworkManager will switch to the faster, more reliable wired network connection. Or while you're on the road, use your mobile broadband connection to connect." -gnome.org

Supported Wireless Cards and Drivers

Network Manager is the wireless graphical tool for Linux. Basically the Network Manager will work with any card that properly supports wireless extensions. The following is a list of some of the more commonly used wireless cards and the status on if they are supported by Network Manager.

Supported Wireless Cards	Provider	Driver Name	Status
Atheros 521x (madwifi, madwifi-ng)	via http://madwifi.org	wlan	Old 'madwifi' driver supports unencrypted, WEP, WPA, and WPA2. Newer 'madwifi-ng' driver should also work for all network types, and is now preferred though it may still have some issues. These cards also take an awful long time to scan, which further degrades their responsiveness.
Cisco Aironet 340/350 (PCMCIA and Mini-PCI)	Linux kernel	airo	Supports unencrypted and WEP networks
Intel Pro Wireless 2100	Linux kernel via http://ipw2100.sourceforge.net	ipw2100	Supports unencrypted, WEP, WPA, and WPA2 networks
Intel Pro Wireless 2200/2915	Linux kernel via http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net	ipw2200	Supports unencrypted, WEP, WPA, and WPA2 networks. Note that with certain kernels versions or distribution packaging, it may not allow connection to WPA crypted networks, reporting an unsupported Wireless extension version of the kernel to be able to use wpa_supplicant with wext mode.
Intel Pro Wireless 3945	Linux kernel via http://intellinuxwireless.org/	ipw3945	Supports unencrypted, WEP, WPA, and WPA2 networks. Unstable with NetworkManager 0.6.4 on FC5.
Prism 2/2.5 (hostap)	Linux kernel	hostap	Supports unencrypted, WEP, WPA, and WPA2 networks. Be aware that if you have both this driver and the 'orinoco' driver installed, they may fight for control of the wireless card and render it inoperable to NetworkManager. You should either disable one of these drivers, or ensure that only one driver is able to control the card.
Prism54 (fullmac)	Linux kernel	prism54	Supports unencrypted and WEP networks. This driver only works with early versions of Prism54 cards (ie, NetGear WG511 v1 and v2 (Taiwan) and others). Later versions of this chipset, both Mini-PCI and USB, need a different driver; see the entries for p54 and islsm for more info. The prism54 driver that comes with the 2.6.19 Linux kernel claims to use WE-19 for WPA support, thanks to the work of Dan Williams.
Less Common Cards	Provider	Driver Name	Status
Edimax EW-7108PCg	Linux kernel via http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/	rt61pci	Supports unencrypted and WEP, WPA, and WPA2 networks
Atmel at76c50x-based (PCMCIA and Mini-PCI)	Linux kernel	atmel	Supports unencrypted and WEP networks
Broadcom BCM43xx / Airport Extreme	N / A	b43	Superscedes the bcm43xx in Linux 2.6.24 and above.
Lucent WaveLAN / Orinoco	Linux kernel	orinoco	Supports unencrypted and WEP networks. Be sure to get a Linux kernel version of 2.6.13 or higher to get the version of this driver that supports wireless scanning.
Airport	Linux kernel	airport	Supports unencrypted and WEP networks. Be sure to get a Linux kernel version of 2.6.13 or higher to get the version of this driver that supports wireless scanning.
TI ACX100 / ACX111	http://acx100.sourceforge.net	acx100	Works for unencrypted and WEP networks.
Atmel at76c5XXx-based (USB)	http://at76c503a.berlios.de/	at76_usb	Current CVS (as of August 2006) works well with WEP and unencrypted networks.
p54	Linux wireless-dev tree	p54	Works with Linux 2.6.22 and later. Works on my WEP network.

Unsupported or Unknown Cards & Drivers
RaLink rt2x00, Atmel at76c5XXx-based (USB), Ralink rt2571W-based (USB)