How is the Symbol card?

TomKal · 10-17-03, 10:20 PM

I just won a Symbol card off of eBay, so now I came back here to doublecheck whether it was a worthwile buy.

My forum searches seem to indicate it's basically a Socket card, so I'm puzzled with the price that they are currently going for on eBay. I got mine for $43, but the seller had a batch of 5 and a couple went for the opening bid of $39. One wasn't even bid on.

Is there some issue with these cards that I'm not aware of? It sounds like the Socket drivers will work, but I've read of a few struggles. It appears Symbol hasn't released their own WM2003 drivers yet.

Anyone care to share their experiences with the Symbol?

Thanks.

ikehiker · 10-17-03, 11:15 PM

No personal experience but as you said, the symbol is apparently a socket clone. I know people have had good luck with it and some have used the socket WM03 drivers with it. I don't know the exact procedure they used for doing this but I think you should be able to find it on the site which means you've made a good buy.

BTW, the symbol card has always been available for a lot less than the socket. I don't know why.

I think the best price on the socket currently is ~$120 and they are offering a $40 rebate (I think the rebate offer is still active), so you are talking about half price with your deal.

TomKal · 10-21-03, 02:56 AM

I sent an email to Symbol asking about WM2003 drivers and this is the response I got....

--------------
Symbol currently has beta drivers being tested in PPC 2003. They should be released at the end of the year or the very beginning of '04 pending the beta testing. For now you can use the following drivers from Socket, the card is an OEM version of our card and the
drivers are backwards compatible.

ftp://ftp.socketcom.com/wlan/ppc2003wlan.exe

Sincerely,
Bertrand Dumont
Systems Support Engineer

Symbol Technologies, Inc.
1 Symbol Plaza
Holtsville, NY 11742-1300
Mail Stop A-27
E-Mail: dumontb@symbol.com
Phone: 1-800-653-5350
--------------

Interesting take eh? Socket is an OEM version of the Symbol?

End of the year or next year seems like a long time to test drivers, especially if the "OEM" drivers have been available for months.
However, the message seems to imply that there shouldn't be any problems using the Socket drivers so I can't complain.

-Tom

TomKal · 10-22-03, 02:25 PM

Just an update.

Got the Symbol card, installed the Socket WM2003 drivers and works like a charm. Range and battery use seem excellent.

I suspect that earlier thread about struggles with the Symbol were more to do with the slightly confusing WM2003 networking setup.

I've got internet, drive mapping, and synching all going fine. Next I'm gonna try exploring with one of those netstumbler applications, though I've heard not all work with the Socket. I haven't investigated this yet but anyone have suggestions for one that works with Socket/Symbol?

BTW... I've noticed yet another Symbol card go on eBay for $40. Try searching for "symbol cf".

10-22-03, 10:23 PM

TomKal I was also looking to get a socket but yesterday I won a bid on a used symbol for $21 shipped. I'm glad yours works ok, I was concerned if it will work or not.. I hope mine gets here by the end of the week, I sold my Linksys which I wasnt very satisfied of.
Some people have problems getting the symbol working with socket drivers others are succesful, so mine is ok :)

Cheers for Symbol :cheers:

red-i · 02-21-04, 12:10 AM

just got my symbol card. works great!

02-21-04, 01:06 AM

I have the beta drivers for 2003 made by Symbol... PM me if you want them.

02-21-04, 01:43 AM

The actual drivers are now available at the symbol website.
http://www.symbol.com/services/downl...companion.html
Use the bottom link for pocket pc 2003.

02-21-04, 01:53 AM

Very nice. Thanks for the link!

jb2001 · 02-21-04, 11:26 AM

Symbol make the wifi cf card and socket badged them, thats why symbol are cheaper.

02-21-04, 11:58 AM

On the price issue, the Symbol currently sells on CDW (http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/def...spx?EDC=317706)and a couple of other retail sites for about $180.00. I think the Symbol was geared to be sold to corporate clients (like many of their other products), while the Socket were to be consumer-oriented items.

In any case, my $30.00 Symbol card is great with the Symbol WM2003 drivers!

SDNick484 · 02-21-04, 01:07 PM

I am using the old Socket card with the Symbol WM2003 drivers and I must say the range is impressive. I was able to walk across campus (over a mile) and stay connected the entire way (there is well over a hundred AP's around campus and you are able to pass between them while maintaining your IP). I was using various internet apps the whole way and the client software almost always had at least 3 bars.

ikehiker · 02-21-04, 01:31 PM

Unless it's changed recently, my Symbol card came with a CD that had very old drivers (beta for PPC02). My guess is that Symbol unloaded them cheaply to the sellers on ebay rather than having to repackage them with the latest drivers for retail sales. As xdalaw pointed out, in retail outlets the Symbol cards are actually more expensive than Socket. I seem to remember a press release from a couple years back that Symbol and Socket were developing the CF card together (and my memory is not necessarily to be trusted for these kinds of details so take this with a grain of salt).

brandenpro · 02-21-04, 03:15 PM

I love my symbol card!! Got rid of my $80.00 linksys card, that was junk, and purchased a Symbol for 39 shipped. The range, battery consumption, and the driver rule. I like that you can adjust the battery cunsumption with 6 diff settings. If im sitting close to the WAP i can turn it way down and my battery lasts forever. This is one of the best deals on the net.