Cutting the StringsWireless Solutions for Windows CEby Jason Perlow A cellular phone is a wonderful thing to have especially when you're on the road. It's easy to use and it lets you stay connected to the rest of the world, wherever you are. Some of us probably couldn't exist without them. Too bad we don't have the same level of convenience with our PC Companions. That's not to say you can't use a PC Companion to communicate with the rest of the world. All the necessary software is built into the Handheld or Palm-size PC (most Ps/PCs do not have a web browser). All of the newer Handheld PC Pros, and many other H/PCs and Palm-size PCs come with built-in modems. And all come with either a PC Card or CompactFlash Card slot (some with both). If the PC Companion doesn't have a built-in modem, you can add one using one of the card slots. You can even use PC or CompactFlash card LAN adapters to communicate with a network of computers. Still, all of these solutions have one limiting factor you need a cable to make the connection to a phone, a LAN or your desktop PC. For Windows CE to be truly a portable, you should be able to access important information and communicate with the rest of the world wherever your are, without a cable. The only way to do this is with wireless data transmission. The future is already hereWireless solutions for Windows CE 2.0 devices are already here. Many use the Cellular Digital Packet Data standard (CDPD), which allows cellular telephone service providers to transmit data over existing cellular networks. In the United States, CDPD service is offered by major cellular carriers such as AT&T, Bell Atlantic, Ameritech, SNET and GTE, and is priced at approximately 50-70 dollars per month for unlimited access. Below are some of the wireless modems available for Windows CE devices, with some brief comments about them. Sierra Wireless Aircard 300Sierra Wireless (www.sierrawireless. com) offers a Type II PC Card wireless modem for use with H/PC and H/PC Pro machines. I tested this unit on an HP Jornada 820 with Bell Atlantic's wireless service and found it very easy to use. Installation requires loading a special software driver and configuring the modem through a small wizard-like program it took about 5 minutes to install. Once configured, you simply access any Internet-enabled application (such as Pocket Internet Explorer or Pocket Outlook) and Windows CE communicates with it as if it was a modem device. All CDPD modems are limited to 19.2Kbps. I tested it with Pocket Outlook and Pocket Internet Explorer. I found that disabling graphics loading improves Web browsing performance a lot. In Outlook I saw less of a speed difference because POP3 e-mail transfers take up a lot less bandwidth. AvantGo has recently announced a free Internet service that lets PC Companions and Palm computers download Web content, from over 100 popular channels, optimized for display on the particular handheld device. I don't know whether it will improve downloading times. For more information, contact AvantGo, www.avantgo.com.
Sierra Wireless Aircard 300 Novatel Wireless ContactNovatel Wireless (www.novatelwire less.com) offers a Windows CE 2.0 H/PC based on Hewlett-Packard's 360LX, with a fully-integrated wireless CDPD built in. CDPD wireless service is available in most of the U.S. Contact ships with "Wireless Subscription Wizard" software preinstalled. This software makes it easier to find and subscribe to such a wireless CDPD service (see sidebar). No fussing about with drivers here, just simply unfold the built-in antenna, and you're up and running. If you already have an H/PC, Novatel sells Sage, a wireless CDPD modem that connects to your H/PC with a serial interface cable. (A complete review of the Contact is on page 15 of the Nov/Dec 98 issue. The review is also available at www.hpcmag.com, reviews section.) Novatel recently announced that it has formed an alliance with Casio Inc. to deliver a Cellular Digital Packet Data modem cradle attachment for the Cassiopeia Palm-size PCs. [NOTE: Uniden has also announced that it will also provide a portable CDPD modem, the Data 2000, for its Palm-size PC.]
Motorola Personal Messenger 100D ModemMotorola (www.mot.com), the cellular phone giant, offers its own wireless hardware and service combination with the Personal Messenger 100D Modem, a PC card wireless modem for Windows CE 2.0 machines. But unlike the offerings from Sierra Wireless and Novatel, Motorola's wireless card only runs on Motorola's ARDIS CDPD network. While this sounds proprietary compared to other CDPD offerings, the ARDIS network is the largest wireless network in the world, and is offered in over 10,700 cities in the U.S. The Personal Messenger is available from American Mobile/ARDIS at 800-494-1732 (www.am mobile.com or www.ardis.com). While CDPD modems greatly extend the communications capabilities of your H/PC, there is one major drawback from using conventional landlines speed. Because CDPD was designed to overlay existing cellular networks, the max data rate you can expect from a CDPD modem is 19.2 Kbps, far less throughput than even a 28.8K analog modem. While POP3 e-mail communication via Pocket Outlook is speedy and acceptable, 19.2 Kbps is really too slow a data rate for acceptable Web browsing. If you really want to use Pocket Internet Explorer over a CDPD link, you'll want to disable graphics loading (located in Advanced properties in Pocket IE) in order to minimize the amount of network overhead. Wireless LANsWireless LAN adapters let PC Companion users stay connected to the company network without a cable while they're in the office. Using broadband 2.4GHz spread-spectrum technology, you can connect to your own TCP/IP-based LAN at over 1 Megabit per second, rivaling the speed of ADSL or a T1. Of course, it doesn't qualify as "on the road" connectivity you're limited to campus-size networks. But wireless LAN networks are a great way for companies to extend their LAN's to roving Windows CE devices, especially for applications like warehouse inventory management, trading floors, retail stock-keeping, and medical data entry and retrieval. For more on Windows CE Wireless LAN adapters, check out Proxim (www.proxim.com/win dowsce); Wavelan (www.wavelan.com); Aironet (www.aironet.com); and Symbol Technologies (www.symbol.com). See also Chris De Herrera's review of the Proxim Wireless LAN card, May/June 1999 issue of Handheld PC Magazine. Future DevelopmentsFor Internet access, CDPD is only a stopgap technology it's based on legacy cellular networks and wasn't engineered from the ground-up to carry data. On the horizon is CDMA, or Code Division Multiple Access, a digital cellular technology originally developed by Qualcomm and is now being embraced as the future digital wireless standard by many cellular carriers. The first generation of CDMA, CDMAone, is currently being used on the Sprint PCS network, although it is only being used to carry telephone conversations and text messaging on digital phones right now. CDMAone allows for data rates up to 14.4Kbps, however the next generation, CDMA2000, will allow possible data rates of up to 128Kbps, rivaling speeds of ISDN. Within a few months, Motorola will release a Windows CE adapter for their new Internet-ready i1000plus phone, which works on CDMA-derived iDEN digital wireless networks, such as Nextel.
Motorola Personal Messenger 100D Modem
Jason Perlow (perlow@hot mail.com.) is a handheld computing enthusiast and the President of Argonaut Systems, a New Jersey-based systems integration firm. |
