Ethernet or Wifi Sync?

Hi,
I am thinking of purchasing either a Wireless or Ethernet Card for my HP 360LX (and future MP900(c) ).. Internet Connectivity aside, which do you recommend? I am leaning more towards an Ethernet card, as it seems like it would be easier to configure, etc.. Besides, I do not plan to do much web-surfing in PIE 2.0 .. And, I could always use Proxy when HPC is connected to PC ..
Thanks
Joseph

I don't really know much about this. But if it is an Ethernet card, aren't you tied down to a spot by a cable. Whereas if you have a wi-fi card - you can move around with your device - and even then use the wi-fi out of the house, at hotspots.

Someone with a wide variety or exposure to different ethernet and wifi cards may be able to provide more comprehensive comparisons than me but I'll throw my 2 cents in anyway.

I use both an ethernet card and wifi. I use ethernet at home and wifi when I am away.

I use a Xircom 10/100 Ethernet PCMCIA CE3B-100BTX. It is quite reliable, but probably not the most power efficient card there is. I think the SMC range of cards can do the same job with more efficient power useage. One of these would probably have been my first choice, but 620LX compat PCMCIA cards are already hard enough to get in Australia to begin with, so I'm happy with what I could get.

I get around 2 hours of continuous use time with just battery power and this card. But at home I almost always run the HPC and card from the power supply anyway. I don't have a need to roam around the house with the HPC in different rooms, so ethernet and power supply is an acceptable setup for me.

For WIFI I use a Lucent Orinoco Silver PC24E-H-FC. It's spec'd at 11Mbits/sec which is reasonable and enables WEP encryption. It was easily configurable. The drivers I got from this website, the HPC instantly recognised that a new network card was present and the control panel config was easy to set up and it basically worked first try. It's great for when I go interstate where lugging cables etc just isn't practical.

I get roughly about 2.5 - 3 hours continuous use time with this card on fully charged battery. It's rare that I will WIFI for a continuous 3 hour stretch though. It's more likely that I will use the 620 sporadically all day, only having to charge it at night, which suits me fine.

When I shop for hardware I just want things that will work, no hassles and no stuffing around. I checked out the compat lists on this website, then made sure there were drivers available then did searches for posts from people who used the same or closely similar products. If all these checked out and it provided a good degree of confidence it would work with a 620, then I'd go Ebay hunting. So far it's worked out pretty well.

I love this website.

Do you find PIE 2.0 limiting or just fine?

I find it limiting really. Going to an untried website is often a hit or miss scenario as to whether the page will load or not.

Oh, ok, I see.. The extent of using PIE 2.0 is connecting to PC via proxy via Serial which is very slow IMO

Oh did you mean loading pages on PIE2.0 speedwise?

Well there is no comparison. With my ethernet it's relatively fast.
Picture heavy webpages take a little while to load, but that is expected. Compared to serial, it's no comparison, ethernet is light years ahead speedwise. As is WIFI. The ethernet has the edge speedwise over the WIFI though while the WIFI has more degrees of freedom.

Also ethernet file transfers etc from PC(s) to HPC are lightning fast
with the ethernet card, since it is 100Mb/s compat with the rest of the network.

I would never go back to serial coms for file transfers and internet useage on my HPC after experiencing ethernet/wifi.

Edited by Britty 2006-10-03 11:59 PM

Oh yeah, thats what I meant.. I think I'll get the Ethernet card though, and maybe a wifi card in the future, but web browsing is not exactly my priority on the 360LX.. Thank You for your help

Gonna use it for IM/IRC?

Hey, that's a great idea.. I never thought of that .. I could access #hpcdev on EFNet on my HPC

I've checked several pieces of hardware on the HCL for my 360LX and I see that it says it'll work with my 360LX but the only link there for that device is the manufacturer link and none of the ones I've checked have a driver listed for Windows CE at all. What am I missing? I even looked at the Lucent Orinoco Silver PC24E-H-FC that Britty listed above and couldn't find any listing at all for that card on the Lucent link the HPC sent me to let alone the drivers for Windows CE. I have a D-Link DWL-G650 and the DWL-650 is listed but the drivers aren't on the D-Link site for Windows CE. The downloads for Window XP, 98, etc. don't contain the .dll files unles you install it. Are you supposed to install the setup files on another machine and then find the .dll and install that on the handheld?

Thanks for the help. Awesome site by the way. I just got the 360LX on E-Bay and it didn't come with any accessories or any manuals and it'd be dead in the water without this site.

qsiguy,

If the hardware you are looking for is on the HCL you only need to tick a few boxes.

One, is it compatible with Windows Ce 2.0 devices.

Two, if it is compatible, check to see if the driver is available in the notes and downloads link for that hardware entry.

For instance, the Lucent WIFI card I have is found on this page in the HCL.....

http://www.hpcfactor.com/hcl/search.asp?mstrcat=7

Scroll down until you find.....

Lucent Tecnologies ORiNOCO Silver PC24E-H-FC (802.11b)

Confirm by looking at the ticks that it is CE2.0 O/S device compatible. This is important.

Check the little card symbol in the entry confirms it is a PCMCIA card.

Then look at the Links and Downloads and confirm there is a driver for Windows CE2.0 O/S devices. This is also important.

That's about it.

Edited by Britty 2006-10-04 1:34 AM

I did find all that you explained but when I go to the Lucent web site from the "notes and downloads" link I cannot find any drivers or listing for that card anywhere and none of the other ones I tried that said they were compatible with CE 2.0 showed specific drivers for CE on their sites. Only Windows XP, ME 98, 95, etc.

Went again to Lucent and tried searching for the part number and name and nothing came up.

Edited by qsiguy 2006-10-04 1:47 AM

hmm, maybe you have to be registered to get to the drivers on the Lucent site.

You don't need to get the CE drivers from the Lucent site. They are in the HCL already.

The drop downlinks are available when you pull down the notes and downloads link on the HCL entry.

Didn't you see the 4 driver download links available?

I need to go out for a while. Good luck.