me = wireless newb. help.

[solus]

Hey. I'm looking at PDA's, and a lot say "Wireless ready" and what not - still requiring a WLAN card but have the technology built into the PDA - Like the 2210/15's and some Palm devices. What does this really mean? Like, will these devices have built-in support for 802.11b, or g? OR, does the 802.11b/g support come from the WLAN card?

I don't want to get a PDA if it has 802.11b BUILT into it, because of the new 802.11g standard. But, if that is entirely dependent on the CF/SD WLAN card, then thats alright... I just don't want a PDA that *made* for 802.11b. I hope that makes sense...

(if this applies) When will PDA's adopt the 802.11g standard, do you think?

Thanks in advance for responce.

-Tarak Upadhyaya

[David Prahl]

I'm not a developer, but I do use my Pocket PC wirelessly. Here are my thoughts/answers relating to your post:

--Pretty much any Pocket PC or Palm out there is capable of using 802.11b to get on the web. Only three Pocket PCs and one Palm© come with it built in (but that's not what you want, is it?).

--"Wireless Ready", at least on a Pocket PC, means that IF you buy a wireless card, and IF you install the drivers on the device, you can use that card in your Pocket PC to connect to wireless networks. "Wireless ready" is kind of obvious, as almost any Pocket PC can do this.

--The "flavor" (or "flavour" for you Canadians) of wireless depends on the card you buy. I bought an 802.11b card for my Axim X5 Pocket PC, so it uses B. The hardware is different, so a B card can never be a G card. However, a G card DOES WORK on B networks.

--I have not heard of a 802.11g wireless card for Pocket PCs. They might exist, but I've not seen them. I always wonder why people like G. Sure it's fast, but you're never have a 54Mbit Internet or LAN connection. Most likely you'll be running at 5 or 10Mbit, so B is just fine.

Hope this helps!

[droppedd]

Actually, some PPCs are NOT wireless-ready. Any model with just an SD slot that does not support SDIO is not wireless ready (eg iPaq 1910). Most newer models now being introduced do have SDIO, though. And any device with a CF slot can support wi-fi (although not all wi-fi cards are compatible with all devices).

The benefit to G, as I see it, would be not for the internet but for playing mp3s and such off of my desktop computer on the network; in which case 11-> 54 mbps is a big deal. But i haven't seen any CF cards for that yet, and anyways i'm sure they'd be more costly.