.KEYWORD whatis
.FLYINGHEAD WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY
.TITLE Which wireless is which?
.FEATURE
.SPOTLIGHT FIGALT cover.gif
.SUMMARY A number of wireless solutions exist to connect your Palm handheld to both the Internet and other pieces of hardware. The various technologies differ in terms of functionality and reach. Contributing Editor Steve Niles has takes a detailed look at Bluetooth, 802.11b, and wide range wireless solutions to give you an idea when and where you might need each one.
.AUTHOR Steve Niles
A number of wireless solutions exist to connect your Palm handheld to both the Internet and other pieces of hardware. The various technologies differ in terms of functionality and reach. In this article, we’ll take a detailed look at Bluetooth, 802.11b, and wide range wireless solutions to give you an idea when and where you might need each one.
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.H1 David’s irreverent guide to wireless technology
David Gewirtz, our Editor-in-Chief, has his own unique way of explaining the different wireless standards. If you really want to know which wireless is which when you phone home, read this fun little sidebar.
.H2 Bluetooth
Stick your arms out. Imagine a circle going all around you, sort of like the boy in the bubble of that incredibly sick Bubble Boy movie. That bubble is the range of Bluetooth. Unless, of course, you’re Shaq. If you’re Shaquille O’Neil, just use 802.11b.
.H2 802.11b
802.11b is also called WiFi, because every serious standard needs a silly alternate name. Remember E.T.? If you want to use 802.11b, you’re not going to phone home, you’re going to be home (or at the office). Remember how they wrapped the E.T. kid’s house (or your neighborhood post office) in a big ol’ sheet? That’s about the range of 802.11b. Everything inside the house is pretty much in range, except for your most comfy chair (802.11b is a bit fussy and somehow, no matter where you want it most, that’s the one spot it won’t work). If you’ve got a large office, center the Wireless Access Point near the middle of your building and test range.
.H2 Palm VII wireless
This is wide range wireless, limited to the United States. If you’re in some place where you’re not sure about drinking the water, you probably don’t have Palm VII coverage. Also, the Palm VII really likes cities. If you’re in a city, you definitely have coverage. If you’re out in some rural location, there’s a chance you’ll be asking, "Where’s the beef?" Again, it pays to test out connectivity first to see if you’ve got coverage before making a big investment.
.H2 GSM wireless
Like the metric system, GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) simply works better, but it isn’t all that well accepted inside the colonial shores of the United States. GSM appears to be a technically better standard than CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), which is used heavily in the U.S. Hey, it’s easier doing metric math, but you don’t see me talking kilometers per hour on the New Jersey Turnpike. I also tend to drive on the right side of the road, as long as I’ve had my morning coffee.
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The benefits of living in a wireless world are made clear to me every time I put my feet up while sitting at my computer. I have to maneuver my feet around the knots of chords and cables and risk knocking something loose, potentially disconnecting myself from the Internet, or worse, cutting the power altogether.
When it comes to handheld technology, wired connections are even more impractical. Technology exists that will allow you to plug your Palm handheld into the nearest phone jack in order to access the Internet. There are a few obvious drawbacks to this solution, however, as you’ll most likely end up pulling the plug on yourself should you stroll more than a few yards from the wall socket, and you can just forget about surfing the Net on the train or at the park.
There are also cable solutions for attaching your Palm handheld to your cell phone in order to access the Internet that way. This is better, but it still requires you to fumble around with the cable every time you want to get a quick check of your stocks or the day’s weather.
Fortunately, wireless solutions exist to connect your Palm handheld to both the Internet and other pieces of hardware. As Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz explained in the sidebar above, the various technologies differ in terms of functionality and reach. Let’s take a closer look at each one in detail.
.H1 Bluetooth
Bluetooth (at http://www.bluetooth.com) is a small-form factor, low-cost radio solution designed to link handheld computers, mobile phones, and other portable handheld devices.
The Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group) includes companies such as 3Com, Agere, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, and Toshiba, as well as more than 2500 Associate and Adopter member companies. Palm, Inc. is an associate member of the SIG, and the company is working to integrate Bluetooth technology into Palm handhelds.
Bluetooth is designed to let devices communicate with each other over a short distance. The most common example is to have your Palm handheld communicate with your cell phone in order to use the phone as a modem to access the Internet. That way you can have your phone switched on in your pocket or briefcase while freely browsing the Web on your handheld.
Another potential use is to allow your Bluetooth enabled handheld to communicate with a Bluetooth enabled printer. You could then simply walk within range of the printer and print data from your Palm handheld without the need for a physical connection or the lining up of infrared ports. You could also use your Bluetooth connection to perform a HotSync operation between your Palm handheld and your desktop computer without the use of a cradle.
Bluetooth could also enable two or more Palm handhelds to communicate with each other without lining up the infrared ports. This would allow you and a group of coworkers to sit around a desk and look over the same data on your respective handhelds.
When I first learned about this technology, security became my immediate concern. If Bluetooth could allow another Palm OS device user to connect to my handheld, what’s to stop them from accessing my personal data? It turns out, that’s not how it works at all.
Say you have a Bluetooth enabled Palm handheld. When you walk into a room, the device will sniff out other Bluetooth enabled devices in the immediate vicinity. In this hypothetical situation, say your handheld has recognized your cell phone, a nearby printer, and your friend Joe’s Palm m505. On your handheld’s screen, a list of these devices will be presented. You can then choose the one to which you want to connect.
Joe says he has a spreadsheet he wants you to look over with him. You then select Joe’s Palm m505 from the list, and it’s here that my security concerns are addressed. On Joe’s device, a message will pop up asking him whether or not to accept your attempt to connect. In this instance, of course he’ll say yes and allow you to access the spreadsheet in question.
.H1 802.11b
IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) 802.11b, also known as WiFi (Wireless Fidelity), is a slightly wider range wireless technology. The best description I’ve found of 802.11b comes from Glenn Fleishman, a writer for The New York Times, The Seattle Times, The Seattle Weekly, O’Reilly Network, Fortune magazine, and Wired magazine. He is also a regular columnist for 802.11 Planet and a moderator and panelist at their conference, so he’s definitely well qualified. At his site, 802.11b Networking News (at http://80211b.weblogger.com), he describes it this way:
.QUOTE The IEEE 802.11b specification allows for the wireless transmission of approximately 11 Mbps of raw data at distances from several dozen to several hundred feet over the 2.4 GHz unlicensed band. The distance depends on impediments, materials, and line of sight.
.QUOTE 802.11b is an extension of Ethernet to wireless communication, and as such is ecumenical about the kinds of data that pass over it. It’s primarily used for TCP/IP, but can also handle other forms of networking traffic, such as AppleTalk or PC filesharing standards.
Basically, what this means is it’s a way for all the computers in an office to connect to each other without the use of wires. The signal range is much greater than that of Bluetooth, but it’s still limited to about the size of the average office. Physical obstacles can block the signal, however, so when using 802.11b, it’s best not to hide yourself in too elaborate a cubical.
Solutions for connecting your Palm handheld to your company network via 802.11b are becoming available. Xircom’s new Wireless LAN Modem for the Palm m500 series is a great example. It was reviewed by Ray Rischpater in the September 2001 issue of PalmPower’s Enterprise Edition at http://www.palmpowerenterprise.com/issues/issue200109/xircom001.html.
But it doesn’t stop there. In an ongoing quest on the part of the wireless industry to make us all go even more crazy, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers has finally accepted a new high-speed wireless LAN standard called 802.11g. 802.11g, which can run at up to 54M bps, runs in the same radio band as 802.11b (also called WiFi), so the two can interoperate.
Ah, but that’s not all. There’s also 802.11a (which, perversely, is a newer standard than 802.11b). And just in case you want to be even more confused, 802.11a is also called WiFi5. This runs five times faster than 802.11b, but it’s not compatible with it.
So now that 802.11b has begun to really catch on, should you ditch it in favor of some other 802.11 alphabet soup? We don’t think so. 802.11b seems just fine, and it’s actually available and works.
.H1 Wide range wireless
Your cell phone uses a different type of wireless connectivity altogether. This is wide range wireless, and the exact form of wireless technology you use depends on both your location and your device. Wide range wireless technology is also used by the Palm VII series devices and the various modem accessories available for other Palm handhelds.
CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) is the wireless standard commonly used in the United States. The digital wireless technology was pioneered and commercially developed by QUALCOMM (at http://www.qualcomm.com). In phones, CDMA works by converting speech into digital information. This digital information is then transmitted as a radio signal over a wireless network. A unique code is used to distinguish each different call so that many calls can share the airwaves at the same time. Fortunately for we users of Palm handhelds, CDMA also has high-speed data capabilities.
This is what allows us to use Palm VII devices or other Palm handhelds equipped with modem accessories to cruise the Internet while on the go. You can check stock reports, read up to the minute news, or do whatever else you might normally do on the Internet with a desktop PC, and you can do it all while riding the bus to work or standing out on a street corner.
Another big advantage of having a wirelessly enabled Palm handheld is the ability to send and receive email. You never need to be out of touch again while on the road. You can also use your favorite instant messaging software to communicate in real time. I particularly recommend you opt for instant messaging over your cell phone if you’re sitting near me in a restaurant.
GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) is the wireless standard for many areas outside the U.S. The reason it’s so widely accepted may be because one of its strengths is its international roaming capability, giving you seamless "same number contactability" in more than 170 countries.
GSM uses digital technology and time division multiple access transmission methods. Voice is digitally encoded via a unique encoder, which emulates the characteristics of human speech, affording an efficient data rate/information content ratio.
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.H1 Which is right for you?
There’s really no need to try to choose between Bluetooth, 802.11b, and wide range wireless. As you rely more heavily on your Palm handheld, you’ll most likely find all three wireless solutions are right for you depending on where you are and what you’re doing at any given time. For close quarter device-to-device communication, you’ll probably want a Bluetooth solution. For working around the office, 802.11b connectivity is ideal. And for connecting on the go, nothing beats wide range wireless solutions like the Palm VII and other Palm handheld modems.
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.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on Bluetooth, visit http://www.bluetooth.com.
For more information on 802.11b Networking News, visit http://80211b.weblogger.com.
For Ray Rischpater’s review of the Wireless LAN Modem for the Palm m500 series in the September 2001 issue of PalmPower’s Enterprise Edition, visit http://www.palmpowerenterprise.com/issues/issue200109/xircom001.html.
For more information on QUALCOMM, visit http://www.qualcomm.com.
For more information on Palm handhelds, visit http://www.palm.com.
.H1 Easy, flexible article reprints
ZATZ now offers a quick, easy, flexible and inexpensive way to use article reprints in your marketing and promotion efforts. You can now get article reprints for a one-time fee of only $200. For details, visit http://mediakit.zatz.com/reprints.
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