A survey of SIMPAD owners

[lscolman]

Hi,

I am having some trouble with my setup, which is a Lucent Technologies Silver WaveLAN wireless card, and a D-Link DI-614+ Wireless Router. I get a connection when using XLobby, but then it hangs the simpad. It is intermittent with Internet access, but does not hang.

Can any other Simpad owner's with wireless connections, please advise on what wireless card and router they use, and their experiences, good or bad?

Thanks in advance

Cheers, Lee

[CaM]

Hi Lee

I use a Cisco 350 areonet (i think thats what it is called) and the interent connection/xlobby connection is always good. I have to take the wireless card out though when i turn it back on and then put the card back in, otherwise the simpad will lock up unto it done.

I have an D-Link AirPlus G+ DI-624+ Enhanced 2.4GHz Wireless Router which i got from overclockers. It a lovely and fairly cheap router.

On a slightly different note has anyone resolved the speed issue with a simpad and xlobby? The simpad works fast when its in normal windows ce mode, just not when using xlobby. My very old ipaq pocket pc works slow in normal windows ce mode but works fine with xlobby (and it has a slower processor and less ram).

thanks

CaM

[Aaron]

lscolman,
I previously used the Lucent Gold with my SL4 and had no problems. Is sounds like your wireless router. Mine is Linksys (have had two different models to date) and had no problems. I currently use a NetGear card with my SimPad and Linksys router.

CaM,
I worked with Steven a bit on the "speed" issue. It seems that it may be related to the screen size. We tried a few things and even downgrading resolution did not change the speed. I do not think it is a processor/RAM issue at all.

I believe it is the latency seen from transmitting screen refreshes in 800x600.

Reason I think this is that I also use NetRemote which has a full client install on the WinCE device. It runs at 800x600 and runs very fast.

So basically, it seems, Steven would need to compile a full client for PPC/WinCE for it to get faster.

Maybe once he gets XL stable to his liking and a few more main features completed he may make a WinCE Full Client.

[lscolman]

Hi Cam,

Just purchased a Cisco card, and can confirm that it works great, but with the same problem, in that I have to remove the card on power-up.

Hi Aaron,

Which netgear pcmcia card are you using?

Cheers, Lee

[CaM]

hi there, i now use a lucent technologies wireless card and it allows resume (it takes about 5 seconds once it is switched on).

xlobby still crashes on resume though.

CaM

[Aaron]

I'm using the MA401... works great. I've also used a Lucent/Agere Gold card, they work perfectly too.

I sold my SimPad and I'm now using a Futurecom Global Neta980. Bascially the same as a SimPad SL4... it has WinCE .net 4.1 and 800x600 res, but it has a 10" screen and does more colors too.

I like it better but it actuall seems to be more "picky" about what apps it runs then the SimPad was. SimPad ran more stuff.

I tried XLobby on it... runs the same as it did on the SimPad - slowly

[lscolman]

Hi Aaron,

Have you tried running RCII from http://www.wincesoft.de on the Neta980. I'm vert interested, as I use this application in combination with a PDA-ir extender card which takes up the PCMCIA slot on the simpad, which mean's I need to keep removing this everytime I need to browse.

I note the Neta980 has a Compact Flash socket on the top of the unit, so I've asked Frank at wincesoft.de if he is able to interface with this socket for the PDA-ir card. What is browsing like on the Neta? Is it quick enough.

Does the PCMCIA network card stick out of the side of the unit?

Sorry about the questions, but I wasn't aware of the existence of this device. Let me know if you decide to sell...

Cheers, Lee

[Aaron]

Never used RCII... I use Netremote (or will again soon). Ido IR only using a server and a USB-UIRT since local IR on WinCE/PPC devices suck and I have much more flexibility using the UIRT.


browsing works great on the Neta... actually a bit faster then the Simpad. I think the video chip is faster too. This is just subjective but I think it is quite noticeable.