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Socket's 802.11b CF card
Product:
Type I 802.11b (Wi-Fi) CF card
Manufacturer: Socket
(http://www.socketcom.com)
Price: MSRP $189 (but many websites sell if for less).
Warranty:
3 years limited.
In recent months, Wi-Fi (802.11b) products have become increasingly cheaper. You can now find 802.11b routers online for less than $70 and PC cards for as little as $30. Given this extremely cheap factor, you're probably wondering why you should set up an 802.11b network or simply acquire an 802.11b card for your mobile device.
Socket offers a variety of CF cards for PPCs and Handheld PCs such as Bluetooth cards, scanner CF cards, and Digital Cellular Phone Cards (I reviewed one of these awhile back; check the review page for more) as well as 56K CF modems. Check out their site for a full listing of their products.
If you've read my past review on Bluetooth, you've probably noticed the disconcerting installation and setup process required in order to create somewhat of a wireless network; but again, Bluetooth isn't intended for large WAN but rather PAN (Personal Area Network). 802.11b on the other hand provides greater bandwidth, further connection distances and a much easier installation process for just about the same price provided you don't already have a BT capable unit.
Enter 802.11b with
its native Windows XP support and greater communication distances. 802.11b
provides range up to 1000ft in open spaces and around 300ft within an
office environment (that is about 5 to 10 times what BT can do) and
much higher bandwidth (up to 11Mbps, about 11 times faster than BT).
Socket is offering one of the best 802.11b CF cards on the market. The
card is of Type I and will work with all Pocket PC equipped with a CF
slot (even the Jornadas). The card also features low power consumption
(down to less than 20mA in idle mode compared to other similar devices
running at over 100mA), which turns out to be a tremendous feature for
mobile roaming users.
The CF card comes bundled with drivers for the Pocket PC 2000, 2002
as well as HPC, HPC Pro and older WinCE 2.11 devices..
Now, if you live in the countryside, 802.11b is probably the best thing
for you, as you will be able to roam your backyard freely with permanent
internet connection and without having to worry about potential hackers.
If you live in the city, like myself, you will be able to access free
public APs (Access Points).
I did consider setting up a home Wi-Fi network but since I can almost
touch both ends of my apartment without moving, I decided to test this
card on public networks. There are some major disadvantages in doing
so but I will get back to it later.
The Packaging:
The Socket 802.11b
CF card came with its install CD, containing drivers for different OS
and PPCs (will support PPC 2000 as well), and a hardcopy of the instruction
manual; this tends to be forgotten more and more in today's hardware!
One little disappointment was the lack of a hard plastic case for the
802.11b card. The unusual shape of the card makes it somewhat difficult
to carry around, and it would have been nice to have something other
than your pocket to protect it!
The Install:
The installation of the software is minimal and takes only seconds. It should be installed in main memory though I don't see why you couldn't install it on an SD card for instance (just a matter of having the driver more quickly accessible). You can also find all available drivers on the install CD; copying the cab files to a storage card could allow you to easily restore the wireless connection in the event of lost data (simply reinstall the cab from the storage card itself). The Socket CF 802.11b doesn't include any firmware as opposed to some other similar card thus allowing you to easily upgrade the software required for the connection.
Using the card:
Using the card can
be as simple as popping it in the CF slot and you're ready to go. The
server side (if any) isn't much more difficult to set up; if you've
ever seen a router work, 802.11b is just that simple with the addition
of the encryption key that takes about 10 seconds to enter.
Once the Socket CF 802.11b card is inserted in the Pocket PC, the device
will automatically load the driver and software. A small icon will appear
on the bottom right of your Today's screen (in the task bar). Click
and hold the icon and you will have 3 options:
1) The self-descriptive About section.
2) A Settings option.
3) A Advance option.
The Settings option:
Entering this menu
will provide all the necessary tools to setup your 802.11b card: you
will select the network type (i.e, infrastructure using routers or APs,
peer-to-peer, or ... ).
You will have the option of using a DHCP (dynamic host configuration
protocol which assigns an IP automatically) or enter a static IP address
if you know it as well as a DNS (domain name) server.
Users can also select the amount of power they'd like to allocate to
their wireless usage but also select the automatic option to let the
software adjust the signal power depending on the amount of throughput
desired (this option will not allow you to connect further but rather
manages the amount of data transfered or data throughput at a specific
time). As a note, the 802.11b card only consumes a mere 100mW at "most"
and about 50mW while setup to "least".
Finally, the Settings menu offers you some other cool features such as sound notifications, temporary settings (which will discard presets at next power off), and an option that allows the system to power off while running with the CF card (something that most PPC users don't know! The Pocket PC will not power off so be careful not to leave it on, but also at midnight everyday the PPC OS turns itself on to check for next day's appointments and tasks so unless specified it won't power off at that time and will most likely drain your battery overnight!).
The Advanced section:
Socket added encryption
features to their software; you will be able to select no-encryption,
40bit encryption and the much better suited 128bit encryption and then
enter the encryption key (given to you by your network admin or that
you created on your router or AP).
Note: in order to support 128bit encryption, older Pocket PC
users might have to download and install the MSFT High Encryption Pack
(provided free on the PocketPC.com
website).
The Advanced section also allows you to check for signal strength, APs
in range as well as a ping option that lets you check the network status.
The software also lets you store SSID (used by all APs and routers)
in order to get back to those for quick setup at a later time.
Unfortunately there isn't a way to distinguish encrypted from non-encrypted
networks, something that would have been very nice but should be available
shortly.
Testing it:
As I mentioned before,
I didn't feel that setting up a wireless network at home would be worth
it, so I ended up roaming the streets of NYC, looking for random public
APs. This task can turn out very painful if you have no idea where to
go but thankfully there are plenty of resources online where you can
find public 802.11b networks (such as www.nycwireless.com).
One quick point you have to verify before trying to connect to random
APs is to make sure that the ESSID is left blank or setup to "any".
This will allow the card to scan for all available networks as opposed
to looking for a specific 802.11b network (thus saving you some major
troubleshooting headaches).
I was amazed by the number of opened APs around NYC. While taking a
walk on the Upper East Side, I encountered no less than 40 APs in about
30 minutes. About 1/5 of them were open and could be used to access
the Internet though using them wasn't completely legal (at least without
the owner's permission).
Provided
this, I ended up at Bryant Park on 42nd Street looking for high speed
internet connection (T-mobile has recently taken over the Starbucks
802.11b networks and is now offering access to their customers for a
low monthly fee or you can pay for the amount of time you used their
Hot Spots).
In addition to the Socket software, I was using a little freeware called
MiniStumble
(little brother of NetStumbler); this application scans for 802.11b
networks (any) and reports the SSID of those within range as well as
whether or not they are encrypted. MiniStumbler also lets you add a
GPS to create custom maps with reports of 802.11b access point locations...
pretty cool even though getting it to work was more painful at times.
Bryant Park's wireless network is absolutely free and open to the public.
Using the network was great, speed was amazing; I used TS to connect
to my home computer and check my mail but also PocketIE to go online.
As a note, while
I was using the 802.11b card, Bluetooth was completely disabled by the
OS! In order to use BT I had to physically remove the 802.11b card from
the CF slot. You may leave the BT Radio on, but it will have no effect
but consume more power.
Power consumption was another area that I was very interested in. There
are several other CF 802.11b manufacturers out there (such as Symbol,
which card looks strangely similar, Pretec, D-Link, EZ Connect, Harmony,
Belkin, and Linksys). From those, only Socket, Symbol and Linksys currently
offer a CF Type I card (that will work with all PPCs as well as the
HP Jornadas) but Socket has to be the most power efficient card. I remember
using the Symbol product while at the Pocket PC Summit and achieved
similar results but the Socket card was simply amazing in my new H3970.
I barely noticed any increase in power consumption. Sure this also depends
on the usage and of course battery itself and being equipped with a
H3900 is already a big advantage.
The Socket Wi-Fi CF card also features what is called Dynamic Rate Scalling;
the features basically reduces the thoughput from 11Mbps to 5.5Mbps,
to 2Mbps to 1Mbps as you get further from the AP the signal strength
reduces.
The Socket 802.11b card is the most expensive CF Wi-fi card currently available for PPCs but paying the extra $ to get this trememdous item will bring you great tech support, guaranteed compatibility with almost all Pocket PCs and will save your battery a few more mA.
Upcoming new software:
This is a PocketPCpower exclusive. I've been informed on the upcoming software driver that Socket is planning on releasing about a month from now (sometime in November 2002) and there are some really interesting things that could make this card (or should I say will make this card) well above its competitors. Current Socket customers will of course be able to update their existing software by downloading the new package from the website.
- A new "Get Connected Wizard" that will help users setup their cards even quicker (hard to imagine).
- A "Profile Storage" option from which you'll be able to quickly switch from one AP setting to another... that is really something I'm looking forward.
- An "Advanced Security Update" feature that will list all available APs as well as their encryption level, channels and more. This section will also have some other security features and I was told would be one of the kind so stay tuned for more.
Pros:
- Perfect form factor, fits all CF equiped PPCs.
- Low power usage.
- Fast data transfer (especially for those that transfer larger files).
- Fast connection speed.
- Detailed user's manual included (also found on the CD).
- Great customer service.
Cons:
- Price (though again, you pay for what you get).
- No support for laptops running on Windows 9x or XP (Symbol for instance does offer XP drivers for their CF Wireless Networker card).
- Lacks to display encryption level on APs but this will hopefully be soon corrected with the new software package.
Finally, I'd like to thank Tatia Meghdadi, Marketing Manager of Socket, for sending me this unit for the review. Keep up with the great work.
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