Jason Dunn
08-09-2002, 05:00 PM
I remember being at Las Vegas Comdex 2000 and talking to a major OEM of wireless 802.11b products – I asked them when we’d see a 802.11b card in a CompactFlash form-factor. They said the chips were still too large and it would be several years. Imagine my surprise when less than a year later Symbol announced an 802.11b CompactFlash card that would work in any Pocket PC! <!><br /><br /><span>Un-published PocketPC.com article originally written April 16th, 2002.</span><br /> <br /><i>The Symbol Wireless Networker is a must-have product for wireless warriors</i><br /><br /><b><span>Device Requirements</span></b><br />The Symbol Wireless Networker will work in any Pocket PC that has a CompactFlash slot. It’s a Type 1 card, which means it will work in the HP Jornada – many competing products are Type 2, so this is a great solution for Jornada owners. I tested this card with an HP Jornada 565 and a D-Link 713-P wireless access point.<br /><br /><b><span>What’s Hot</span></b><br />The Symbol Wireless Networker is a small, low-power, wireless 802.11b CompactFlash card with a superb feature offering – it’s the best card on the market, bar none (the exception being its twin from Socket).<br /><br /><b><span>Languages Supported</span></b><br />English<br /><br /><b><span>Where to Buy</span></b><br />You can purchase the Symbol Wireless Networker for <a href="http://howtobuy.symbol.com/index.hc?fa=Link&LinkID=23264d3f210a">US $179.95 from MobilePlanet.com</a>. <br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/articles/JD-770-fig1.jpg" /> <br /><i>Figure 1: The very small Symbol Wireless Networker</i><br /><br /><b><span>Impressive right out of the box</span></b><br />Symbol did some stunning industrial design with this card – it’s small, unobtrusive, and looks excellent when in a device. The external antenna juts out roughly 10 mm, so when the card is inside a Pocket PC, the extra size is barely noticeable. The product comes with the basics: the card, and a CD-ROM with drivers on it.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/articles/JD-770-fig2.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 2: Connection status in the bottom-right corner</i><br /><br />Installation couldn’t have been easier! I installed the drivers, inserted the card, and the connection status immediately started in the bottom-right corner of my Pocket PC (Figure 1). The green bars mean that it has detected a wireless signal. Tapping on the icon brings up the status window where you can configure the wireless connection.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/articles/JD-770-fig3.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 3: Setting the ESSID</i><br /><br />This is the most important window for configuring the connection (Figure 2) – if you don’t have the ESSID (the name of the wireless network), you can’t connect. The good news is that many public networks are simply called “default”. And here’s a trick for you: if you put “any” as the ESSID, the Symbol Wireless Networker will try to connect to any wireless network it finds. In my case, I used “DOJO” as my ESSID.<br /><br /><b><span>Configuration options galore</span></b><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/articles/JD-770-fig4.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 4: The very small Symbol Wireless Networker</i><br /><br />The software drivers and configuration software for this card is some of the best Pocket PC work I’ve seen. The menus are divided up into tabs, so there’s no vertical scrolling required. Each tab is for a particular element of the set-up, but the default settings work fine in most cases. You have the option of getting an IP address from a DHCP server (which is the default for more wireless LANs) or using a specific IP address (Figure 4).<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/articles/JD-770-fig5.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 5: The Power controls</i><br /><br />Power consumption is a major issue with Pocket PCs, so Symbol made sure their card would give users control over the power consumption. Don’t need much speed? Push down the power meter. Need maximum speed for your applications and don’t care about battery life? Crank up the power meter. In most cases, it makes sense to leave the default “Automatic Power Saving Mode” checked off – this will let the software balance speed and power needs automatically.<br /><br />The card also allows for the Pocket PC to suspend power while network traffic is active – this is a great feature, because more than one person has left his wireless network card in their Pocket PC, and when the device powers up at midnight to set its timers for the day, it stays on until the battery is dead. This feature that Symbol offers will prevent that.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/articles/JD-770-fig6.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 6: Testing the card</i><br /><br />There’s nothing worse than running into a problem with a wireless network and not having the tools to diagnose the problem. As Figure 6 shows, the Symbol software includes an integrated PING utility to let you test whether or not you can reach a specific IP address. This also doubles as a generic PING utility that can help you diagnose all sorts of networking problems (both wireless and wired).<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/articles/JD-770-fig7.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 7: Constant signal display</i><br /><br />Another element in trouble-shooting wireless network problems is signal strength: Symbol includes an excellent signal strength meter that allows you to see the quality of the signal, the speed of the signal, and which access point you’re connected to.<br /><br /><b><span>Gotchas</span></b><br />In order to keep the size and power requirements down, the Symbol card sacrifices range. Its specification is for 300 feet, and while it supports that range adequately, competing products from D-Link and others have a range of over 1000 feet. I don’t feel this is a significant drawback, but if you’re in a fixed position and can’t get a wireless access point within range, this will be a major issue. Barring this, I couldn’t find any significant problems with this card.<br /><br />The only problem in setting this card up wasn’t even from the card itself – the Pocket PC 2002 Connection Manager can be confusing to set up initially, but the simple rule of thumb is to set all the drop down menus to “Internet” if you want to get access to the Internet, and set them all to “Work” if you want to ActiveSync with your desktop PC. <br /><br /><b><span>Conclusion</span></b><br />Simply put, the Symbol Wireless Networker is the king of the hill. Its combination of price, performance, and size make it a superb choice for your Pocket PC.