As promised, here is my review of this PCMCIA card which promises
Handheld PC users the ability to access the internet from home via
Wi-Fi, or while out and about via GPRS (SIM required of course).
If, like me, you get one from ebay without the original CD, you can
find the drivers in the software repository at the top right of this
blog. I found them at
www.hpcfactor.com which seems to be one of the
few sites for the HPC that still seems to be going.
Installation is simple, just install the drivers, reset and plug in
the card.
GPRS set-up was simple enough and allowed a strong connection in my
experience. As a bonus, the drivers included SMS messaging, which was
nice and might be useful for some.
However, I had quite forgotten how terribly slow GPRS is. Now my
memory has been jogged, I seem to remember being quite dissatisfied
with the speeds back when that was the best we had.
Even worse though was the W-Fi, which despite hours of searching the
web and fiddling with the configuration I could not get a successful
connection. I had partial success with an old D-Link wireless router
that I dug out the back of the cupboard, which appeared to connect but
wouldn't transfer any data.
In the end, I just had to admit defeat. Discussion on hpcfactor's
forums seem to back up this experience. This was a real shame as I
wanted an all-in-one solution, but to have the connectivity I want I
would have to use the Nokia and my existing Wi-Fi card, which in the
end was just too much hassle when I can just use the Wi-Fi card plus
the wireless hotspot on my phone.
If anyone reads this and wants to try for themselves, I'll gladly let
them have it for just the postage.
So to sum up, if you just want GPRS on your HPC, then this is the
hardware for you. If you want both mobile access and Wi-Fi in one card
then you are probably out of luck.
Sent from my HP Jornada 720
