The Xircom Wireless LAN Module
The Xircom Wireless LAN Module (at http://www.xircom.com/cda/page/0,1298,0-0-1_1-1730,00.html) is a "sled" that holds a Palm m500 or m505, as shown in Figure B.

FIGURE B


The Wireless LAN Module is actually bigger than the Palm handheld. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Interestingly, we discovered that the Xircom Wireless LAN Module was actually bigger than the handheld device itself.

Setup was pretty straightforward. There's an installer, and you need to configure the device to work on your network. You need to set your IP (Internet Protocol) address, network ID, Network Type, Power Management, and Encryption settings.

Let's take a moment and talk about encryption as it pertains to 802.11b. This technology is wireless, which means it's broadcasting your data all over the building (often with a bit of spillover outside). The data signal it broadcasts is something that a nefarious individual could tap, thereby getting access to your corporate information. To overcome this obviously severe limitation, the 802.11b standard allows for either 40-bit or 128-bit encryption, making your information secure against all but the most diligent hackers.

We could not reliably get encryption working between the Linksys Wireless Access Point and the Xircom module. To be fair, we've found the Linksys access points to be rather fussy about encryption with other 802.11b devices, so it'd be unfair to conclude that the Xircom module is at fault. That said, we've also found that encryption between brands of 802.11b devices in general appears to be problematic at best. It's one of the nice theoretical strengths of 802.11b that turns out to be a pain in real life.

Whenever you're talking about a wireless, handheld device, there are two other considerations: battery life and connectivity range. Although Xircom claims that the device can support two hours of continuous connection, we found it topped out at about an hour and fifteen minutes of continuous transmission. This also depleted the Palm handheld's battery level pretty severely.

By contrast, when we did lots of little lookups and accesses, both the Palm handheld's battery and that in the Xircom module seemed to last almost forever. It seems that if you're going to be using this technology, it's far more satisfying in small doses than one gluttonous feast of access.

Now we come to the key determinant of 802.11b prowess: connectivity range. Since you're walking around with these devices, the important question is how far can you go before the signal goes poof. It should be noted that this issue is often greatly influenced by the placement of the Wireless Access Point and the antenna used. The Linksys device we used contains two rabbit-ear style antennas. It's possible to replace them with more robust antennas, but we just used what's stock off the shelf.

With other 802.11b devices in the office, we've found connectivity to be pretty good. Generally, no matter where you walk within our building, you can access the network. We saw no degradation of this with the Xircom module, and I was even able to access the network from the comfort of my car, while parked outside in the parking lot.