Product Review: Proxim Symphony Wireless LAN

For home or small office networks, especially those with laptop clients, migration to a Wireless LAN is the obvious next step. No more CAT 5 cables strung everywhere to trip over, no more drilling through walls, no more insanity...it's the beauty of wireless. The freedom to work anywhere you want and still be connected to the network is the future, and the future is now.

Of the types of SOHO (Small Office/Home Office) networking kits available on the market, those that use radio signals to transmit and receive data are the fastest by far, and to fully enjoy the benefits of a Wireless LAN, speed is a major issue. One such solution is Proxim's Symphony Cordless Networking products. Offering 1.6 Mbps of throughput, and components for desktop PCs, laptops, existing hubs, and shared modems, Symphony provides a complete Wireless LAN solution, whether you're building a new network from scratch or upgrading an existing wired-down LAN.

Specifications
Cordless PCI Card	Cordless PC Card
150 foot (50 meter) range through walls, ceilings, floors    2.4 GHz frequency    1.6 Mbps throughput    No hub required for peer-to-peer networking

For this review, we installed the Symphony Cordless PCI card into a desktop PC, the Cordless PC Card into a laptop, and tied them to an existing traditional LAN with the Cordless Ethernet Bridge. Proxim provides its own configuration software which allows you to monitor the status of your wireless connection, edit the configuration settings, and lets you switch between a pre-existing network configuration and your new wireless connection. The installation was relatively painless, with only a few inevitable Windows reboots necessary to complete. There's a bit of configuration necessary after installation depending on the type of network you want to set up (peer-to-peer only, integration with existing Etherenet, etc.), but the documentation is thorough and gives configuration settings for whichever type of network you choose.

Once installed and configured, we put the Symphony Wireless LAN through its paces. The promised 150 foot range delivered, with no loss of throughput between floors and multiple rooms away. Compared to a traditional wired network, the speed loss was noticeable, but entirely tolerable, considering the fact that we didn't have to worry about being tethered to that nagging network cable anymore. File and print sharing worked flawlessly, and the joy of having broadband access while sitting anywhere in the building made us feel like this is the way all networks should be.

In conclusion, the Proxim Symphony Wireless LAN provided an easy to set up, reliable and fast wireless network connection to both our peer-to-peer and existing ethernet networks. The hardware installed easily, the configuration was straightforward, and the documentation was helpful and thorough. If you're looking to set up a Wireless LAN, or just tired of CAT 5 cables everywhere and want to take your network to its next step, check out Proxim's Symphony solutions. With fore-front technology at a reasonable price (not much more than traditional NICs) Symphony gives you a glimpse into the future of networking, today.

About The Author: Marc Robards is a MCSD and Open Source programmer searching for the perfect balance between Windows and Linux. Marc can be reached at marc@wirelessdevnet.com