Proxim Wireless LAN PC Cards

Wireless connectivity with your H/PC

The term "mobile professional" conjures up images of rental cars and business lunches. But there is another kind of mobile professional, one who may never leave the office. You'll find these "office mobile professionals" in a meeting somewhere in the building, or on the way to one, or checking up on a project. They may have a permanent desk, but they're rarely sitting at it. And yet they still need to access important e-mail and other data from their personal computer or company LAN. This is why PC Companions were designed.

Symphony: LAN without cables

Symphony is a wireless LAN for home or small office use. A Local Area Network (LAN) is a group of computers linked together to share data. A wireless LAN uses radio transceivers attached to the LAN or computer to send and receive data over the air, minimizing the need for wired connections and enabling highly mobile users to access the data they need wherever they find themselves.

Symphony transfers data wirelessly at 1.6 megabits per second and is limited to 150 feet of coverage, with a maximum of 10 devices connected at one time. Symphony offers wireless transceivers in PC Card, ISA Card, modem and Ethernet bridge formats, allowing the user to connect a variety of devices together into a single wireless LAN. For users that need a longer distance or more devices, Proxim created the RangeLAN2 product which offers coverage up to 500 feet indoors and 1000 feet outdoors.

Handheld PC wireless connection

Symphony lets you link to other computers wirelessly, and while the office mobile professional would hardly carry even a small notebook computer around the office, they would carry a PC Companion.

Handheld PC users can connect to a Symphony network using one of two cards: The RangeLAN2 7400 PC Card and the Symphony Cordless PC Card. The RangeLAN2 card is the most straightforward solution. H/PC Pro systems already have the drivers built in, and most Windows CE 2.0 Handheld PCs will work with this card, if you install a special driver available on the Proxim Web site: www.proxim.com. [Note: Proxim has recently come out with a device that also works with H/PCs: the RangeLAN2 CE PC Card, priced at $295.]

Proxim does not officially support the use of the Symphony Cordless PC Card with the H/PC, but it is easy to implement and works well. I tested this card because it is the least expensive option available, $400 less than the RangeLAN2 7400 PC Card, and $100 less than the new RangeLAN2 CE PC Card. (See sidebar below for more on configuring the Symphony Cordless PC Card to work with an H/PC).