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From...
Networks without cables
October 8, 1998
Web posted at: 4:00 PM EDT
by Warren Ernst
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(IDG) -- New LAN products from Proxim make wireless networking an option for home and small-office environments. Proxim's latest product family, Symphony, includes a wireless ISA card for PCs, a PC Card for notebooks and handhelds, and a cordless 56-kbps modem.
The Symphony family uses the 2.4 gigahertz (GHz) spectrum to connect all these devices at 1.6 Mbps (or about 195 kilobits per second) at a range of at least 150 feet indoors. While this rate is slightly slower than the 2-Mbps rate you get with Proxim's high-end product line, RangeLAN2, the Symphony products are priced much lower: $149 for the ISA card, $199 for the PC Card, and $299 for the cordless modem.
There are two options for enabling simultaneous multi-user access to the Internet and corporate intranets: the wireless modem, which plugs into an electrical outlet and telephone jack and can handle multiple requests from computers with Symphony cards installed, or the ISA card, which comes with software allowing devices to share a conventional modem attached to a PC. The included software also permits PCs with Symphony cards to share printers and fax machines.
For example, to set up communication between two notebook computers, a WinCE handheld, and a desktop PC, you'd need 3 PC cards and one ISA card. With this setup, you could also share the modem attached to the desktop PC so that every other device could go online using a single Internet account. If there isn't a modem available, or if you want a stand-alone modem for the network, the wireless modem can do the job for all the devices.