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802.11b Cards for Handhelds?

Posted by Cliff on from the a-network-in-your-pocket dept.

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?

4 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. symbol CF pricing by Locutus · · Score: 4, Insightful
    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

    --
    "Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
  2. Buy the HandEra by vrmlguy · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

    --
    Nothing for 6-digit uids?
  3. Xircom 802.11b Springboard Module... by jbuilder · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

    --
    Polymorphism -- It's what you make of it.
  4. I've got a Xircom Springport WiFi adapter.. and.. by irregular_hero · · Score: 5, Informative

    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. :>