Choosing a Wi-Fi Adapter for the Road

When choosing a Wi-Fi card for the road a few considerations come beyond those already discussed in the home and office sections on the previous page. First, since you will be connecting at many different access points, you want maximum compatibility. Second, since signal strength varies widely in public locations, you want as good an antenna as you can get.

In terms of compatibility, most hotspots still have 802.11b routers, although that will likely change fast as networks build out with newer equipment. For maximum interoperability with any b or g router, pick a top-selling card from a major vendor, which has likely been tested thoroughly with a variety of access points, and gets frequent firmware updates to fix any bugs.

Don't worry about the speed of your adapter. Most hotspots have no more than a 1.5Mbps Internet connection, which any 802.11b card can handle with ease. The key to better hotspot performance is reception -- if you can't get a good signal, it doesn't matter how fast your card is.

To increase range and improve signal reception at hotspots try special high-power Wi-Fi cards. External antennas are another option (many Wi-Fi cards have little antenna ports at the end, check with your vendor before buying to see what antenna options are offered), but they are expensive, usually costing more than the card itself. They are also cumbersome to tote around and use, since they don't exactly fit on your lap. It's simpler to go the high-power route, with adapters like the 200mW 802.11b card from SonicWall based on Senao technology. MacSense and MacWireless also sell versions of this card for Mac users. Finally SMC's Elite Connect Universal High Power Wireless Cardbus Adapter (SMC2536W-AG) offers extended range for a, b and g networks all in one card.

Sony CLIE PEG-TH55

Choosing a Wi-Fi Adapter for Your PDA

A few newer PDAs, like the Palm Tungsten C, Sony CLIÉ PEG-TH55, Dell Axim X3i and HP iPAQ H4350 Pocket PC, have built-in Wi-Fi chips. For a handheld, built-in wireless is extremely desirable, since the chips have been designed to use as little power as possible, have optimized software and setup, and add little extra bulk and weight. So if you are buying a new Palm or Pocket PC, opt for one of the integrated models if it fits your other needs. If possible, also choose a model with an external stub antenna (like the Dell), which will give much greater range.

If you already have a PDA, or need features not available in the built-in Wi-Fi models, there are several options for adding Wi-Fi. Things are easiest on the Pocket PC platform, since most such devices have a CompactFlash or Secure Digital slot that will accept a Wi-Fi card. The Pocket PC operating system also supports Wi-Fi well. Good 802.11b CF and SD card options for Pocket PCs include:

Socket Low Power SDIO
Wireless LAN Card

SD Card:
SanDisk Wi-Fi Secure Digital Card
Socket Low Power SDIO Wireless LAN Card

CompactFlash:
Belkin 802.11b Wireless PDA Network Card
SanDisk Connect Plus 128MB+ Wi-Fi CompactFlash Card (which combines Wi-Fi with 128MB of memory, handy when you only have one slot)

802.11g solutions for Pocket PCs should arrive soon, but will require 32-bit architecture, so will not run on all models. Do check with the vendors to be sure of compatibility before buying any Wi-Fi PDA card.

Belkin 802.11b Wireless
PDA Network Card

For Palms, the picture is not quite as rosy. Beyond the Tungsten C, your best bet is the Enfora Wireless LAN Portfolio WLN0102. This wraparound 802.11b Wi-Fi adapter works with the m100 and m500 series, the Zire 71, and all Tungstens except the Tungsten E. While adding considerable size and weight to your Palm, it is a reliable and well-supported solution.

Support for SD and CF Wi-Fi cards on the Palm platform, on the other hand, depends on software drivers, and vendors so far have not been able to come up software that will work with version 4 of the OS. Palm OS 5 support is pretty far along and SD card drivers should come by summer 2004 from companies like SanDisk.

Choosing Wi-Fi Adapters for Peripherals

If you have networkable devices like video game boxes or Ethernet printers, you can turn them into Wi-Fi clients just by adding a simple adapter called an Ethernet bridge. First you set up the bridge using your PC to connect to it, then simply plug it in to your Xbox, PlayStation 2, networked storage drive, or printer.

You can also use a pair of adapters to form an ad-hoc wireless network between two game consoles, no larger computer network necessary. Some Wi-Fi bridges can double as access points, extending your wireless net as well as hooking up your wired Ethernet devices.

Here are some good Wi-Fi bridge solutions:

NetGear ME101 Wireless Ethernet Bridge

Linksys WET54G Wireless-G Ethernet Bridge

Some bridge adapters can even handle more than one Ethernet device at a time, bridging an entire Ethernet network, such as the Linksys WET11 and WET54G Wireless Ethernet Bridges.