What do you think of these wireless LAN products?

[mirkazemisaman]

I am new to the Wireless world and I was thinking of buying the following two products for my future Axim (to set up my first wireless LAN):

LINKSYS Wireless LAN Card
(http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F003%5F013%5F017%5F000&product%5Fid=950%2D1388)

LINKSYS Wireless Router
(http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F003%5F013%5F013%5F001&product%5Fid=25%2D3024)
What is your opinion on them? Does anyone have any experiences with them? And finally why aren't there many choices for a CF type II wireless LAN card. (I don't think there are more than... say 10 on the internet.)

A few other general questions:
If I have the card set up in my Axim and the router in the second floor, would I be abe to get a signal in the basement? In other words will I be able to get a signal anywhere I can get a signal from my "2.4ghz" phone with the base set up in the same room as the router?
Is the bandwidth sufficient enough to share music files on my desktop (the desktop will be connected to the router using a cable) and listen to them via the PPC? How about video files?

and finally one unrelated question:
Can you sign in to a hotmail acount to check your email via PIE and an Axim in my case?

[Bearjaw]

Theoretically you should get the same range as your phone. A couple of things to be aware of though...

a) the 2.4 Ghz phone my cause interferance with the router. Since they opperate in the same range. I use the Linksys CF card and router combo, I myself have not run into interferance issue( I have a microwave near my router) so you should be fine.

b) You may be able to reach the cellar but I have found the more walls between me and the router the lower the link is. (signals in the GHz range have trouble going through walls. it has to do with the wavelength of the signal) Also your download speeds will decrease the farther away from the router you are, depending on how many walls there are between you and the router.

I love having my WLAN.. you have to copy the files from your desktop to the Axim over the WLAN before you play them in WMP but its pretty quick. I also use my Axim to check my hotmail. Just open PIE, got to MSN Mobile and click the hotmail link..its that easy.

Be aware I couldnt get the CF11 to work with my axim but the WCF12 works great (although its a little rough on the mighty Axim battery). Hope this helps. Good luck. Jeff

[bdeli]

Why don't you get the Linksys WCF12 (it is a type I/II card)? I have a WCF12 and the BEFW11S4 v2 router. They work great together!

Range of the router is good. You get around 90m indoors and over 400m outdoors. If you live in a very old house you might have a hard time setting it up due to wall/floor thickness.

As for your phone - you will get a lot of interference from the phone since it operates on the 2.4Ghz band that 802.11b - so you might have to end up changing your phone system or else going to 802.11a which operates on a different frequency. Check this chart for more info: http://www.linksys.com/edu/wirelessstandards.asp

As for your hotmail, yes you can via the MSN mobile page: http://mobile.msn.com/pocketpc

[PapaSmurfDan]

I have no clue about the router, but you may want to get the WCF12 card from Linksys. I've heard (could someone confirm) that is does use less power than the WCF11 (what you have linked). I got it for ~60 from Amazon and it works great. If money is not an issue, I hear people love the Socket CF card.

But one thing to remember about your CF slot is that a CF type 2 slot can take both CF type-1 or CF type-2 cards (the only difference is CF type-2 cards are thicker and thus can't fit in to CF type 1 slots.).

The bandwidth on 802.11b is more than enough for streaming music/videos. Just remember, that video files should be re-encoded to run on your PPC.

[Sven Johannsen]

The comments on the possible interference from your phone are accurate, but it is something you won't know for sure until you try it. I have a Siemans 2.4GHz phone system with a base in the center of the house and 7 extensions scattered around. There is always some traffic between the phones and the base, just like a cell system. I have noticed no issues with my wireless setup however. That is my experience with my setup. The phone system does interfere with the X-10 wireless cameras. (If you surf at all, you have seen ads for these :( )

As far as range, again that will be highly dependent on your home layout and construction. I think the 90m indoors referenced in one post is a manufacturer assessment of possibility, not an experienced reality. (90m is 295ft, almost a football field. I'd venture that most folk's house is not big enough to verify that :) ) My home is two floors above a basement and the AP is on the top floor. I do get WiFi reception in the basement but it is spotty and it tends to be at a lower rate. That is true whether it is a CF card in a PPC or a PCCard in a laptop. I know it would be better if the AP was on the first (ground) floor, but my den is where it is now and I like watching the pretty lights. Actually it is useful to be able to glance over at the router when the internet access is slow. Sometimes i notice there is nothing coming in, which tells me the ISP network is having problems and I might as well make a sandwich.

The Linksys products are good. I use the router/switch/AP. I don't have a Linksys CF card but I do have a Linksys PCCard. I also have had no problems getting several manufacturers WiFi cards, PC and CF to work with the Linksys AP, with 128b WEP turned on. (Other than fat fingering in one of the 26 Hex characters)

[mirkazemisaman]

thanx, i will perhaps go with WCF 12, my only issue right now is my 2.4ghz phone which i bought 2 month ago and can't replace. (I bought an expensive Panasonic model with 5 sub-units and can't afford "not using them".). What is the difference between 802.1a and 802.1b? Can someone explain the cons and pros to me please?

[Pony99CA]

What is the difference between 802.1a and 802.1b? Can someone explain the cons and pros to me please?
802.11b uses a frequency of 2.4 GHz with a typical maximum of 11 Mbps bandwidth.

802.11a uses a frequency of 5+ GHz with a typical maximum of 54 Mbps bandwidth. 802.11a is not compatible with 802.11b and typically costs more.

802.11g uses a frequency of 2.4 GHz with a typical maximum of 54 Mbps bandwidth, and is compatible with 802.11b, but isn't completely standardized yet.

Steve

[seanturner]

Do not get a Linksys!!!!

I have had 3 linksys basestations break.

And I had a Linksys 802.11b card fry two motherboards. It stopped working one day, so I switched it to another PCI slot and it wouldn't work there. Then, I tried it in another computer and it didn't. When I tried to put another network card in the second computer's PCI slot, it didn't work. I tried different cards in all the slots that I had put hte Linksys PCI card in and they were all broken. Linksys did replace the PCI card, but, they said that there was no way that their card could have damaged the motherboards and that it was "user error" and the guy implied that I was not capable of inserting a PCI card correctly, and that I should only let a "trained professional" open my computer.

My friend has had 2 Linksys 802.11b PCMCIA cards break on him. And another friend of mine has had 2 Linksys NAS drives break on him. I will never, ever, let anything linksys through my door again!

[mirkazemisaman]

Thanx for the info, one more question though:
What does it mean when you guys say 802.1b MIGHT interfere with a 2.4ghz phone? Does it mean that the network connection keeps breaking up or does it mean that you don't get a "beep" when you pick up the phone or... Botom line what happens if they do iterfere with each other????

UPDATE:
I finally decided to get an 802.1a network going (although it might be a little pricey), but I haven't found a single 802.1a CF card yet. Do they even exist?

[Mona13]

I am new to this and I don't know about brand names, but Fry's has a D-Link wireless router with 3 ports, regularly $129 on sale for $89 with a $50 rebate. Took us quite a while to get it to work with my iPAQ 5455, but it finally did. For a final cost of $39 seems like a good deal.

I was on hold with their tech support for 12 minutes and at the exact time the tech answered the phone, the wlan started working together. Works find since then.

[seanturner]

Thanx for the info, one more question though:
What does it mean when you guys say 802.1b MIGHT interfere with a 2.4ghz phone? Does it mean that the network connection keeps breaking up or does it mean that you don't get a "beep" when you pick up the phone or... Botom line what happens if they do iterfere with each other????

UPDATE:
I finally decided to get an 802.1a network going (although it might be a little pricey), but I haven't found a single 802.1a CF card yet. Do they even exist?

Typically, the phone will cut out the network card and you won't get network signal. In my experience, some cards are better than others when dealing with interference. My Proxim Orinoco tends to keep on talking (although at a much reduced speed) where my linksys cards just drop the signal entirely.

[Janak Parekh]

I finally decided to get an 802.1a network going (although it might be a little pricey), but I haven't found a single 802.1a CF card yet. Do they even exist?
Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure they don't, yet. Moreover, most of the 802.1a PC cards are CardBus (32-bit), which no Pocket PCs currently supports.

Nothing's simple in life, eh?

--janak

[mirkazemisaman]

So I now basically have 3 options:

1) Get the 802.1b WLAN gear and risk interference with my cordless phone...
2) Get the 802.1b WLAN gear and risk interference with my cordless phone...
3) Get the 802.1b WLAN gear and risk interference with my cordless phone...

I never thought I will be so limited in terms of wireless stuff, :evil: just because I have to use a 2.4Ghz cordless phone :evil: .

[Mona13]

I have a Siemens 2.4GHz phone set up with 6 handsets and the D-Link still works. I did have trouble getting a signal to my bedroom, but I have had the same trouble with the Siemens handset signal reaching in there since I bought it around 2-3 years ago. The phone works in there, just not great. I was having the same problem with the D-Link, i.e. worked, just not great. Low signal and very slow.

We hooked up a cable and moved the D-Link router from the far end of the house to the hall (around the center of the house) and I now get a signal all over the house. It does work better since we moved the router. There are still other obstacles between the hall and the other rooms, walls, more handsets, tv's and digital cable boxes but the distance is not as far and it works better.

It took quite a while to get everything set up, but it was worth the time.

[Bearjaw]

Just when we thought it was safe I have read in a few articles that the 802.11a standard is going to be replaced by 802.11g. I guess the (g) standard is capable of getting the 22mbs of the (a) standard in the 2.4Ghz range. That would be nice huh. Heres one of the articles...

http://siliconvalley.internet.com/news/article.php/1472641

what do ya think..

[Janak Parekh]

I never thought I will be so limited in terms of wireless stuff, :evil: just because I have to use a 2.4Ghz cordless phone :evil: .
The one saving grace is that you can set the channel on most base stations, and hopefully you can find one that doesn't interfere with cordless phones.

Just when we thought it was safe I have read in a few articles that the 802.11a standard is going to be replaced by 802.11g. I guess the (g) standard is capable of getting the 22mbs of the (a) standard in the 2.4Ghz range. That would be nice huh. Heres one of the articles...
802.11a isn't getting replaced per se, but many people suspect 802.11g will be much more popular as it's easier to overlay on top of existing "b" networks. The 22Mbps stuff they're referring to is neither a nor b; there are proprietary extensions to b that double the 11Mbps, and some of these are getting embedded into the g spec.

Such is life on the bleeding edge ;)

--janak

[bdeli]

Do not get a Linksys!!!!

I have had 3 linksys basestations break.



Well, all this bashing on Linksys products...I have a Linksys BEFW11S4 wireless router, 2 WPC11 cards, 1 WCF12 card and never had one single problem. Their tech support might not be the greatest of all, but when i emailed them with a specific setup issue i got a reply in less than 24hrs.

I bought other Linksys products for clients of mine - and never reported 1 single hardware problem.

[MonkeyGrass]

I too, can vouch for Linksys... I've had the original wired EtherFast Router/Switch, a 24 port switch for my work network, two BEFSRW11 wireless routers, 4 PC cards (laptops), and an e740. Never had a problem with any of it. My e740 was up and online less than 10 minutes after it's first charge, and has been on (both at work and home) ever since without a problem. Cost me less than $180 to get wireless in my house (WAP & PC card for laptop).

NetGear I stay away from. I've been thru 2 wired switches, 2 network cards, and I have heard nothing but horror stories about their WiFi base stations.

YMMV, as usual. :roll: These are merely my personal experiences.

[Pony99CA]

1) Get the 802.1b WLAN gear and risk interference with my cordless phone...
2) Get the 802.1b WLAN gear and risk interference with my cordless phone...
2) Get the 802.1b WLAN gear and risk interference with my cordless phone...

Just so you'll know, it's 802.11, not 802.1. 802.1 is probably another networking standard. (Sorry, but the same error three times broke the camel's back. :-))

Steve

[mirkazemisaman]

1) Get the 802.1b WLAN gear and risk interference with my cordless phone...
2) Get the 802.1b WLAN gear and risk interference with my cordless phone...
2) Get the 802.1b WLAN gear and risk interference with my cordless phone...

Just so you'll know, it's 802.11, not 802.1. 802.1 is probably another networking standard. (Sorry, but the same error three times broke the camel's back. :-))

Steve

my mistake: :D I was just rounding up the number :D ..... hehehe, j/k.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

FWIW, I've had numerous issues with Linksys in the past, but my issues haven't been with stability, it's been with compatability and driver-related issues. I do have an Ethernet hub from them that works fine.

Linksys is definitely hard to ignore b/c they're the most available and often offer the best prices.

But for my purposes, I've always found D-Link to be a better alternative. In Linksys' defense, I haven't tried one of their products in over 3 years, so things could be different now.