Proxim HomeRF USB Wireless for $39!

[seanthedealliker]

Anyone ever use these? I know 1.6 Mbps is sloww compared to 11 Mpbs 802.11b, but these are pretty cheap. For me, I am thinking about get 2 USB adapters, and 1 Gateway ($160). The Gateway for my XBOX, 1 USB for my wired LAN and one for my kids PC upstairs. For mostly Internet useage, any comments?

Proxim HomeRF Wireless Equipment - USB Adapter $39, Ethernet Gateway $79

 

[acebathound]

^bump

I'd like to hear opinions on the Proxim wireless networking products too.. I'm thinking of getting a PCI/ISA card and a PC Card for my laptop. I had been looking at the Acer Warplink items, but haven't found any info on them working in linux. The Symphony Proxim cards, however, do appear to have linux drivers & I've seen posts on the newsgroups from people who've gotten things working in Win2k/WinXP. I'd prefer something cheap (<$60 total).. which is why I figured I'd look into homerf stuff.. but still looks like some of the cards haven't come down in price.

-Ace

 

[Murse]

Does anyone know if these are compatible with Intel's Anypoint homeRF stuff?

 

[Karsten]

From Tigers Website:

<< **Note: This product is only compatible with symphony HRF product, this will not work with other wireless networking standards such as 802.11B >>


Why waste money on proprietary Hardware, when you get the standard compliant for just a few bucks more?!

To make an comparison.... would you buy token ring equipment to wire your house right now? Or would you buy Cat5 Cable and NIC's anyone else can use too!?

 

[tvarad]

They're OK if all you do is web surfing but not for heavy duty file transfers. I would suggest holding out for 802.11b products which are coming down in price quite a bit probably to make way for the 802.11a standard products.

I dumped an Acer wireless network card recently for an 802.11b solution. It's been much more reliable.

 

[daddyo]

<< Why waste money on proprietary Hardware, when you get the standard compliant for just a few bucks more?! >>



Because, for $99, you can get a package that includes a Proxim USB or PC Card adapter AND an ethernet bridge.

As far as I know, you'd have to spend another $80 or so if you wanted a 802.11b standard setup.

The review at Practically Networked was glowing, noting the exceptional performance of the Symphony in terms of distance/obstruction when compared with 802.11 setups.

Sean, if you're going to buy the whole setup, get the kit and save yourself $20. See links above.

 

[magicbrillo]

thanks

this looks like another one of those "close-out" deals from Tiger. the prices on these & the Xircom USB items are killer

 

[daddyo]

It's been "closing out" for at least 2 months, for what it's worth.

 

[kcobra]

Be carefull. From looking at PracticallyNetworked and Proxim's homepage, it looks like some of the Proxim stuff is not HomeRF 1.2, as Tiger Direct advertises, but older stuff based on some OpenAir standard that is not compatible with HomeRF. Specifically, it looks like the following is not HomeRF equipment:

$99.99 combo deal
$39.99 PCI Card
$39.99 PCMCIA card

I'm guessing the standalone gateway and USB adaptor are the only two products based on HomeRF 1.2. Probably best to call Tiger Direct and get manufacturers part numbers to be sure, especially given Tiger Direct's poor reputation.

Anyone had personal experience with the range of the HomeRF 1.2 stuff? I am trying to hook up with a neighboor and we came up about 30-50ft to short with 802.11b stuff. Wondering if this HomeRF stuff would give me the range I need. I don't need 10Mbits or anything, as I am just trying to share his DSL connection.

 

[Goalkeepr]

You don't need the bridge to connect 2 pc's, btw. The PCMCIA card is compatible with ePods...

I use Terminal Server with my Windows CE-based ePods, and it works great.

You just need a PCI/USB card for the main computer, and a PCMCIA card for the CE machine, and you're in business.

As far as range, I don't know - I only use it around my small house.

 

[halik]

i use this with my laptop and its very decent. The speeds are enough for sufring and downloading stuff from the internet, but when i need to pull somthing off the network i switch to ethernet. For that price its great

 

[coredog2]

The Linux drivers are only for x86 as Proxim refuses to release details without a signed NDA.
So some guy(s) with the signed NDA wrote a module that then interfaces with the kernel driver.

I found that at the absolute ends of my house I would have connection issues unless I wriggled
the laptop "just so". Still, I paid more for my HRF stuff than 802.11b stuff is going for today

I also seem to recall that support for Win2k/WinXP was sketchy. You have to have a Win98
laptop (or desktop if you get the USB/PCI version) in order to set up the ethernet bridge.

Verdict: Good for Linux if you're too cheap to buy 802.11b equipment.

 

[cakin]

I have 3 remote WinME machines in my house using the USB version. If the kid misbehaves, I just unplug the USB proxim unit and he has no NET (its hell not getting radio Disney). I have the bridge connect to my 10/100 8 port switch and I configured it from one of the ME machines. They don't like overclocking above 10% for some reason. But other than that, they work great. I start 100+ meg game demo file downloads to my sons machine for him all the time. I surf the web, while watching tv in the living room and don't see any problems. I even watch video from websites over them.

My son and I play UT, Quake and Pod Racer in the house between each other and never see any hickups, burps or farts. Except he is starting to kick my butt every now and then!

They all connect to the web via an Iwill dvd266-R (dual p3-1000) running satellite from DirecPC.

For $39 I am going to buy three more, so I can put all my P2's in the garage to keep my plants warm this winter. Seeing as how I will have so much empty space in my office, I guess I will need to buy an Epox 8KHA+ and 1800MP to fill the void and crank out some Seti WU's.

Regarding the HomeRF or OpenAir thing, you select which you want when you set it up. Its cheap, it works and I can spend money where it counts.

 

[kcobra]

Anyone got a source for the Proxim RangeLan2 line at a good price? It looks like Proxim's highend business class line based on the OpenAir 1.6mbit standard. A post on practicallynetworked said companies were clearing these out, but I haven't found any good prices on them.

 

[kcobra]

One thing to remember is that the HomeRF gateway will not support the HRF standard and the OpenAir standard at the same time. So if your thinking of buying the gateway, a USB adaptor and one of the PCMCIA cards or the PCI cards, that will not work as the USB gateway is an HRF device while the PCMCIA card (the one that tiger is selling) and the PCI card is an OpenAir device.

Atleast this is what I have gathered from reading about HomeRF and Proxim stuff last night. Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Blindman]

802.11b baby.

They only way to surf wirelessly.

When I travel on my treadmill, all I have to do is slide the 802.11b card into the laptiop and mount the laptop onto the treadmill and I can surf and travel forever (average travel time 20 to 30 minutes). Nothing like surfing when traveling on a treadmill.


= P

okie dokie . . ..

GO OUT AND GET YOUR 802.11B

 

[kcobra]

Well, as ussual, Iwas wrong in my previous post about the gateway, USB nic and PCI nic not working together. After further reading, the USB nic will revert back to the OpenAir standard when it sees the gateway running OpenAir. So all 3 devices would work fine, using the OpenAir standard.

 

[kcobra]

Typical me, I ended up turning a hot deal into a spending spree. I ordered the HomeRF 1.2 gateway and USB package and the OpenAir cordless modem and PCI nic package. The modem looks pretty sweet. For a hardware modem with the added convience of sharing your connection with multiple Pc's, the $99 deal was pretty sweet. Here's my reason you might consider this deal over the much more popular 802.11b standard:

- You want the hardware modem setup.
- You want something that goes farther than the 802.11b stuff (length is yet to be determined).
- You want something cheap that is easy to add an external antenna to (the PCI card, go here).
- You don't need faster wireless, so the $99 for the gateway and nic is a sweet deal.

Also, as someone said, look at the Xircom stuff. I got a powered 4 port USB hub for $9.99 and a SCSI to USB converter for $9.99.

 

[seanthedealliker]

I went ahead and ordered two of the 'USB and Gateway kits'. My thoughts were the same - I really don't need 11 Mbps, and it appears this standard can go farther than 802.11b which is my main concern.

I should have them in a day or two!

 

[kcobra]

I recieved the Proxim stuff yesterday and have been playing with it. It seems to work ok but there are some things to watch out for.

- If you are using the wireless modem, you must upgrade the firmware in it before the latest Proxim utilities (anything after version 2.0, if I remember right) will allow your wireless adaptor to connect. I discovered this when I couldn't get the USB adaptor to connect under XP. The problem is, the modem's firmware can only be upgraded through one of the adaptors. So if you don't have a computer where you can install the earlier version of the sofftware, you are screwed. I got around this by installing the wireless PCI adaptor in a win98 machine and then upgraded the modem firmware through it. Then I could get the USB adpator under XP to connect up to the modem.

- The XP version of the Proxim software is crap. It takes about 15 min after the computer boots up to connect to the modem. During this time, the utility uses ~180meg of memory and then drops back down. This delay in connecting also causes problems when you first install the software and try and get the USB nic to connect to the modem. Also, after 40 or so min, the USB nic just stops seeing the modem and any other nic's. I tried to kill the Proxim software and restart it and it wouldn't die. Another time I did this and XP rebooted on me. The only way to get the USB nic back to talking with the modem is to reboot and wait 15 min for it to reconnect. I am assuming these problems are caused by the XP version of the Proxim software and not the fact that the USB nic must revert back to OpenAir to talk with the modem. Basically, there seem to be some serious memory leaks and bugs with the XP software. I haven't seen these problems on the win98 machine with the PCI nic, although I haven't used it much.

- The overall software seems cludgy at best. A wireless NIC should look as much like a normal wired nic as possible. The ideal wireless stuff should have a backend driver and that's it, except for an optional utility to check the speed and change the access and security measures. With the Proxim stuff, you have to run the utility all the time, atleast to work with the wireless modem. The drivers and utilities for the Proxim stuff remind me of Exceed. They try to do way to much with crappy results.

I will be trying out the Proxim router/gateway next week. Hopefully this USB nic under XP works better with it. I am also gonna see if they have just a normal driver without all this extra utility crap.

Have any of y'all that order the Proxim stuff tested out the range yet?

 

[kcobra]

Update on getting the USB nic stable under XP with the wireless modem: I uninstalled the USB nic and all the Proxim software. Then I reinstalled the USB nic with just the Win2k driver (not the whole utility and software package, JUST the Win2k driver) under XP and the nic is working much better now. It does not loose connection and XP has not crashed. You can get the standalone Win2k driver here:

http://www.proxim.com/support/all/symphonyhrf/software/dl2001-08-17b.html

Note: You cannot setup the cordless modem or the gateway or the ethernet bridge with just the win2k driver. You need a machine with the full Proxim utility suite.

 

[kcobra]

Anyone know what the password is to telnet into the cordless modem? I telnet into it via 10.0.0.1 and it pulls up a password field. I tried the security code that my network was set to but no dice. Also tried leaving it blank but that didn't work either.

 

[seanthedealliker]

Kcobra - So in order to get the Ethernet Bridge setup I need to have a Win 95/98 system to use the correct utilities to do so? That sucks, as none of my Win95/98 systems have USB and I bought two of the USB/Gateway kits (ugh!). I am going to rip tech. support if I cannot setup a non peer-to-peer network with Windows 2000 (using the Gateway). Peer-to-Peer works great with the USB adapters only, but I have wired systems (and DSL) that I need the Ethernet Bridge for!

Any clues here, lemme know!

Thanks,

Sean

 

[kcobra]

Sean: Proxim does have the utilities for XP and Win2k. Atleast under XP they were flaky as hell. You can get them to work somewhat under XP where you can setup the ethernet bridge/gateway. I don't know how crappy the utilities are under Win2k. My suggestion is to install the Win2k software package. Get the ethernet bridge configured and then if you are having problems with the Proxim software, uninstall it and just install the standalone Win2k driver. At this point all you would have to do is put your security code that the ethernet bridge knows about into the properties tab of the Win2k driver. If the Proxim utilites work fine for you, I would keep them and not worry about using the standalone driver.

 

[kcobra]

Looks like the Win2k driver under XP has problems to. The USB nic just lost it's connection with the wireless modem. I had to reboot to make it see the modem again. Arggggggggg...