Wireless FAQ for the Dell Axim
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Manufacturers
How do I set up a wireless network for use with the Axim?
Start here: Setting Up a Home WiFi Network. If you still have questions that are not answered below, post them in the
Wireless Forums at Aximsite.com.
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Can anyone suggest a CF card for my Axim X5?
Based on discussions on Aximsite, the general opinion is the Socket Low Power WLAN card has the best features in terms of power usage, range, and size. Socket has also impressed Aximsite users in being the first company to provide drivers for Windows Mobile 2003 (WM03). These qualities do come with a cost, namely money. The Socket card is the most expensive WiFi CF card on the market. Many members at Aximsite have found very good deals on
Symbol WiFi cards. Symbol and Socket developed the original low-power CF WiFi card in partnership, so the hardware is quite similar.
Another card with ‘good press’ is the
Ambicom WL1100C-CF. This card is generally less expensive than the Socket and many other WiFi cards but Ambicom has also made an early release of beta drivers for WM03. The card is small and has good range. People have also had good results with
Netgear MA701,
Linksys WCF54G (Note, this is one of the few 802.11g cards on the market. Linksys also has two 802.11b cards, WCF-11 and WCF-12, both of which are 'end-of-life.' WCF-11 does not have drivers for Windows Mobile 2003),
SMC2642W (end-of-life, no longer listed on their webpage), and
D-Link DCF-660W (end-of-life, no longer listed on their webpage).
Most Prism-based cards should work on the X5. Shard>>, a member at Aximsite has written a utility that will install the Intersil reference drivers on the PPC (discussed below) and has a list of CF cards based on this technology on his webpage.
Axim X5 users should be very cautious about the Sandisk combo memory/WiFi CF cards. These cards do not work consistently with the X5. I have seen no one that was able to use these with the X5 running PPC02 and, while a few people were able to get the WiFi to work with their X5s running WM03, most could not access the memory on the card. A few people have also reported some problems with the D-Link card and many more have had problems (mostly with limited range) with Dell's TrueMobile WiFi card. Belkin also makes a WiFi card but it has a very large antenna that interferes with the use of the Axim's earphone port. Also, earlier models of some of the cards listed above (Linksys WCF11 and Ambicom WL1100B for example) were larger and will block the earphones port on the Axim as well. The Sandisk combo WiFi plus memory also does not function properly with the X5.
Owners of the Axim X5 should aso be aware that the secure digital slot on that model is not sdio compliant. Thus, it can only be used for memory and cannot be used with sd adapters like sd wireless LAN cards.
Linksys recently came out with an 802.11g CF card: WCF54G.
Before getting the "G" card, you should be aware that it will not make your network connection on the PPC any faster than a B (and the B will cost about a quarter to a third what you'll pay for the G). The limiting factor mostly has to do with the transfer rates on the CF interface.
The only reasons for getting a G card is if:
1) you need to access a network that is only G capable (very rare)
2) you want to run a pure G network at home.
You should realise if the second reason is your goal, no broadband connections (cable or DSL) can match the speeds of even a B network so unless you need to transfer large amounts of data between various PCs on your network, there's no benefit to it, either.
A major disadvantage besides the extra cost (from what I've read) is that the G card drains your battery much more quickly than a similar B card.
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What about a WiFi card for my Axim X51?
Since this FAQ was originally prepared, many PPCs have been released with built in WiFi. However, in the case of the Axim line, each series has been released with a 'low' version which does not include built in wireless capabilities. While it may end up being more expensive to add on the wireless capabilities than to just buy a version with it built in, there are wireless networking cards that can be added. However, the X51 line was released with Windows Mobile 5 and many of the network card drivers originally written for earlier models will not work.
Based on discussions at Aximsite, a few cards have been shown to work- this includes the AmbiCom WL54-CF and WL-11-SD cards, the Socket Go Wi-Fi!™ P300 card, and the Spectec SDW 820 card. [Note that many of these cards are the 802.11g versions. It is likely that other models of cards from these manufacturers, as well as WLAN cards from other makers, will also work.]
Anther prosimsing discovery by a member at Aximsite is that the Intersil reference drivers worked with their X51 and a Prism-based WiFi card. Since many of the 802.11b WiFi cards use the Prism chipset, these drivers should work with any of these cards. The easiest way to install these is with sHARD>>'s Perfect Prism utility.
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What is an AP or WAP?
A Wireless Access Point - this is the base station that receives the radio signals from and sends them to your Axim's CF card. In a normal home networking situation (Figure 1), the AP will be connected via an Ethernet patch cable to a router (Figure 2), which in turn is connected to your cable or DSL modem. In addition to connecting to your WiFi equipped Axim, you can connect other equipment, such as a laptop or WiFi equipped printer through the AP.
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If I buy a brand X CF WiFi card, can I use a brand Y WiFi AP?
The short answer is yes! The whole point of having WiFi standards (discussed below) is so all the equipment can work together. That's not to say there aren't reasons for buying all brand X equipment. Some manufacturers have created extended protocols so that their equipment is capable of greater speeds than the standards. Also, things like setting up WEP encryption using passphrases often does not work between different brands of equipment. So, while brand X will work with brand Y, if you are setting up a wireless network from the beginning, it may be beneficial to buy it all from one brand. Also, if you have trouble in this situation and need to call tech support, it's much more difficult for them to put the blame some other piece of equipment.
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Can anyone suggest a Wireless Access Point?
Many of the same manufacturers mentioned above also make APs. Aximsiters have reported good results with
Netgear ME103,
Linksys WAP11,
Belkin F5D6130 ,
D-Link DWL-900AP+, and
SMC 2655W Although there have been some individual problems with certain models, my impression is that there is not any recurring problem that would justify recommending against any of these.
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What is the difference between just an AP and a wireless router?
As described above, an AP is a radio transmitter/receiver that connects to your wired (ethernet) network. This is a way to add wireless to an existing home network. These devices connect to a router so information coming from your broadband connect can be distributed (or routed) to your Axim or other wireless devices via radio waves.
Routers typically include switches that will allow you to plug multiple devices into them with ethernet patch cables and also serve as a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server to assign IP numbers (an identifying number for your device) to the connected devices. A wireless router (i.e., a combination router/AP) is both apparatuses in a single unit. If you currently have a broadband connection to a single PC (Figure 3) but want to add connections for your Axim and other equipment, a combination router would be an easier way to do this (Figure 4) and would provide flexibility to expand your network easily, for example, to add another computer
attached by an Ethernet cable and/or a laptop with WiFi (Figure 5). Use of a Wireless Router would also be an alternative to adding an AP to an existing network (Figure 2) if you simply want to reduce the number of apparatuses in your network.
Again, the same players have this type of equipment:
Netgear MR814,
Linksys BEFW11S4,
Belkin F5D6231-4 ,
D-Link DI-614+, and
SMC 2404WBR. As with other equipment discussed in this FAQ, there have been some individual problems with certain models, in particular, the SMC router has had range problems with several users.
The newest router equipment follows the 802.11g standard (discussed below. However, to date, PPCs with built-in wireless follow the "B" standard. In most cases, "G" equipment is compatible with "B," but if your main interest in WiFi is for use with your Pocket PC, you can save some money by getting "B" equipment.
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What about 802.11a and 802.11g?
These are other standards for wireless networks that have been established by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc), the group with regulatory responsibility over this technology. Most of the discussions in this FAQ refer to the 802.11b standards since this technology is the most firmly established for home use, but what about the others?
802.11a applies to wireless LANs in the 5GHz band and provides speeds up to 54 Mbps. Access points and adapters are on the market. This is 5 times faster than the 802.11b, however, there are no CF cards in this format and since they run at on a different radio band, they are not directly compatible with 802.11b networking products.
802.11g is the latest set of approved standards and is rapidly becoming the most common equipment for home networks. It runs on the same band (2.4GHz) as 802.11b and the original proposed standards allowed for speeds comparable to the 802.11a (54 Mbps). However, in order to make the equipment backwards compatible with 802.11b, the final standards only provide for speeds up to 20 Mbps when operated in mixed mode. Linksys recently released a CF card and other manufacturers will probably soon follow, but PPCs with built in wireless are not currently available in this format. PDAs won't necessarily transfer network data much faster because of other limiting factor, so running a 802.11g vs. 802.11b network may not make much of a difference to you.
Another point to consider is home broadband is limited to about 3 to 5 Mbps transfer rates (less for DSL) so buying G or enhanced G equipment really isn't going to improve your web connection. However, the higher rated equipment will improve transfers between various PCs on your home network.
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Why do I not get 11Mbps from my WiFi network?
The 802.11b standard specifies an 11Mbps network. You'll notice however, that you won't get close to that. Especially on your Axim. Want to know why?
- The throughput that we see on PPCs tend to be lower than 1.5Mbps.
- 11Mbps refers to the available bandwidth in the air. However if more than one device is transmitting at once. their signals get scrambled together. For this reason they each run a protocol (called CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance)) to ensure that collisions are minimised. But there is significant overhead.
- Most network traffic is bi-directional. So even when simply downloading a file from the Internet there is a steady stream of traffic from the Server to the PC/PDA and then there is a steady stream of acknowledgements from the PC/PDA back to the server. so traffic is moving in both directions, both nodes transmitting and as mentioned in Point 2, they have to take care not to conflict with each other.
So as more nodes are added, there is more potential for collisions. More collisions means more overhead.
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Slow memory, low bus speeds, and narrow data paths also contribute to the lower speeds.
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Can I disable the popup window announcing a new network is available?
Yes! To disable this feature, go to Start, Settings, Sounds & Notifications, Notifications (tab), select Connection established from the dropdown list and uncheck the Display message on screen box and "OK" your way back to the Today screen.
You should understand that Windows Mobile will no longer inform you when a network is in range, but many people use third party software, such as PocketWiNc or WiFiFoFum for detecting and connecting to networks, so the Windows application becomes an annoyance.
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What is the difference between Work and The Internet in the connection settings?
The Internet setting is really designed for a direct connection to a service such as you have with a dialup or when using a proxy server. Work would more properly be called network but relates back a few years when many people had networks in their work place, but only a dialup connection at home. Usually either setting will work on hotspots but if you want to use your home network for more than web access, "work" is the setting that usually works best.
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Is my wireless network secure?
Did you buy a WiFi router and a card for your Axim, plug them in and they worked? If so, your network is not secure. Now, the fact is, in a typical U.S. neighborhood, you may not need to worry too much. There may be one of us Axim owners with their new WiFi card walking down the street just to see who has open networks and then we'll probably come on to AximSite to tell all about the neighbor with an open network and a copy of his income tax return in a shared folder without passwork protection, but we probably won't do anything with the information. On the other hand, how about the 14-yr old kid doing the same thing and really interested in trying his hand at hacking into your system? Do you want an open invitation for him? Don't worry, you can do quite a lot to slow down the kid. Practically Networked has a very good tutorial, but here are a few things to consider. Please realize you’ll need to refer to your owner’s manuals for the various parts of your WiFi network to enable these.
- Change the SSID. The SSID is like a Windows Workgroup in some respects. For WiFi devices to communicate they should all have the same SSID. We recommend changing the workgroup to something other than the default supplied. For security reasons you MAY want to make it something discrete too. Linksys = bad. Default = bad. CompanyName = I'd be careful. Maybe come up with something familiar to you (and your staff if needed) but not too obvious. Some Access Points let you disable SSID Broadcast. There are security benefits to doing this.
- MAC filtering blocks traffic if it is not coming from selected MAC Addresses (NICs). This is another layer of security. If you have stable environment and you're not introducing new NICs on a regular basis then this is worthwhile too.
- WEP: Wireless Encryption Protocol. A weak security system designed to encrypt your traffic as it flies through the air. Typically adequate as a deterrant for home use for pretty weak for corporate use. 64-bit and 128-bit (also called 40 bit and 104 bit) are the two flavours. Be aware that many device let you set the key via a Passphrase. Different vendors run different algorithms on the passphrase so your best bet is to use one device, enter the passphrase and then manually enter the hex information into the other devices. Also change keys periodically. Every day, week, month or year, up to you.
WPA: Wi-Fi Protected Access is a newer, more robust, encryption method for 802.11 networks. It is not currently supported on most accessory (add on) WiFi cards but can be used with many PPCs with built-in wireless and using Windows Mobile 2003SE.
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Where can I find my MAC address on my PPC?
The MAC address is a 12-digit hexidecimal number. Most Compact Flash network cards have the MAC address printed on the card, in some cases it is listed as the serial number. It can be found in the Dell Axim X3i by enabling the wifi, select Start, Settings, Connections (tab), Dell WLAN Utility, More Info under Station IP Info. The Mac address and Device Name are the bottom two items. On the X30, Start, Settings, Connections (tab), Dell WLAN Utility, Advance (tab), Network trouble shooting, Advanced button. On the X50 and X51, open the WLAN and select the Advanced tab. On iPaqs with built-in wireless, look at Start, Settings, System (tab), Asset Viewer, Wireless LAN.
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What is the best way for me to have Internet or email access while on the road?
This depends a lot on where you are traveling, how frequently you need access, and at what speeds.
- If you have a CF WiFi card, you can use
public hotspots.
The most famous of these are the
T-Mobile®
connections available at
Starbucks®
coffeeshops and
Borders® bookstores. Other services include
Wayport and
Boingo,
both frequently found at airports and many hotels. These three commercial providers charge by the hour or through a monthly/yearly subscription, although free sites are also available.
Pros: Fast connection (comparable to WiFi speeds on a home, business or school network);
Uses the same equipment you have for your home WiFi network.
Cons: Limited coverage. While Starbucks® seem ubiquitous, they and other hotspots may not be convenient to where and when you need access;
Cost. If you travel to places where you can use free networks, or even locations where you can use the same "for pay" service regularly, then this option may be viable. But, if you want access at various locations, you may end up paying high hourly fees (typically $7.00 an hour) with this option.
- If you have a cellular service that has data capabilities, you can:
a) use IR if your phone has this capability;
b) buy a Bluetooth CF card if your phone is BT capable;
c) get a cell-2-Axim cable from a place like Gomadic
(these first three options also will allow you to use basic, non-data bandwidth to connect to a dial-up ISP);
d) buy a GPRS CF card if your cell service has this capability;
Pros: Available anywhere you have cellular service; can be more economical, especially if you can use the minutes available under your current cellular plan; can be fairly fast (if your provider has data service available).
Cons: Requires a different setup than WiFi and the process varies with different providers; the faster data transfer plans can be expensive, the slower method may require that you have a dial-up ISP; your current provider may not have data plans available; your current phone may not be data capable.
- Buy a dial-up modem CF card.
Pros: You can connect where ever there is a phone line; generally less expensive than wireless options.
Cons: Slow data transfer rates; requires a dial-up ISP; may incur long distance phone charges.
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What is the least expensive way to use my Axim wirelessly?
You need at least two pieces of wireless equipment to set up a network. As just described, one method is to install an AP or wireless router to an existing network and a WiFi CF card for your Axim. This would be the preferred method if you also want to add other wireless equipment to your home network - a laptop computer, for example (Figure 5). But what if you only want to use your Axim wirelessly or only have a dial-up modem for Internet access (Figure 6)? The answer to the least expensive way in this case is to buy a WiFi CF card as described above and a wireless adapter for your PC (Figure 7). If you have a desktop computer, this could be a PCI WiFi adapter that would be installed inside your computer or a USB WiFi adapter that would plug into a USB port. Alternatively, if you have a laptop PC, you can get a PC card (aka PCMCIA). All of the manufacturers mentioned previously in the FAQ have one or all of these. I have not seen enough comments about any of these adapters to be able to recommend one over another.
Once you have the adapter for your PC and one for Your Axim, you would set them up in ad-hoc mode and you can also set up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) on your PC so that the Axim will be able to connect to the Internet and email through the PC's connection, whether it is broadband or a dial up modem. Note that, unlike the setup using an AP, the network and subsequent connection to the outside world requires that your PC be turned on and connected to the web. A few more details for this procedure can be found in the Alternate setups section of Setting Up a Home WiFi Network instructions.
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What is Bluetooth and how does it compare to WiFi?
Bluetooth (BT) is a separate set of wireless standards to the IEEE 802.11 suite. It is similar to WiFi in that it can connect two devices with radio signals. The differences:
-
Speed: BT speeds are ~ 720kbps, WiFi maxes out at 11mbps
- Distance: BT primarily was designed for short range, up to 30 feet; while WiFi theoretically can reach 500 feet.
- Applications: BT was designed as a cable replacement, essentially to connect devices point-to-point. WiFi is designed to hook up an entire network.
- Simplicity: BT devices "advertise" their capabilities to others, and a single device can be connected to up to seven other devices at the same time.
- Cost: A quick survey of prices indicates that BT devices are slightly more expensive than their WiFi counterparts. However, the total final cost for each individual user will depend largely on their intended usage. Those people that already have some BT devices (BT-enabled printers and cell phones, for example) will find it less expensive to add a BT CF card to their Axim X5 than to add network capabilities to their printer or a modem-cable for their cell phone. On the other hand, if the user wants to use WiFi hotspots in addition to a cell phone connection, they will still need to buy the WiFi CF card and thus the economics will change. With PPCs that have built-in BT and WiFi, the user can pick and choose which protocol is used with each potential application.
- Energy usage: BT uses less power than WiFi, making it a good choice for connecting multiple battery powered devices or from a battery powered device to other equipment.
- Other equipment: WiFi equipment is essentially limited to computers and a few auxilary devices (in particular, printers). Since Bluetooth is designed primarily as a cable replacement, many more devices are available for BT connectivity. This includes printers, cameras, cell phones, keyboards, headsets, radios, etc. While users have been successful communicating with cell phones and other computing devices (PC, laptops, other PDAs) with their BT-enabled Axims, it is really not known whether all the available BT equipment will function in concert with the Axim.
Even though they were designed for different purposes, the lines are somewhat blurry. Recent developments with BT include APs with 100-meter ranges.
Check Ted's Bluetooth Guide for Pocket PC Devices for details on using BlueTooth with your PPC.
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How has Windows Mobile 2003 affected WiFi, its cards/drivers, etc?
WM03 was designed to be more user friendly when setting your Axim up on a wireless network. Time will tell if Microsoft and Dell have succeeded in this goal. In the current early period after WM03's release, some issues have been recognized. For example, most of the manufacturers have not released drivers for their CF WiFi cards in WM03. Current exceptions to this include the Socket low power card, Dell's TrueMobile, and Ambicom (which currently only has beta drivers available).
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How can I speed up my Pocket IE connection?
Browsing the Internet on a Pocket PC, even when connected through a fast broadband connection, can seem quite slow compared with a PC. Some users have found substantial improvements in connections after installing Chris De Herrera's RegKing and using it to increase the glyph cache and the TCP window size. RegKing also provides a hack to allow your PPC's Internet Explorer to mimic Internet Explorer on a WinXP PC, which may allow you to connect to some sites not normally available from a Pocket PC. The website has different versions of this freeware for Pocket PC 2002 and Windows Mobile 2003. This program performs registry "hacks" to your PPC so users should be aware that, while the changes made by this program are well tested, any changes to the registry can have unanticipated consequences and should be used at your own risk. (Thanks to Montrat on AximSite for pointing out these uses of this utility.)
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Are there browsers other than Pocket IE?
FtxPBrowser is a freeware plug-in that improves some of the functionality of Pocket IE (PIE).
NetFront is payware - I find it much better for accessing many of the websites although it still doesn't work for most finacial institutions I've tried. It's available from Handango, just do a search on their site.
Thunderhawk is a subscription service that does reformatting of the websites you access so they work better on PPC.
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Will SD WiFi work?
Not on the Axim X5. WiFi SD cards require the SD to be I/O compliant (secure digital input/output) and that feature is not enabled on the X5. The newer Axim models (X3 series, X30 series and X50 series) are SDIO complient. Of course, many of these have integrated WiFi so a WiFi SD card would be superfluous.
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What are the Intersil Reference Drivers and what are they used for? Why would you use drivers other than the provided ones?
Intersil is a semiconductor company that makes the Prism chipset used in many CF WiFi cards including the ones listed above from Ambicom, D-Link, Netgear, and SMC. Intersil created some very simple drivers to operate their product and to serve as a basis for the card manufacturer's drivers. These drivers allow certain programs that are designed to work with WiFi cards to run even though the full manufacturer's drivers may not. Programs such as Airscanner, Cirond's PocketWiNc and pocketwarrior all will work with the Intersil Prism drivers but not with certain manufacturer's drivers.
Most of these programs provide utility to your Axim with a WiFi, but in some cases, the same or similar utilities may be provided on the card manufacturer's drivers. Also, while Intersil provided the reference drivers up through version 9 as freeware, they no longer do that with the current versions. They have also removed the previous free versions although these can still be found with a little digging.
Alternatively, sHARD>>, a member at AximSite has written a utility, Perfect Prism, which is based on the reference drivers and designed for use with Windows Mobile 2003.
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How can I access my Axim through my PC via wireless?
An AximSite user is trying to write a program to do this but, as far as I know, the only current way is to use the Explorer function in ActiveSync. On your PC, open ActiveSync while it is connected to the Axim and click on the Explorer icon. Note that accessing the Axim via ActiveSync will allow you to copy and/or move files to and from the Axim but you won't actually be able to 'use' files on the Axim from your PC (that is, double clicking a file you see on the Axim will just show it's properties, so something like an MP3 will not actually play on your PC while it is still on the Axim).
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Can I use SSH?
There are programs that will allow you to do this. I have no experience in this technology myself but here are some that have been mentioned on the Aximsite forums:
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How can I directly connect two PPCs?
You can set up a Peer-to-peer (ad hoc) connection between two PPCs (based on instructions provided by JmE at AximSite).
- Windows Mobile 2003:
Go to Start, Settings, Connections (tab), Connections, Advanced (tab), Network Adapters – select your WiFi adapter’s name and set a static IP on each PPC in the same range: 192.168.aaa.xxx where aaa matches and xxx is unique (the same subnet - 255.255.255.0 should be filled in automatically). “OK” back to Connections.
- Select Network Card, Add New Setting (the profile). Make it something like PAN (this must be the same name on each PPC), Connects to: Work, and click the AdHoc box. Select Authentication (tab) and uncheck “Data encryption (WEP Enabled)”
- Make this profile on both PPCs. “OK” back to the Today screen and Soft reset.
[Note: To access the static IP settings if you have the Axim X30 with WM03SE, tap on your wifi meter in bottom right corner, goto Edit Wireless Profiles and then tap on the Network Adpater tab. You'll want to change the Dell WLAN Driver in network adpater tab.]
- Pocket PC 2002:
Go to Start, Settings, Connections (tab), Network Adapters – select your WiFi adapter’s name, tap Propterties and set a static IP on each PPC in the same range: 192.168.aaa.xxx where aaa matches and xxx is unique (the same subnet - 255.255.255.0 should be filled in automatically). “OK” back to Today screen.
- Use your WiFi CF card’s utility to enter the network name and set Peer-to-peer/Ad Hoc. Make the network name (SSID) something like PAN (this must be the same name on each PPC), disable WEP. Apply the settings, “OK” back to the Today screen and soft reset.
The above setups should work whether both PPCs are running the same OS or not. When both are on, you should be able to ping each from the other and use a program like Microsoft Portrait (download the version for Pocket PC, Handheld PC and Smartphone from
Microsoft)
to communicate between the PPCs.
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Acknowledgements:
The details for this FAQ were gleaned from multiple posts in the forums at
Aximsite.com. I'm sorry to say that I have not kept close track of the individuals that have provided many of the answers that you will read here, so I will make a blanket acknowledgement of all the users of this great site and thank everyone for their contributions, both in the form of answers and, maybe more importantly, the questions. I can recognize a few individuals, however: Shokpin, Gigi, Howard2K and JmE each provided some of the questions, helpful suggestions and some of the answers and I am very grateful for this help.
I thank Chris Leckness, AximSiteAdmin, for providing the space for the information provided in this document. Every effort has been made to assure that the contents are accurate. Aximsite.com is not responsible for the contents here. Aximsite.com supports the efforts by its members by providing this space.
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