802.11b Cards for Handhelds?

bmetzler asks: "I am in the market for a new Palm device. This time I want to buy a device that is capable of connecting to the wireless network in my home. Apart from wanting a monochrome display, the 802.11b feature is the most important one I am looking at. Xircom makes an add-on module for the M500 series and the m125. This might be a possibility because the m125 is one that I was looking at. However, at over $220 this one is a little pricey. Xircom also seemed to have a model for the Handspring, but I'm unable to locate it for sale any longer. Handera claims support for Symbol's CompactFlash card. The Handera has a nicer, bigger screen, but is also more expensive. I couldn't locate a price for the CF card either. In conclusion, I've got to purchase a Palm, and the wireless capability is the most important feature I need. Is there a good way to do this on a Palm, or should I just go for the Sharp Zaurus?" I'm also looking into replacing my old, aging Palm VII with something a bit more modern with 802.11b support. How do the Xircom models perform on Handspring Visors?

Comments

Get an Ipaq

[PepsiProgrammer]

Get an Ipaq, they have support for 802.11 through a PCMCIA card if im not mistaken, then you can strip out the crap os that comes with it, and put Linux on it.

Re:Get an Ipaq

[drsoran]

I agree. I've been playing with my Xircom 802.11b module for my Palm M505 and I can say I really regret that we didn't purchase iPaqs or some other WinCE based machines for PDAs. If you're just looking for an organizer the Palm is fine, but if you're actually looking to do wireless web browsing, check your mail, etc. then the Palm is sorely lacking. I still can't find a full fledged browser that doesn't use some kind of proxy sitting on a remote machine to strip out graphics whereas Pocket Internet Explorer works fine on the WinCE machines without it.

Also note that the Xircom adapter is big. It's a little bit thicker than the M505 itself and it has it's own battery built into it. To charge it you use the AC adapter that came with your Palm's cradle (if you have the adapter attached to the Palm while charging it'll charge the Palm as well).

You really need to decide what you want to do with this though. If you're looking to just do wireless network hotsyncs and update your address book and todo list once in awhile, the Palm works fine, otherwise I'd avoid them if possible.

symbol CF pricing

[Locutus]

At Palm Source, Handera was loaning out 330's with the Symbol 802.11 CF cards. When asked about purchasing one, they said they were thinking about selling the "used" ones for $300. He said it was $150 off the combined price soooo. Since the 330 was going for $299, that's pretty much $150 for the Symbol CF. On the Zaurus forums it's been noted that the Sybmol card is one of the best at power management.

If you're not going for the Zaurus, I'd go for the Handera. Look at it this way, you can get a folding keyboard for $40 (new) and many other Palm III/VII based peripherals work. You said you have a Palm VII right?

If you don't get rid of that Palm VII, you'll want to get THIS in-cradle charging kit for it. It's a must have for the Palm VII series. IMHO.

Lob

Buy the HandEra

[vrmlguy]

I was a beta-tester for the HandEra 330, so my view of the price is a bit skewed, but it is definitely one *sweet* device. HandEra (the company) had done a lot of specialized stuff for Symbol long before the 330 came out, and they went the extra mile to make sure that the 330 would work with every CF card that Symbol makes.

Re:Buy the HandEra

[dmitriy]

> Yes but is it wise to buy from a company you've never heard of?

There's a bunch of people who did.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TRGPro_Users_Group /

Xircom 802.11b Springboard Module...

[jbuilder]

It's for sale via the Intel website (backordered about two weeks).

http://www.shop-intel.com/shop/product.asp?pid=SIN T1037&pfid=44&pindex=1&msc

Hope this helps.

Re:or

[PepsiProgrammer]

Ah, but pad's of paper dont support 802.11b, mainly due to the fact that since the paper pad devices are so low power, they dont have the excess juice to power an addon to provide connectivity, but due to their low cost, and ease of use, they can be a viable alternative to those seeking a portable device, but dont have connectivity in mind.

Sounds like you're trying to fit a square block...

[switchfiend]

in a round hole.

What exactly are you trying to accomplish via 802.11? Web Browsing? Email? Controlling MP3's? Email is about the only thing that using a sled attached to a Palmpilot is going to be useful for. Some people will difer on their definition of "useful". I have found browsing the web on a palm pilot to be pretty abysmal (its not that much better with a PocketPC device, although at least it looks better).

The current generation Palm device doesn't really have a good integration of networking. Supposedly the newer ones (post PalmOS 5) will have integrated TCP/IP, and support for a bunch of different wireless technologies.

You mention the Zaurus. You could pick up one of those, and then get a CF Wireless card (for about 80 bucks or so, I have 2 of the d-link ones and they work great).

That really is no different then getting a PocketPC (your lack of mentioning one in your article suggests you want to stay away from Microsoft), as they fullfill the same function.

I have not had a particularly good experience with handheld devices in general, and especially not handheld networking. My last attempt involved a Casio E-200 with the aforementioned D-link card (which worked great until about 30 days after I bought the PDA, when the backlight blew). It was "neat" but not particularly useful.

I really don't have a problem wandering around with my Ibook with an Airport card built in (or substitute that for any notebook or subnotebook).

It just comes down to what your overall goal is

Zaurus SL-5500 + D-Link DCF-650W

[AntiTuX]

I use this combination at home, and at work. Being able to ssh and irc while in meetings is fun. Don't even get me started on pr0n browsing. it owns for that.

The only problem I have with the wireless nic is that it's really wide, so I'm probably going to have to file down the edges so I can get at the audio jack/stylus when the card's in the slot.
I have no complaints otherwise.

Hello wireless, goodbye battery life

[GMFTatsujin]

I've never understood this fascination with the wireless world on a PDA anyway, but here's my two cents:

If you've got an 802.11b wireless network card going, it's going pretty much all the time. And battery life suffers horribly, especially if you're using a high-drain PDA anyway, like a bright color screen. My boss has an iPac with a Xircom wireless LAN PCMCIA card, and it destroys his battery life - it goes from maybe 5-7 days between charges to maybe 5-7 *hours*.

So here's my advice. Either get an adapter that has it's own little battery pack and won't cripple your PDA proper, or get one that's hot-swappable, tiny, and convenient to slip in and out when needed.

That's if you really think you're going to get that much use out of the thing. Myself, I'm happy to just get in the habit of syncing every time I'm at my computer, and letting the information exchange happen then. Honestly, though, I still don't see the attraction.

GMFTatsujin

Handera Quality Issues

[Milkyman]

I don't have one but I've read many accounts of the handera's having problems with build quality. Many have complained about the stylus silo cracking or breaking, and i've seen several complaints about the screen failing to responde and black lines appearing on the display. You should probably go check out the handera forums at http://www.pdabuzz.com and http://www.brighthand.com and asking around there before making any big purchase.

Re:Handera Quality Issues

[Kris_J]

My first TRGpro developed dead lines and Handera replaced it totally at their cost, postage included. They took a deposit from me and sent me the replacement first so I could migrate all my stuff across. I've also had to return one folding keyboard, but that replacement cost me nothing either. And I've had to replace a RioPMP300SE as well, and that time the replacement still had problems. Modern, portable, electronic equipment all has a high failure rate, the issue is how well the company deals with it and on that score Handera are the best I've found.

Re:Handera Quality Issues

[dmitriy]

HandEra 330 is manufactured by Samsung. The case of the first batch of devices was too brittle - rumors are, somebody added black dye of the wrong type to the plastic. HandEra replaces devices with cracked cases no question asked.

Recently they started to charge some money ($25) for advance exchange - when they send you replacement device first, and you send yours back after data transfer. It used to be you could do it for free. Good old days.

Xircom Reviews

[libertynews]

According to this review over at Visor Central and one at O'Reilly its a pretty nice card.

But I remember reading another review saying that its speed was nowhere near the 11Mbits advertised. This isn't really surprising considering the speed of the Dragnball processor that runs the Visor. But I'll be it beats the heck out of the VisorPhone's data mode (which is really an analog modem connection to your ISP over the cell network).

Brian

Sysadmin Uses?

[||Deech||]

We've played witht the idea off and on of putting a wireless network out in our plant for ease of our use (the sysadmins). It would be so cool if I could just whip out my iPaq (or whatever) and use many of my often used admin utilities over the network, such as Windows usermanager (playing with those stupid permissions) or a shell to see what my 'nix server is up to and if that damn 3Ware card has barfed all over itself again or running one of several custom apps that we've developed in house. I could see this being *extremely* useful in this situation, rather then having to either a. find a nearby computer to kick a user off of to login as admin or b. walk all the way back to your office because you need a utility there.

I know there is a vnc client for WinCE.
Anyone know of other useful admin type utilities that would make this venture worthwhile to us?

I've got a Xircom Springport WiFi adapter.. and..

[irregular_hero]

I would caution you to stay away from it if you aren't certain beyond a reasonable doubt that it'll work with your equipment (e.g., borrow one and test it with your access points).

Here's the deal with the WiFi Springboard module: It contains what is essentially a Cisco wireless card. The card is a fairly nice one (from what I've read), but it communicates to the Prism as if it were a PPP serial device. In other words, it emulates a modem under PalmOS. That means that you're limited to the highest speed the device can do -- and trust me, that's relatively slow.

It's not all bad... Two nice features of the unit:
1) It has a built-in Lithium Ion battery that powers the module itself when the wireless is active (in other words, it doesn't drain the Prism's internal battery).
2) It has a bit of built in flash memory that you can use to load utility programs on -- I have the Blazer browser loaded into its memory so it's immediately available to be launched when I pop the unit it the slot.

Beyond that, be aware that I've had problems getting the unit to work with most Linksys access points with WEP enabled. Trust me, folks, I know I got the settings right because I have other cards configured the same way that work fine. I've also had some oddities with D-Link access points.

I've even tried to use an ad-hoc mode with the unit and a Linux-based wireless router. I can get a wireless link up (WEP included) and get a DHCP address, but after a while, the card starts ARPing for the router and _ignoring_ the replies that it gets. That pretty much wraps up your browsing, trust me -- when you can't see the router on your segment.

Your choice of web browsers is pretty paltry, too. There's Handspring's Blazer, but it forces you to browse through the Blazer proxies that compress everything for you (and log everywhere you go, most likely). Then there's EudoraWeb, which doesn't support images. And a few more that are mainly forgettable, including a "screen scraping" browser client.

On the other hand, when I was using the unit with VNC via the Cisco wireless APs in the office, the thing worked like a champ (albeit a slow one). And when I used it with Lucent APs, it worked very well, too.

The combination of other problems and the fact that it seems that Intel (the owner of the product line now) doesn't intend to release any updates to the unit have made me move to a Sharp Zaurus and a Dlink CF 802.11b card. :>

Xircom && Handspring Visor

[Random Feature]

I have a Xircom 802.11b module for my Handspring.

General impressions:

Throughput sucks. You're stuck at serial speed because that's the interface to the module. That's great when you've got nothing else but it's worse than a 14.4 dialup.

Connectivity is spotty. Generally I've had no problems with getting connected at home or work, but last week I was attending Networld+Interop and the damn thing locked up my Handspring.

Tight. I had to reset. After the second time this happened (yeah, shoot me for being a glutton for punishment), I lost all my data. Yes, it was backed up, but that's not the point.

Now, in the past I've had no issues. Blazer (the browser that comes with the Xircom module ) is sweet and if you've got a Visor the color is great and the quality is decent. I liked it, until last week.

But after last week I'll not likely be using the module again. I just can't afford to lose everything on the road like that.

As always, YMMV.

D-Link DCF-650W and the Zaurus SL5500 (Linux PDA)

[-tji]

The Zaurus SL-5500 supports the D-Link DCF-650W out of the box. Just plug in the CompactFlash 802.11 card, and configure the SSID and WEP settings in the standard config app, and you're off and running.

The included Opera browser does a good job of scaling pages to the small PDA display.

And, since it's Linux, there is no end to the cool apps you can run on it. Check out Kismet. It's an 802.11 sniffer program, great for "War Driving". Between my office and home, I picked up 80 different 802.11 networks on one trip. I am in Silicon Valley, so your results may vary. But, it's great for finding public access points too (whether they are intentionally or accidentally public).

prices and a plug for handera

[xeno]

I'd recommend springing for the Handera 330. I did, and I haven't regretted it a bit. You say: Handera has a nicer, bigger screen, but is also more expensive. I couldn't locate a price for the CF card either.

That's an understatement -- the Handera screen is very sharp and clear. The backlight is bright and clear in the dark, and because the grafitti area is part of the display (instead of being silk-screened on like all the other Palm devices) you can actually see what you're writing in the dark. In bright light, it's fantastic and quick to respond -- no screen artifacts. Folks used to rave about the b/w screen on the Rex units -- this is nicer.

As for the price of the Symbol 802.11b card, I've seen ~$175us. Note that the Symbol card is significantly smaller and less succeptable to damage than the Linksys -- the dongle on the latter is huge. From outside appearances, the Symbol card looks to be the same as the Socket brand 802.11 card. (Anyone?)

There are a lot of other benefits to the Handera 330 -- the battery life with the LiIon batter is great (important if you're using CF devices that require more power such as a microdrive or 802.11 card), the flexibility of the MMC/SD memory slot is great (and I'm hoping to see a bluetooth SD card soon). The power tap can rechange the battery while you're using the unit yet doesn't interfere with a Palm Portable Keyboard. The folks at Handera did a great job on this one; I'm very happy with it.

Handera 330 ($300) + battery ($50) + Symbol card ($175) + charger ($40, or you can pick up a Nokia ACH4U charger for $2 at a discount place or thrift store) and you're set for around $550us.