Xircom SpringPort Wireless Ethernet Springboard Module for the Handspring Visor

Rating:
Summary: big piece of junk
Review: Doesn't work, no documentation, no tech support, nobody could help me making this thing connect to the Internet. It's in the garbage.

Rating:
Summary: Solid performer.
Review: Great wireless range, sometimes better than my laptop, lack of AP finding software can be a pain (ie. can't find hotspots on the fly)

I initially had problems with needing to connect twice to actually get the internet connection to work and resolve stuff properly. Though the upgrade found on intel's site has resolved this.

Great little addition to your handspring, especially the color prism.

Rating:
Summary: User review of the 1130 SWE module
Review: I am a network technician at a small, local college and am on the working group to bring 802.11b ethernet wireless to our campus. Xircom was kind enough to give me a beta product for testing. Here are my impressions in a nutshell:

Pros: - - I'm able to check email (POP3 and IMAP4), hotsync to my PC across the network and browse the internet with the included software. According to the manual, those are the only functions advertised. Occasionally, you'll get web pages that, due to formatting, are clumsy to navigate, but you'll find they're good enough to get what you want. Many big sites such as CNN, MSNBC, Yahoo, etc. are making their pages "PDA friendly", and they're actually very readable. - - Contains a signal strength meter that seems to be pretty close to laptops we used for our site survey (and indicator LEDS). It uses a bar graph, but I wish it had a direct numeric read out also. - - Has three different "profiles" settings, making it possible to have 3 different network logins and settings. - - Supports standard 802.11b WEP security (40 or 128 bit). - - Support for Infrastructure or AdHoc mode. - - Supports DHCP and static IP addressing. Both tested fine. - - Battery life is much better than expected. The manual quotes 2 hrs, and that's about what I get using it pretty hard. Because of the high frequency radio waves (2.4 Ghz), it almost gets too warm to hold for that long! Of course, when winter comes here, that will be a plus ! - - Doesn't use battery power from the Visor, instead it has it's own Li-Ion battery and includes a charger. Charge time is about 2 hours. The module has a software battery meter like the Visor does. And will give the user "pop-up" messages when the battery gets critically low. - - Network Hotsync feature works great. As long as I can login into a WAP, I can hotsync, install files, get new meetings and appointments from Outlook, etc. from my desktop PC anywhere on campus. - - Has power management features for auto-logging off after a preset time period. - - Contains a Cisco chipset, but have connected to three different manufacture's WAP's with no problems, getting the full 11 mb/s. - - Range appears to be comparable to other 802.11b ethernet products.

Cons: - - Had a problem with the included browser software "Blazer", but Xircom sent me a patch to gain a user login. There are other browsers you can use, such as AvantGo and Eudora. I like AvantGo, but you have to have connect to a server that is running AvantGo. It does, however, do a nice job of formatting web pages to fit the Palm screen, and you can keep pages "active" by having them cached on your desktop before doing a hotsync. Also, Eudora provides a free PDA internet suite, that includes a browser and email client, sounds good, but haven't tried it yet. - - A little bulkier than the other modules, due to it's battery and antenna. - -My only problem has been logging into my web-based managed network devices or mapping drives. - -Tends to become a "hand heater" after awhile of use (High freq. RF power dissipation for sure!). - - Also even with the fast WLAN connection, I believe due to the Visor Deluxe's slower processor, it acts as a bottleneck for the internet connection. I would probably buy the faster model (Platinum) instead of the Deluxe. There is a noticeable difference in loading pages.

Summary: I LOVE this thing!! I'm able to sit out under a tree and surf the net, send/rev email, check appointments and put it in my pocket when I'm done. Battery power is sufficient for doing all the tasks I needed to. I would have given this device a 5-star rating if it included the ability to use utilities such as Ping and Telnet... (Opinions and comments written here are of my own and do not reflect my employer's policies or opinions.)

Update 7/21: I have recently found several of the tcp/ip utilities I had desired. I am now able to ping and telnet to my devices. The telnet is a little clumsy with the screen format, but it does work! Both of those utilites are easily found on the internet, or send me email and I'll send them to you. The latest test was the ICQ Palm client, which, so far, as also worked well. I have no choice but to give this thing a 5-star rating now !

Rating:
Summary: big piece of junk
Review: I am more than happy with this unit.

I have used it at home with my LinkSys access point without problems. I have also used it at work and at Denver Airport without problems. Leave the SSID blank to have it work with any system.

Works well with Vindigo and Avantgo, as does hotsync. The included mail program is reasonable. The web broswer (Blazer) is not the most current version, and trying to get to V2 has been a bit of a problem so far. The reviews and comment's I have seen indicate that V2.0 of Blazer is alot better, but I am happy with the included version.

The range is comparable to my notebook PC-card.

One of the nice touchs is that the module comes with File Mover on the module, which lets you use the 674Kb of module memory however you would like.

Rating:
Summary: Not a bad beta product .... beware when using Linksys
Review: I have been playing with the Springport for 2 days now and have had nothing but problems. After successfully connecting once, I lost the connection and thereafter, the Springport appeared stuck. I could reset my WAP and regain the connection, but there appears (!!) to be no way to reset the Springport (reinserting it, resetting the Handspring, etc. none work). I believe there is some kind of incompatibility between this and my Linksys WAP which I have reason to believe relates to DHCP -- but if so, that demonstrates an incredible defect given that Linksys is one of the leading WAP makers in the home market. Tech support on Xircom is practically nonexistent but hopefully I will hear something soon. Tried to install the updated flash but that only made it worse -- now I cannot access my WAP at all (actually, I successfully negotiate the connection, but nothing works). Very strange, but it appears to be a work in progress, at least on my system.

Rating:
Summary: It works for me
Review: I was reading some of the reviews here and I was honestly shocked at how poorly it was rated. I've been using mine for well over 9 months (for wireless software development). I also use it with a LinkSys WAP11(Firmware 1.4g 5) wireless gateway, Blazer 2.0, lftp, MultiMailPro and darn near any other internet-enabled application I can find. I've even written a few apps that work with it.

Although, I know there are some problems with the LinkSys that many folks are having. Just because it works for me, doesn't mean it will work for you. I read on VisorCentral where many folks are having problems. One thing I do know, don't upgrade the flash in the Xircom adapter beyond 1.10 (on Intel's website). I did this and the unit would no longer communicate with the WAP11. I wound up calling Xircom and having the unit replaced back down to SWE App. v1.10. Which again worked great!

I'm only giving this unit 4 *'s because I know that there are problems that were worsened with Xircom's latest firmware release. Other than that, with my experience with it, it's been a great device... ;)