Before you take the 802.11b "leap"

[Kevin C. Tofel]

Just a head's up for folks planning to use WiFi on their PDA's at work vs. at home. I recently purchased a Netgear MA701 WiFi CF card for my Compaq Aero (yes, pre-IPaq!) and was able to connect to my home LAN via my Wireless Netgear MR314 router. I have recently upgraded my PDA to the new Dell Axim A5 and use the same WiFi card with no issues at home. Here's the kicker: Since I use my PDA at work and we have WAP's all throughout our campus, I figured I could use my WiFi access at work as well. After all, I use a wired CF Ethernet card in empy network jacks to remotely synch my PDA when I'm out and about. Turns out that my company chose a Cisco wireless infrastructure. In and of itself, that's not a problem. HOWEVER: Cisco has worked on a new encryption technology called LEAP which is more secure then WEP. After a chat with Netgear, they say they don't currently support LEAP....searches on other WiFi vendor sites indicates the same.
If your company has a wireless LAN and you plan to purchase a WiFi card to pull double-duty, be sure to check with your network admins to see if they are implementing LEAP or not.
If anyone has found anything to the contrary that I've seen, I would welcome additional info as I had really hoped to take advantage of the WiFi infrastructure at work..... :(

[Gremmie]

No PPC card supports Leap, as is its hard to get support for all chipsets for wardriving software. It is likely the next PPC OS will support 802.1x, but as for LEAP, I don't know, doubt it for the PPC. The thing about work is that a computer is always handy anyways.

[Jorgen]

>The thing about work is that a computer is always handy anyways

Yes, but sometimes the info you need can only be found on your PPC. And things like remote printing over Wi-fi would be nice too - Even if our printers had bluetooth, I don't want to carry two cards (not that my workplace supports Wi-fi but I usually carry the card).

Jorgen

[Kevin C. Tofel]

No PPC card supports Leap, as is its hard to get support for all chipsets for wardriving software. It is likely the next PPC OS will support 802.1x, but as for LEAP, I don't know, doubt it for the PPC. The thing about work is that a computer is always handy anyways.

Good point, and one I neglected to mention: LEAP is currently supported in PCMCIA format, not CF or any other 'standard' PPC form factor. If your PPC has a CF adapter for PC cards, however, you can use a wireless card that supports LEAP.....I think the Cisco Aironet 350 is what folks are using in their Ipaqs at work. What it comes down to for me is: to use 802.11b at work, I have to use a Cisco card and hope that there is a PC card adapter that is compatible with my Axim. Luckily, I don't have the same restriction on my wireless LAN at home!
:o

[seanturner]

Or if you are a student and you can only get access via 802.11b and you don't have a computer to use :wink:

[sparky472]

I'm in the same spot. I wold love to able to use my Pocket PC wifi at work, but LEAP is used there. I've heard that Cisco has started licensing LEAP to other companies. Hopefully that will result in a CF card that is LEAP enabled someday.

[redifrogger]

Ditto - I didn't know we used leap here until after attempting to use my Toshiba e740. :really mad: Oh well

[pdantic]

Yep, our office finally went WiFi and enabled LEAP as well, so all of us Pocket PC fanatics who had hoped for wireless nirvana are screwed. :bad-words:

This seems to be fairly common from the posts that are being made here. I've gotta believe that one of the manufacturers will support LEAP in a CF or SD format soon...

Steve

[Janak Parekh]

This seems to be fairly common from the posts that are being made here. I've gotta believe that one of the manufacturers will support LEAP in a CF or SD format soon...
The problem is that LEAP is a Cisco-proprietary protocol. They have a tendency to do things like this. Unless Cisco releases a CF-format card, you'll be stuck using PC cards for LEAP support. Most CF vendors are going the 802.1x route instead...

Your alternative would be to use an iPaq with a PC sleeve, which would work perfectly. :)

--janak

[Gremmie]

LEAP is just a hold over until 802.1x is supported on a wider basis.

[Janak Parekh]

LEAP is just a hold over until 802.1x is supported on a wider basis.
While true, a lot of Cisco proprietary protocols tend to be holdovers that last a whole lot longer than anyone expects. :)

--janak (1000th post! I'm now an official freak! :crazyeyes:)

[Gremmie]

I think this is the 100th post where I'm following you Janek