Author: Tim Higgins\nReview Date: 1\/4\/2000<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bottom Line: Easy to install and use<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nbut will cost you speed and $.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Stats<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\nProduct Name<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n\nProxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>(Bridge)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nOS Supported<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\nWindows 95\/98, NT4<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nTransmission\nMethod<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\nFrequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nStandard<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\nProprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nNetwork Interface<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\n10BaseT<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nData rate<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\n1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification)\n0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nPrice\n(List \/ Street)<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\n$399 \/ as low as $340<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThis product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony HomeRF Base Station<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nIntroduction<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThe\u00a0Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>allows you to easily connect your Symphony wireless network into an existing Ethernet-based network.\u00a0 It can act as a\u00a0Transparent Bridge<\/a><\/b>, a\u00a0NAT<\/a><\/b>\u00a0router or both. In simple terms, this means that you can add computers equipped with\u00a0Symphony wireless cards<\/b>\u00a0(sorry, but it doesn’t work with other wireless cards) to an existing Ethernet-based network and be able to have File and Printer sharing and Internet access work among both types of computers.\u00a0 Although the product description describes connection only to high-speed Internet access devices, you can use it with normal dialup routers too.<\/p>\nThe product comes with the following items:<\/p>\n\n\nThe bridge itself with omni directional antenna<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nExternal power adapter<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nUTP Crossover cable<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nQuick Start Guide<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nUser’s Manual (available in PDF format\u00a0here<\/a><\/b>\u00a0– 675KB)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nCD Rom containing the “Composer” installation wizard, “Maestro” configuration tool and drivers.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nProxim lists the following System Requirements<\/p>\n\n\nAn existing 10BaseT Ethernet network. (This can be with or without an Internet access device.)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nAt least one Symphony wireless network card installed in a Win 95\/98 PC (which must have at least a 486\/66 processor, 16MB of RAM, 10MB of free hard drive space and a CDROM drive).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThe bridge is a small black box, measuring about 3.25 in W X 5.25 in D X 1.25 in H.\u00a0 A small (approx 3 in) antenna comes attached to the front of the unit.\u00a0 It’s attached via a BNC-like connector, but the antenna screws on instead of having a 1\/4 turn twist quick disconnect.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSimple Installation<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nInstallation was very smooth and I didn’t even need to consult the very detailed User Manual until after I was already surfing the Internet via my Symphony-PC-Card-connected laptop.\u00a0 The Bridge is preconfigured to be a DHCP client and perform both NAT routing and “Transparent Bridging” (more on this later) between the Ethernet and wireless LANs.\u00a0 Proxim figures that this configuration will work with most network and ISP combinations and it worked fine for me. You\u00a0can<\/i>\u00a0change these settings, but only via the “Maestro” configuration tool that is installed with a Symphony network card.<\/p>\nIf you are installing your Symphony network from scratch, the supplied Quick Start card instructs you to install the Bridge first, so that’s what I did.\u00a0 All you do is plug in its external power adapter and then connect it to your existing LAN.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0NOTE<\/b>\u00a0that your LAN must support\u00a010BaseT<\/b>\u00a0connections.\u00a0 Proxim supplies a short “crossover” cable that you may or may not be able to use, depending on what you are connecting into (this is explained clearly in the User Guide).\u00a0 I connected the Bridge into a\u00a0UMAX UGateII<\/b>\u00a0dialup router which has a built-in 4 port 10BaseT hub.\u00a0 Since the UGATE II hub contains an uplink port, I used a\u00a0normal<\/i>\u00a0UTP cable connected from the UGateII uplink port to the Bridge.\u00a0 Again, you may have to experiment with the type of cable you use, but you’ll know when you’re connected correctly… just look for the lit Link lights on the Bridge and the device that you’re connecting to.<\/p>\nWith the Bridge plugged in, I installed a\u00a0Symphony Cordless PC card<\/b>\u00a0into my Win98 laptop (400MHz AMD K-6, 64Mb memory). This went smoothly and after the third reboot, I launched my web browser and was rewarded with my normal Home page!\u00a0 I then checked Network Neighborhood and saw my other PCs’ shared drives and printers.\u00a0 Pretty slick!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n…but with a few things to watch out for!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nAlthough my installation went very smoothly, there are a few things that you may need to pay attention to, depending on how your network is configured and how you are connected to the Internet:<\/p>\nWhich Bridge configuration to use<\/b>\nSection 6 of the User Manual (Configuring a Symphony Network) does a good job of describing the conditions that may cause you to change the Bridge from its default mode of both NAT routing and “Transparent Bridging”.<\/p>\nIn my case, since the UGateII router was handling Internet access and NAT routing, I changed the Bridge to Transparent Bridging\u00a0only\u00a0<\/i>(the second selection). This got rid of the\u00a010.0.0.X subnet<\/b>\u00a0that the Bridge’s NAT router had assigned to the wireless cards.\u00a0 I then had to reconfigure the TCP\/IP settings on the Symphony PC card so that it was a DHCP client of the\u00a0UGateII<\/i>.\u00a0 When I was done, I had File and Printer sharing\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0Internet access working among all machines, using only the TCP\/IP protocol.<\/p>\nIf this sounds like too much trouble, you could leave the Bridge configuration alone and just add the NetBeui protocol to all machines on the network.<\/p>\nHow many computers on your LAN<\/b>\nThis should not be an issue in small networks, but Proxim says that the Bridge can only support\u00a08 devices<\/b>\u00a0on its\u00a0Ethernet<\/b>\u00a0port.\u00a0 The number of\u00a0Symphony wireless<\/b>\u00a0nodes is limited to\u00a010<\/b>.<\/p>\nAdding protocols<\/b>\nThe installer adds and configures TCP\/IP (and some proprietary Symphony protocols) but does not add NetBeui or IPX\/SPX protocols unless you already have either protocol installed and bound to another network card.\u00a0 In most any network configuration, you should be able to get Internet access from both Ethernet and wireless nodes using TCP\/IP only.\u00a0 However, if you are\u00a0adding wireless nodes to an existing Ethernet network<\/b>, you may need to add the\u00a0NetBeui<\/b>\u00a0or\u00a0IPX\/SPX<\/b>\u00a0protocols to all computers if you have problems seeing wireless computers from wired ones (and vice-versa) in Network Neighborhood.\u00a0 Otherwise, you’ll have to change the operating mode of the Bridge as described above.\n(NOTE<\/b>: This ability to use the non-routable NetBeui and IPX\/SPX protocols is a nice benefit of using a\u00a0Bridge<\/b>\u00a0instead of a\u00a0Router<\/b>\u00a0to handle a LAN with multiple subnets.)<\/p>\nWhich drivers to use<\/b>\nThe Quick Start and User guides have multiple warnings, but it’s worth mentioning that\u00a0you need to use the drivers that come with the Bridge to install any Symphony network cards<\/b>.\u00a0 If you already have a working Symphony network, Proxim provides an Upgrade utility so that you don’t have to uninstall the existing drivers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nOne other small, but important item to note is that the installation wizard walks you through setting up shared drives or folders, but sets\u00a0full permissions with no password<\/b>\u00a0on anything it sets up sharing on and doesn’t warn you that it is doing this.\u00a0 The User Manual does mention password protecting shared resources, but I’d like to see either a warning in the installer or a default of password protection.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nHow’s it Work?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nI tested data transfer speed between a 10BaseT connected computer and wireless computer and also from wireless to wireless computer. Although it could be my imagination (or my test technique!) I reached the following conclusions:<\/p>\n\n\nData transfer is slower between wireless nodes when operating through the Bridge vs. operating in “Peer-to-Peer” mode, i.e. without the Bridge.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nTransfer between wireless nodes is faster than transfer between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nHere’s the data I used to reach these conclusions.\u00a0 I used the same 5.30MB zipped file for each of the tests and rounded transfer rates to the nearest 10kbps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nTest Description<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\nTransfer Rate (kbps)<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWith Bridge<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 [10BT] to Laptop [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n141<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n170<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nLaptop to Desktop 2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n250<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWithout Bridge<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop1 [Wireless] to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nNOTES<\/b>:\n1) A Symphony PCI card was added to “Desktop 1”, its 10BaseT connection was disconnected, the Bridge was powered down, and the regular (non-Bridge) drivers were installed on Desktop 2 for the “Without Bridge” tests.\n2) “Laptop”‘s antenna was about 3 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n3) “Desktop 2″‘s antenna was about 10 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n4) “Desktop 1” and “Desktop 2″‘s antennas were located about 10 feet apart.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis data says that you take a\u00a060% hit<\/b>\u00a0in transfer speed when operating\u00a0wireless<\/i>\u00a0nodes through the bridge (vs. Peer-to-Peer) and can\u00a0lose up to 70%<\/b>\u00a0of transfer speed going between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSummary<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThe Bridge is easy to use and solves a problem that would otherwise require fairly advanced networking skills.\u00a0 Although the cost is probably more than you’d want to spend, it’s significantly lower than competitive products (which are geared toward corporate use).<\/p>\nIt’s clear that Proxim has put quality work into the Symphony product line.\u00a0 The documentation is tops, the software is well done, the support Web site contains useful information, and you even get a utility that tells you something about the quality of your wireless connection (something I’d like to see as standard for all wireless and maybe even phoneline networking kits). Unfortunately, using the Bridge will slow your Symphony network significantly, even if you aren’t transferring data between the wired and wireless portions of your network.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Author: Tim Higgins Review Date: 1\/4\/2000 Bottom Line: Easy to install and use but will cost you speed and $. The Stats Product Name Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge\u00a0\u00a0(Bridge) OS Supported Windows 95\/98, NT4 Transmission Method Frequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS) Standard Proprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards. Network Interface 10BaseT Data rate 1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification) 0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured) Price (List \/ Street) $399 \/ as low as $340 This product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
but will cost you speed and $.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Stats<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\nProduct Name<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n\nProxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>(Bridge)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nOS Supported<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\nWindows 95\/98, NT4<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nTransmission\nMethod<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\nFrequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nStandard<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\nProprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nNetwork Interface<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\n10BaseT<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nData rate<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\n1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification)\n0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nPrice\n(List \/ Street)<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\n$399 \/ as low as $340<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThis product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony HomeRF Base Station<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nIntroduction<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThe\u00a0Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>allows you to easily connect your Symphony wireless network into an existing Ethernet-based network.\u00a0 It can act as a\u00a0Transparent Bridge<\/a><\/b>, a\u00a0NAT<\/a><\/b>\u00a0router or both. In simple terms, this means that you can add computers equipped with\u00a0Symphony wireless cards<\/b>\u00a0(sorry, but it doesn’t work with other wireless cards) to an existing Ethernet-based network and be able to have File and Printer sharing and Internet access work among both types of computers.\u00a0 Although the product description describes connection only to high-speed Internet access devices, you can use it with normal dialup routers too.<\/p>\nThe product comes with the following items:<\/p>\n\n\nThe bridge itself with omni directional antenna<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nExternal power adapter<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nUTP Crossover cable<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nQuick Start Guide<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nUser’s Manual (available in PDF format\u00a0here<\/a><\/b>\u00a0– 675KB)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nCD Rom containing the “Composer” installation wizard, “Maestro” configuration tool and drivers.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nProxim lists the following System Requirements<\/p>\n\n\nAn existing 10BaseT Ethernet network. (This can be with or without an Internet access device.)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nAt least one Symphony wireless network card installed in a Win 95\/98 PC (which must have at least a 486\/66 processor, 16MB of RAM, 10MB of free hard drive space and a CDROM drive).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThe bridge is a small black box, measuring about 3.25 in W X 5.25 in D X 1.25 in H.\u00a0 A small (approx 3 in) antenna comes attached to the front of the unit.\u00a0 It’s attached via a BNC-like connector, but the antenna screws on instead of having a 1\/4 turn twist quick disconnect.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSimple Installation<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nInstallation was very smooth and I didn’t even need to consult the very detailed User Manual until after I was already surfing the Internet via my Symphony-PC-Card-connected laptop.\u00a0 The Bridge is preconfigured to be a DHCP client and perform both NAT routing and “Transparent Bridging” (more on this later) between the Ethernet and wireless LANs.\u00a0 Proxim figures that this configuration will work with most network and ISP combinations and it worked fine for me. You\u00a0can<\/i>\u00a0change these settings, but only via the “Maestro” configuration tool that is installed with a Symphony network card.<\/p>\nIf you are installing your Symphony network from scratch, the supplied Quick Start card instructs you to install the Bridge first, so that’s what I did.\u00a0 All you do is plug in its external power adapter and then connect it to your existing LAN.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0NOTE<\/b>\u00a0that your LAN must support\u00a010BaseT<\/b>\u00a0connections.\u00a0 Proxim supplies a short “crossover” cable that you may or may not be able to use, depending on what you are connecting into (this is explained clearly in the User Guide).\u00a0 I connected the Bridge into a\u00a0UMAX UGateII<\/b>\u00a0dialup router which has a built-in 4 port 10BaseT hub.\u00a0 Since the UGATE II hub contains an uplink port, I used a\u00a0normal<\/i>\u00a0UTP cable connected from the UGateII uplink port to the Bridge.\u00a0 Again, you may have to experiment with the type of cable you use, but you’ll know when you’re connected correctly… just look for the lit Link lights on the Bridge and the device that you’re connecting to.<\/p>\nWith the Bridge plugged in, I installed a\u00a0Symphony Cordless PC card<\/b>\u00a0into my Win98 laptop (400MHz AMD K-6, 64Mb memory). This went smoothly and after the third reboot, I launched my web browser and was rewarded with my normal Home page!\u00a0 I then checked Network Neighborhood and saw my other PCs’ shared drives and printers.\u00a0 Pretty slick!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n…but with a few things to watch out for!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nAlthough my installation went very smoothly, there are a few things that you may need to pay attention to, depending on how your network is configured and how you are connected to the Internet:<\/p>\nWhich Bridge configuration to use<\/b>\nSection 6 of the User Manual (Configuring a Symphony Network) does a good job of describing the conditions that may cause you to change the Bridge from its default mode of both NAT routing and “Transparent Bridging”.<\/p>\nIn my case, since the UGateII router was handling Internet access and NAT routing, I changed the Bridge to Transparent Bridging\u00a0only\u00a0<\/i>(the second selection). This got rid of the\u00a010.0.0.X subnet<\/b>\u00a0that the Bridge’s NAT router had assigned to the wireless cards.\u00a0 I then had to reconfigure the TCP\/IP settings on the Symphony PC card so that it was a DHCP client of the\u00a0UGateII<\/i>.\u00a0 When I was done, I had File and Printer sharing\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0Internet access working among all machines, using only the TCP\/IP protocol.<\/p>\nIf this sounds like too much trouble, you could leave the Bridge configuration alone and just add the NetBeui protocol to all machines on the network.<\/p>\nHow many computers on your LAN<\/b>\nThis should not be an issue in small networks, but Proxim says that the Bridge can only support\u00a08 devices<\/b>\u00a0on its\u00a0Ethernet<\/b>\u00a0port.\u00a0 The number of\u00a0Symphony wireless<\/b>\u00a0nodes is limited to\u00a010<\/b>.<\/p>\nAdding protocols<\/b>\nThe installer adds and configures TCP\/IP (and some proprietary Symphony protocols) but does not add NetBeui or IPX\/SPX protocols unless you already have either protocol installed and bound to another network card.\u00a0 In most any network configuration, you should be able to get Internet access from both Ethernet and wireless nodes using TCP\/IP only.\u00a0 However, if you are\u00a0adding wireless nodes to an existing Ethernet network<\/b>, you may need to add the\u00a0NetBeui<\/b>\u00a0or\u00a0IPX\/SPX<\/b>\u00a0protocols to all computers if you have problems seeing wireless computers from wired ones (and vice-versa) in Network Neighborhood.\u00a0 Otherwise, you’ll have to change the operating mode of the Bridge as described above.\n(NOTE<\/b>: This ability to use the non-routable NetBeui and IPX\/SPX protocols is a nice benefit of using a\u00a0Bridge<\/b>\u00a0instead of a\u00a0Router<\/b>\u00a0to handle a LAN with multiple subnets.)<\/p>\nWhich drivers to use<\/b>\nThe Quick Start and User guides have multiple warnings, but it’s worth mentioning that\u00a0you need to use the drivers that come with the Bridge to install any Symphony network cards<\/b>.\u00a0 If you already have a working Symphony network, Proxim provides an Upgrade utility so that you don’t have to uninstall the existing drivers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nOne other small, but important item to note is that the installation wizard walks you through setting up shared drives or folders, but sets\u00a0full permissions with no password<\/b>\u00a0on anything it sets up sharing on and doesn’t warn you that it is doing this.\u00a0 The User Manual does mention password protecting shared resources, but I’d like to see either a warning in the installer or a default of password protection.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nHow’s it Work?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nI tested data transfer speed between a 10BaseT connected computer and wireless computer and also from wireless to wireless computer. Although it could be my imagination (or my test technique!) I reached the following conclusions:<\/p>\n\n\nData transfer is slower between wireless nodes when operating through the Bridge vs. operating in “Peer-to-Peer” mode, i.e. without the Bridge.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nTransfer between wireless nodes is faster than transfer between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nHere’s the data I used to reach these conclusions.\u00a0 I used the same 5.30MB zipped file for each of the tests and rounded transfer rates to the nearest 10kbps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nTest Description<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\nTransfer Rate (kbps)<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWith Bridge<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 [10BT] to Laptop [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n141<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n170<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nLaptop to Desktop 2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n250<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWithout Bridge<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop1 [Wireless] to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nNOTES<\/b>:\n1) A Symphony PCI card was added to “Desktop 1”, its 10BaseT connection was disconnected, the Bridge was powered down, and the regular (non-Bridge) drivers were installed on Desktop 2 for the “Without Bridge” tests.\n2) “Laptop”‘s antenna was about 3 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n3) “Desktop 2″‘s antenna was about 10 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n4) “Desktop 1” and “Desktop 2″‘s antennas were located about 10 feet apart.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis data says that you take a\u00a060% hit<\/b>\u00a0in transfer speed when operating\u00a0wireless<\/i>\u00a0nodes through the bridge (vs. Peer-to-Peer) and can\u00a0lose up to 70%<\/b>\u00a0of transfer speed going between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSummary<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThe Bridge is easy to use and solves a problem that would otherwise require fairly advanced networking skills.\u00a0 Although the cost is probably more than you’d want to spend, it’s significantly lower than competitive products (which are geared toward corporate use).<\/p>\nIt’s clear that Proxim has put quality work into the Symphony product line.\u00a0 The documentation is tops, the software is well done, the support Web site contains useful information, and you even get a utility that tells you something about the quality of your wireless connection (something I’d like to see as standard for all wireless and maybe even phoneline networking kits). Unfortunately, using the Bridge will slow your Symphony network significantly, even if you aren’t transferring data between the wired and wireless portions of your network.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Author: Tim Higgins Review Date: 1\/4\/2000 Bottom Line: Easy to install and use but will cost you speed and $. The Stats Product Name Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge\u00a0\u00a0(Bridge) OS Supported Windows 95\/98, NT4 Transmission Method Frequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS) Standard Proprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards. Network Interface 10BaseT Data rate 1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification) 0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured) Price (List \/ Street) $399 \/ as low as $340 This product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The Stats<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\nProduct Name<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n\nProxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>(Bridge)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nOS Supported<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\nWindows 95\/98, NT4<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nTransmission\nMethod<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\nFrequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nStandard<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\nProprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nNetwork Interface<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\n10BaseT<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nData rate<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\n1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification)\n0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nPrice\n(List \/ Street)<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\n$399 \/ as low as $340<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThis product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony HomeRF Base Station<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nIntroduction<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThe\u00a0Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>allows you to easily connect your Symphony wireless network into an existing Ethernet-based network.\u00a0 It can act as a\u00a0Transparent Bridge<\/a><\/b>, a\u00a0NAT<\/a><\/b>\u00a0router or both. In simple terms, this means that you can add computers equipped with\u00a0Symphony wireless cards<\/b>\u00a0(sorry, but it doesn’t work with other wireless cards) to an existing Ethernet-based network and be able to have File and Printer sharing and Internet access work among both types of computers.\u00a0 Although the product description describes connection only to high-speed Internet access devices, you can use it with normal dialup routers too.<\/p>\nThe product comes with the following items:<\/p>\n\n\nThe bridge itself with omni directional antenna<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nExternal power adapter<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nUTP Crossover cable<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nQuick Start Guide<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nUser’s Manual (available in PDF format\u00a0here<\/a><\/b>\u00a0– 675KB)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nCD Rom containing the “Composer” installation wizard, “Maestro” configuration tool and drivers.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nProxim lists the following System Requirements<\/p>\n\n\nAn existing 10BaseT Ethernet network. (This can be with or without an Internet access device.)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nAt least one Symphony wireless network card installed in a Win 95\/98 PC (which must have at least a 486\/66 processor, 16MB of RAM, 10MB of free hard drive space and a CDROM drive).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThe bridge is a small black box, measuring about 3.25 in W X 5.25 in D X 1.25 in H.\u00a0 A small (approx 3 in) antenna comes attached to the front of the unit.\u00a0 It’s attached via a BNC-like connector, but the antenna screws on instead of having a 1\/4 turn twist quick disconnect.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSimple Installation<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nInstallation was very smooth and I didn’t even need to consult the very detailed User Manual until after I was already surfing the Internet via my Symphony-PC-Card-connected laptop.\u00a0 The Bridge is preconfigured to be a DHCP client and perform both NAT routing and “Transparent Bridging” (more on this later) between the Ethernet and wireless LANs.\u00a0 Proxim figures that this configuration will work with most network and ISP combinations and it worked fine for me. You\u00a0can<\/i>\u00a0change these settings, but only via the “Maestro” configuration tool that is installed with a Symphony network card.<\/p>\nIf you are installing your Symphony network from scratch, the supplied Quick Start card instructs you to install the Bridge first, so that’s what I did.\u00a0 All you do is plug in its external power adapter and then connect it to your existing LAN.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0NOTE<\/b>\u00a0that your LAN must support\u00a010BaseT<\/b>\u00a0connections.\u00a0 Proxim supplies a short “crossover” cable that you may or may not be able to use, depending on what you are connecting into (this is explained clearly in the User Guide).\u00a0 I connected the Bridge into a\u00a0UMAX UGateII<\/b>\u00a0dialup router which has a built-in 4 port 10BaseT hub.\u00a0 Since the UGATE II hub contains an uplink port, I used a\u00a0normal<\/i>\u00a0UTP cable connected from the UGateII uplink port to the Bridge.\u00a0 Again, you may have to experiment with the type of cable you use, but you’ll know when you’re connected correctly… just look for the lit Link lights on the Bridge and the device that you’re connecting to.<\/p>\nWith the Bridge plugged in, I installed a\u00a0Symphony Cordless PC card<\/b>\u00a0into my Win98 laptop (400MHz AMD K-6, 64Mb memory). This went smoothly and after the third reboot, I launched my web browser and was rewarded with my normal Home page!\u00a0 I then checked Network Neighborhood and saw my other PCs’ shared drives and printers.\u00a0 Pretty slick!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n…but with a few things to watch out for!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nAlthough my installation went very smoothly, there are a few things that you may need to pay attention to, depending on how your network is configured and how you are connected to the Internet:<\/p>\nWhich Bridge configuration to use<\/b>\nSection 6 of the User Manual (Configuring a Symphony Network) does a good job of describing the conditions that may cause you to change the Bridge from its default mode of both NAT routing and “Transparent Bridging”.<\/p>\nIn my case, since the UGateII router was handling Internet access and NAT routing, I changed the Bridge to Transparent Bridging\u00a0only\u00a0<\/i>(the second selection). This got rid of the\u00a010.0.0.X subnet<\/b>\u00a0that the Bridge’s NAT router had assigned to the wireless cards.\u00a0 I then had to reconfigure the TCP\/IP settings on the Symphony PC card so that it was a DHCP client of the\u00a0UGateII<\/i>.\u00a0 When I was done, I had File and Printer sharing\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0Internet access working among all machines, using only the TCP\/IP protocol.<\/p>\nIf this sounds like too much trouble, you could leave the Bridge configuration alone and just add the NetBeui protocol to all machines on the network.<\/p>\nHow many computers on your LAN<\/b>\nThis should not be an issue in small networks, but Proxim says that the Bridge can only support\u00a08 devices<\/b>\u00a0on its\u00a0Ethernet<\/b>\u00a0port.\u00a0 The number of\u00a0Symphony wireless<\/b>\u00a0nodes is limited to\u00a010<\/b>.<\/p>\nAdding protocols<\/b>\nThe installer adds and configures TCP\/IP (and some proprietary Symphony protocols) but does not add NetBeui or IPX\/SPX protocols unless you already have either protocol installed and bound to another network card.\u00a0 In most any network configuration, you should be able to get Internet access from both Ethernet and wireless nodes using TCP\/IP only.\u00a0 However, if you are\u00a0adding wireless nodes to an existing Ethernet network<\/b>, you may need to add the\u00a0NetBeui<\/b>\u00a0or\u00a0IPX\/SPX<\/b>\u00a0protocols to all computers if you have problems seeing wireless computers from wired ones (and vice-versa) in Network Neighborhood.\u00a0 Otherwise, you’ll have to change the operating mode of the Bridge as described above.\n(NOTE<\/b>: This ability to use the non-routable NetBeui and IPX\/SPX protocols is a nice benefit of using a\u00a0Bridge<\/b>\u00a0instead of a\u00a0Router<\/b>\u00a0to handle a LAN with multiple subnets.)<\/p>\nWhich drivers to use<\/b>\nThe Quick Start and User guides have multiple warnings, but it’s worth mentioning that\u00a0you need to use the drivers that come with the Bridge to install any Symphony network cards<\/b>.\u00a0 If you already have a working Symphony network, Proxim provides an Upgrade utility so that you don’t have to uninstall the existing drivers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nOne other small, but important item to note is that the installation wizard walks you through setting up shared drives or folders, but sets\u00a0full permissions with no password<\/b>\u00a0on anything it sets up sharing on and doesn’t warn you that it is doing this.\u00a0 The User Manual does mention password protecting shared resources, but I’d like to see either a warning in the installer or a default of password protection.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nHow’s it Work?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nI tested data transfer speed between a 10BaseT connected computer and wireless computer and also from wireless to wireless computer. Although it could be my imagination (or my test technique!) I reached the following conclusions:<\/p>\n\n\nData transfer is slower between wireless nodes when operating through the Bridge vs. operating in “Peer-to-Peer” mode, i.e. without the Bridge.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nTransfer between wireless nodes is faster than transfer between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nHere’s the data I used to reach these conclusions.\u00a0 I used the same 5.30MB zipped file for each of the tests and rounded transfer rates to the nearest 10kbps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nTest Description<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\nTransfer Rate (kbps)<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWith Bridge<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 [10BT] to Laptop [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n141<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n170<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nLaptop to Desktop 2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n250<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWithout Bridge<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop1 [Wireless] to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nNOTES<\/b>:\n1) A Symphony PCI card was added to “Desktop 1”, its 10BaseT connection was disconnected, the Bridge was powered down, and the regular (non-Bridge) drivers were installed on Desktop 2 for the “Without Bridge” tests.\n2) “Laptop”‘s antenna was about 3 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n3) “Desktop 2″‘s antenna was about 10 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n4) “Desktop 1” and “Desktop 2″‘s antennas were located about 10 feet apart.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis data says that you take a\u00a060% hit<\/b>\u00a0in transfer speed when operating\u00a0wireless<\/i>\u00a0nodes through the bridge (vs. Peer-to-Peer) and can\u00a0lose up to 70%<\/b>\u00a0of transfer speed going between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSummary<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThe Bridge is easy to use and solves a problem that would otherwise require fairly advanced networking skills.\u00a0 Although the cost is probably more than you’d want to spend, it’s significantly lower than competitive products (which are geared toward corporate use).<\/p>\nIt’s clear that Proxim has put quality work into the Symphony product line.\u00a0 The documentation is tops, the software is well done, the support Web site contains useful information, and you even get a utility that tells you something about the quality of your wireless connection (something I’d like to see as standard for all wireless and maybe even phoneline networking kits). Unfortunately, using the Bridge will slow your Symphony network significantly, even if you aren’t transferring data between the wired and wireless portions of your network.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Author: Tim Higgins Review Date: 1\/4\/2000 Bottom Line: Easy to install and use but will cost you speed and $. The Stats Product Name Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge\u00a0\u00a0(Bridge) OS Supported Windows 95\/98, NT4 Transmission Method Frequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS) Standard Proprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards. Network Interface 10BaseT Data rate 1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification) 0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured) Price (List \/ Street) $399 \/ as low as $340 This product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>(Bridge)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nOS Supported<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\nWindows 95\/98, NT4<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nTransmission\nMethod<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\nFrequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nStandard<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\nProprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nNetwork Interface<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\n10BaseT<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nData rate<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\n1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification)\n0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nPrice\n(List \/ Street)<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\n$399 \/ as low as $340<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThis product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony HomeRF Base Station<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nIntroduction<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThe\u00a0Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>allows you to easily connect your Symphony wireless network into an existing Ethernet-based network.\u00a0 It can act as a\u00a0Transparent Bridge<\/a><\/b>, a\u00a0NAT<\/a><\/b>\u00a0router or both. In simple terms, this means that you can add computers equipped with\u00a0Symphony wireless cards<\/b>\u00a0(sorry, but it doesn’t work with other wireless cards) to an existing Ethernet-based network and be able to have File and Printer sharing and Internet access work among both types of computers.\u00a0 Although the product description describes connection only to high-speed Internet access devices, you can use it with normal dialup routers too.<\/p>\nThe product comes with the following items:<\/p>\n\n\nThe bridge itself with omni directional antenna<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nExternal power adapter<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nUTP Crossover cable<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nQuick Start Guide<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nUser’s Manual (available in PDF format\u00a0here<\/a><\/b>\u00a0– 675KB)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nCD Rom containing the “Composer” installation wizard, “Maestro” configuration tool and drivers.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nProxim lists the following System Requirements<\/p>\n\n\nAn existing 10BaseT Ethernet network. (This can be with or without an Internet access device.)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nAt least one Symphony wireless network card installed in a Win 95\/98 PC (which must have at least a 486\/66 processor, 16MB of RAM, 10MB of free hard drive space and a CDROM drive).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThe bridge is a small black box, measuring about 3.25 in W X 5.25 in D X 1.25 in H.\u00a0 A small (approx 3 in) antenna comes attached to the front of the unit.\u00a0 It’s attached via a BNC-like connector, but the antenna screws on instead of having a 1\/4 turn twist quick disconnect.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSimple Installation<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nInstallation was very smooth and I didn’t even need to consult the very detailed User Manual until after I was already surfing the Internet via my Symphony-PC-Card-connected laptop.\u00a0 The Bridge is preconfigured to be a DHCP client and perform both NAT routing and “Transparent Bridging” (more on this later) between the Ethernet and wireless LANs.\u00a0 Proxim figures that this configuration will work with most network and ISP combinations and it worked fine for me. You\u00a0can<\/i>\u00a0change these settings, but only via the “Maestro” configuration tool that is installed with a Symphony network card.<\/p>\nIf you are installing your Symphony network from scratch, the supplied Quick Start card instructs you to install the Bridge first, so that’s what I did.\u00a0 All you do is plug in its external power adapter and then connect it to your existing LAN.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0NOTE<\/b>\u00a0that your LAN must support\u00a010BaseT<\/b>\u00a0connections.\u00a0 Proxim supplies a short “crossover” cable that you may or may not be able to use, depending on what you are connecting into (this is explained clearly in the User Guide).\u00a0 I connected the Bridge into a\u00a0UMAX UGateII<\/b>\u00a0dialup router which has a built-in 4 port 10BaseT hub.\u00a0 Since the UGATE II hub contains an uplink port, I used a\u00a0normal<\/i>\u00a0UTP cable connected from the UGateII uplink port to the Bridge.\u00a0 Again, you may have to experiment with the type of cable you use, but you’ll know when you’re connected correctly… just look for the lit Link lights on the Bridge and the device that you’re connecting to.<\/p>\nWith the Bridge plugged in, I installed a\u00a0Symphony Cordless PC card<\/b>\u00a0into my Win98 laptop (400MHz AMD K-6, 64Mb memory). This went smoothly and after the third reboot, I launched my web browser and was rewarded with my normal Home page!\u00a0 I then checked Network Neighborhood and saw my other PCs’ shared drives and printers.\u00a0 Pretty slick!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n…but with a few things to watch out for!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nAlthough my installation went very smoothly, there are a few things that you may need to pay attention to, depending on how your network is configured and how you are connected to the Internet:<\/p>\nWhich Bridge configuration to use<\/b>\nSection 6 of the User Manual (Configuring a Symphony Network) does a good job of describing the conditions that may cause you to change the Bridge from its default mode of both NAT routing and “Transparent Bridging”.<\/p>\nIn my case, since the UGateII router was handling Internet access and NAT routing, I changed the Bridge to Transparent Bridging\u00a0only\u00a0<\/i>(the second selection). This got rid of the\u00a010.0.0.X subnet<\/b>\u00a0that the Bridge’s NAT router had assigned to the wireless cards.\u00a0 I then had to reconfigure the TCP\/IP settings on the Symphony PC card so that it was a DHCP client of the\u00a0UGateII<\/i>.\u00a0 When I was done, I had File and Printer sharing\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0Internet access working among all machines, using only the TCP\/IP protocol.<\/p>\nIf this sounds like too much trouble, you could leave the Bridge configuration alone and just add the NetBeui protocol to all machines on the network.<\/p>\nHow many computers on your LAN<\/b>\nThis should not be an issue in small networks, but Proxim says that the Bridge can only support\u00a08 devices<\/b>\u00a0on its\u00a0Ethernet<\/b>\u00a0port.\u00a0 The number of\u00a0Symphony wireless<\/b>\u00a0nodes is limited to\u00a010<\/b>.<\/p>\nAdding protocols<\/b>\nThe installer adds and configures TCP\/IP (and some proprietary Symphony protocols) but does not add NetBeui or IPX\/SPX protocols unless you already have either protocol installed and bound to another network card.\u00a0 In most any network configuration, you should be able to get Internet access from both Ethernet and wireless nodes using TCP\/IP only.\u00a0 However, if you are\u00a0adding wireless nodes to an existing Ethernet network<\/b>, you may need to add the\u00a0NetBeui<\/b>\u00a0or\u00a0IPX\/SPX<\/b>\u00a0protocols to all computers if you have problems seeing wireless computers from wired ones (and vice-versa) in Network Neighborhood.\u00a0 Otherwise, you’ll have to change the operating mode of the Bridge as described above.\n(NOTE<\/b>: This ability to use the non-routable NetBeui and IPX\/SPX protocols is a nice benefit of using a\u00a0Bridge<\/b>\u00a0instead of a\u00a0Router<\/b>\u00a0to handle a LAN with multiple subnets.)<\/p>\nWhich drivers to use<\/b>\nThe Quick Start and User guides have multiple warnings, but it’s worth mentioning that\u00a0you need to use the drivers that come with the Bridge to install any Symphony network cards<\/b>.\u00a0 If you already have a working Symphony network, Proxim provides an Upgrade utility so that you don’t have to uninstall the existing drivers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nOne other small, but important item to note is that the installation wizard walks you through setting up shared drives or folders, but sets\u00a0full permissions with no password<\/b>\u00a0on anything it sets up sharing on and doesn’t warn you that it is doing this.\u00a0 The User Manual does mention password protecting shared resources, but I’d like to see either a warning in the installer or a default of password protection.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nHow’s it Work?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nI tested data transfer speed between a 10BaseT connected computer and wireless computer and also from wireless to wireless computer. Although it could be my imagination (or my test technique!) I reached the following conclusions:<\/p>\n\n\nData transfer is slower between wireless nodes when operating through the Bridge vs. operating in “Peer-to-Peer” mode, i.e. without the Bridge.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nTransfer between wireless nodes is faster than transfer between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nHere’s the data I used to reach these conclusions.\u00a0 I used the same 5.30MB zipped file for each of the tests and rounded transfer rates to the nearest 10kbps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nTest Description<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\nTransfer Rate (kbps)<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWith Bridge<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 [10BT] to Laptop [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n141<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n170<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nLaptop to Desktop 2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n250<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWithout Bridge<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop1 [Wireless] to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nNOTES<\/b>:\n1) A Symphony PCI card was added to “Desktop 1”, its 10BaseT connection was disconnected, the Bridge was powered down, and the regular (non-Bridge) drivers were installed on Desktop 2 for the “Without Bridge” tests.\n2) “Laptop”‘s antenna was about 3 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n3) “Desktop 2″‘s antenna was about 10 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n4) “Desktop 1” and “Desktop 2″‘s antennas were located about 10 feet apart.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis data says that you take a\u00a060% hit<\/b>\u00a0in transfer speed when operating\u00a0wireless<\/i>\u00a0nodes through the bridge (vs. Peer-to-Peer) and can\u00a0lose up to 70%<\/b>\u00a0of transfer speed going between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSummary<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThe Bridge is easy to use and solves a problem that would otherwise require fairly advanced networking skills.\u00a0 Although the cost is probably more than you’d want to spend, it’s significantly lower than competitive products (which are geared toward corporate use).<\/p>\nIt’s clear that Proxim has put quality work into the Symphony product line.\u00a0 The documentation is tops, the software is well done, the support Web site contains useful information, and you even get a utility that tells you something about the quality of your wireless connection (something I’d like to see as standard for all wireless and maybe even phoneline networking kits). Unfortunately, using the Bridge will slow your Symphony network significantly, even if you aren’t transferring data between the wired and wireless portions of your network.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Author: Tim Higgins Review Date: 1\/4\/2000 Bottom Line: Easy to install and use but will cost you speed and $. The Stats Product Name Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge\u00a0\u00a0(Bridge) OS Supported Windows 95\/98, NT4 Transmission Method Frequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS) Standard Proprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards. Network Interface 10BaseT Data rate 1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification) 0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured) Price (List \/ Street) $399 \/ as low as $340 This product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Windows 95\/98, NT4<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Frequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Proprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10BaseT<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification)\n0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
$399 \/ as low as $340<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
This product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony HomeRF Base Station<\/p>\n
Introduction<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThe\u00a0Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>allows you to easily connect your Symphony wireless network into an existing Ethernet-based network.\u00a0 It can act as a\u00a0Transparent Bridge<\/a><\/b>, a\u00a0NAT<\/a><\/b>\u00a0router or both. In simple terms, this means that you can add computers equipped with\u00a0Symphony wireless cards<\/b>\u00a0(sorry, but it doesn’t work with other wireless cards) to an existing Ethernet-based network and be able to have File and Printer sharing and Internet access work among both types of computers.\u00a0 Although the product description describes connection only to high-speed Internet access devices, you can use it with normal dialup routers too.<\/p>\nThe product comes with the following items:<\/p>\n\n\nThe bridge itself with omni directional antenna<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nExternal power adapter<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nUTP Crossover cable<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nQuick Start Guide<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nUser’s Manual (available in PDF format\u00a0here<\/a><\/b>\u00a0– 675KB)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nCD Rom containing the “Composer” installation wizard, “Maestro” configuration tool and drivers.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nProxim lists the following System Requirements<\/p>\n\n\nAn existing 10BaseT Ethernet network. (This can be with or without an Internet access device.)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nAt least one Symphony wireless network card installed in a Win 95\/98 PC (which must have at least a 486\/66 processor, 16MB of RAM, 10MB of free hard drive space and a CDROM drive).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThe bridge is a small black box, measuring about 3.25 in W X 5.25 in D X 1.25 in H.\u00a0 A small (approx 3 in) antenna comes attached to the front of the unit.\u00a0 It’s attached via a BNC-like connector, but the antenna screws on instead of having a 1\/4 turn twist quick disconnect.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSimple Installation<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nInstallation was very smooth and I didn’t even need to consult the very detailed User Manual until after I was already surfing the Internet via my Symphony-PC-Card-connected laptop.\u00a0 The Bridge is preconfigured to be a DHCP client and perform both NAT routing and “Transparent Bridging” (more on this later) between the Ethernet and wireless LANs.\u00a0 Proxim figures that this configuration will work with most network and ISP combinations and it worked fine for me. You\u00a0can<\/i>\u00a0change these settings, but only via the “Maestro” configuration tool that is installed with a Symphony network card.<\/p>\nIf you are installing your Symphony network from scratch, the supplied Quick Start card instructs you to install the Bridge first, so that’s what I did.\u00a0 All you do is plug in its external power adapter and then connect it to your existing LAN.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0NOTE<\/b>\u00a0that your LAN must support\u00a010BaseT<\/b>\u00a0connections.\u00a0 Proxim supplies a short “crossover” cable that you may or may not be able to use, depending on what you are connecting into (this is explained clearly in the User Guide).\u00a0 I connected the Bridge into a\u00a0UMAX UGateII<\/b>\u00a0dialup router which has a built-in 4 port 10BaseT hub.\u00a0 Since the UGATE II hub contains an uplink port, I used a\u00a0normal<\/i>\u00a0UTP cable connected from the UGateII uplink port to the Bridge.\u00a0 Again, you may have to experiment with the type of cable you use, but you’ll know when you’re connected correctly… just look for the lit Link lights on the Bridge and the device that you’re connecting to.<\/p>\nWith the Bridge plugged in, I installed a\u00a0Symphony Cordless PC card<\/b>\u00a0into my Win98 laptop (400MHz AMD K-6, 64Mb memory). This went smoothly and after the third reboot, I launched my web browser and was rewarded with my normal Home page!\u00a0 I then checked Network Neighborhood and saw my other PCs’ shared drives and printers.\u00a0 Pretty slick!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n…but with a few things to watch out for!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nAlthough my installation went very smoothly, there are a few things that you may need to pay attention to, depending on how your network is configured and how you are connected to the Internet:<\/p>\nWhich Bridge configuration to use<\/b>\nSection 6 of the User Manual (Configuring a Symphony Network) does a good job of describing the conditions that may cause you to change the Bridge from its default mode of both NAT routing and “Transparent Bridging”.<\/p>\nIn my case, since the UGateII router was handling Internet access and NAT routing, I changed the Bridge to Transparent Bridging\u00a0only\u00a0<\/i>(the second selection). This got rid of the\u00a010.0.0.X subnet<\/b>\u00a0that the Bridge’s NAT router had assigned to the wireless cards.\u00a0 I then had to reconfigure the TCP\/IP settings on the Symphony PC card so that it was a DHCP client of the\u00a0UGateII<\/i>.\u00a0 When I was done, I had File and Printer sharing\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0Internet access working among all machines, using only the TCP\/IP protocol.<\/p>\nIf this sounds like too much trouble, you could leave the Bridge configuration alone and just add the NetBeui protocol to all machines on the network.<\/p>\nHow many computers on your LAN<\/b>\nThis should not be an issue in small networks, but Proxim says that the Bridge can only support\u00a08 devices<\/b>\u00a0on its\u00a0Ethernet<\/b>\u00a0port.\u00a0 The number of\u00a0Symphony wireless<\/b>\u00a0nodes is limited to\u00a010<\/b>.<\/p>\nAdding protocols<\/b>\nThe installer adds and configures TCP\/IP (and some proprietary Symphony protocols) but does not add NetBeui or IPX\/SPX protocols unless you already have either protocol installed and bound to another network card.\u00a0 In most any network configuration, you should be able to get Internet access from both Ethernet and wireless nodes using TCP\/IP only.\u00a0 However, if you are\u00a0adding wireless nodes to an existing Ethernet network<\/b>, you may need to add the\u00a0NetBeui<\/b>\u00a0or\u00a0IPX\/SPX<\/b>\u00a0protocols to all computers if you have problems seeing wireless computers from wired ones (and vice-versa) in Network Neighborhood.\u00a0 Otherwise, you’ll have to change the operating mode of the Bridge as described above.\n(NOTE<\/b>: This ability to use the non-routable NetBeui and IPX\/SPX protocols is a nice benefit of using a\u00a0Bridge<\/b>\u00a0instead of a\u00a0Router<\/b>\u00a0to handle a LAN with multiple subnets.)<\/p>\nWhich drivers to use<\/b>\nThe Quick Start and User guides have multiple warnings, but it’s worth mentioning that\u00a0you need to use the drivers that come with the Bridge to install any Symphony network cards<\/b>.\u00a0 If you already have a working Symphony network, Proxim provides an Upgrade utility so that you don’t have to uninstall the existing drivers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nOne other small, but important item to note is that the installation wizard walks you through setting up shared drives or folders, but sets\u00a0full permissions with no password<\/b>\u00a0on anything it sets up sharing on and doesn’t warn you that it is doing this.\u00a0 The User Manual does mention password protecting shared resources, but I’d like to see either a warning in the installer or a default of password protection.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nHow’s it Work?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nI tested data transfer speed between a 10BaseT connected computer and wireless computer and also from wireless to wireless computer. Although it could be my imagination (or my test technique!) I reached the following conclusions:<\/p>\n\n\nData transfer is slower between wireless nodes when operating through the Bridge vs. operating in “Peer-to-Peer” mode, i.e. without the Bridge.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nTransfer between wireless nodes is faster than transfer between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nHere’s the data I used to reach these conclusions.\u00a0 I used the same 5.30MB zipped file for each of the tests and rounded transfer rates to the nearest 10kbps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nTest Description<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\nTransfer Rate (kbps)<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWith Bridge<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 [10BT] to Laptop [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n141<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n170<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nLaptop to Desktop 2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n250<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWithout Bridge<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop1 [Wireless] to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nNOTES<\/b>:\n1) A Symphony PCI card was added to “Desktop 1”, its 10BaseT connection was disconnected, the Bridge was powered down, and the regular (non-Bridge) drivers were installed on Desktop 2 for the “Without Bridge” tests.\n2) “Laptop”‘s antenna was about 3 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n3) “Desktop 2″‘s antenna was about 10 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n4) “Desktop 1” and “Desktop 2″‘s antennas were located about 10 feet apart.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis data says that you take a\u00a060% hit<\/b>\u00a0in transfer speed when operating\u00a0wireless<\/i>\u00a0nodes through the bridge (vs. Peer-to-Peer) and can\u00a0lose up to 70%<\/b>\u00a0of transfer speed going between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSummary<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThe Bridge is easy to use and solves a problem that would otherwise require fairly advanced networking skills.\u00a0 Although the cost is probably more than you’d want to spend, it’s significantly lower than competitive products (which are geared toward corporate use).<\/p>\nIt’s clear that Proxim has put quality work into the Symphony product line.\u00a0 The documentation is tops, the software is well done, the support Web site contains useful information, and you even get a utility that tells you something about the quality of your wireless connection (something I’d like to see as standard for all wireless and maybe even phoneline networking kits). Unfortunately, using the Bridge will slow your Symphony network significantly, even if you aren’t transferring data between the wired and wireless portions of your network.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Author: Tim Higgins Review Date: 1\/4\/2000 Bottom Line: Easy to install and use but will cost you speed and $. The Stats Product Name Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge\u00a0\u00a0(Bridge) OS Supported Windows 95\/98, NT4 Transmission Method Frequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS) Standard Proprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards. Network Interface 10BaseT Data rate 1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification) 0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured) Price (List \/ Street) $399 \/ as low as $340 This product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The\u00a0Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>allows you to easily connect your Symphony wireless network into an existing Ethernet-based network.\u00a0 It can act as a\u00a0Transparent Bridge<\/a><\/b>, a\u00a0NAT<\/a><\/b>\u00a0router or both. In simple terms, this means that you can add computers equipped with\u00a0Symphony wireless cards<\/b>\u00a0(sorry, but it doesn’t work with other wireless cards) to an existing Ethernet-based network and be able to have File and Printer sharing and Internet access work among both types of computers.\u00a0 Although the product description describes connection only to high-speed Internet access devices, you can use it with normal dialup routers too.<\/p>\nThe product comes with the following items:<\/p>\n\n\nThe bridge itself with omni directional antenna<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nExternal power adapter<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nUTP Crossover cable<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nQuick Start Guide<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nUser’s Manual (available in PDF format\u00a0here<\/a><\/b>\u00a0– 675KB)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nCD Rom containing the “Composer” installation wizard, “Maestro” configuration tool and drivers.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nProxim lists the following System Requirements<\/p>\n\n\nAn existing 10BaseT Ethernet network. (This can be with or without an Internet access device.)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nAt least one Symphony wireless network card installed in a Win 95\/98 PC (which must have at least a 486\/66 processor, 16MB of RAM, 10MB of free hard drive space and a CDROM drive).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThe bridge is a small black box, measuring about 3.25 in W X 5.25 in D X 1.25 in H.\u00a0 A small (approx 3 in) antenna comes attached to the front of the unit.\u00a0 It’s attached via a BNC-like connector, but the antenna screws on instead of having a 1\/4 turn twist quick disconnect.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSimple Installation<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nInstallation was very smooth and I didn’t even need to consult the very detailed User Manual until after I was already surfing the Internet via my Symphony-PC-Card-connected laptop.\u00a0 The Bridge is preconfigured to be a DHCP client and perform both NAT routing and “Transparent Bridging” (more on this later) between the Ethernet and wireless LANs.\u00a0 Proxim figures that this configuration will work with most network and ISP combinations and it worked fine for me. You\u00a0can<\/i>\u00a0change these settings, but only via the “Maestro” configuration tool that is installed with a Symphony network card.<\/p>\nIf you are installing your Symphony network from scratch, the supplied Quick Start card instructs you to install the Bridge first, so that’s what I did.\u00a0 All you do is plug in its external power adapter and then connect it to your existing LAN.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0NOTE<\/b>\u00a0that your LAN must support\u00a010BaseT<\/b>\u00a0connections.\u00a0 Proxim supplies a short “crossover” cable that you may or may not be able to use, depending on what you are connecting into (this is explained clearly in the User Guide).\u00a0 I connected the Bridge into a\u00a0UMAX UGateII<\/b>\u00a0dialup router which has a built-in 4 port 10BaseT hub.\u00a0 Since the UGATE II hub contains an uplink port, I used a\u00a0normal<\/i>\u00a0UTP cable connected from the UGateII uplink port to the Bridge.\u00a0 Again, you may have to experiment with the type of cable you use, but you’ll know when you’re connected correctly… just look for the lit Link lights on the Bridge and the device that you’re connecting to.<\/p>\nWith the Bridge plugged in, I installed a\u00a0Symphony Cordless PC card<\/b>\u00a0into my Win98 laptop (400MHz AMD K-6, 64Mb memory). This went smoothly and after the third reboot, I launched my web browser and was rewarded with my normal Home page!\u00a0 I then checked Network Neighborhood and saw my other PCs’ shared drives and printers.\u00a0 Pretty slick!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n…but with a few things to watch out for!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nAlthough my installation went very smoothly, there are a few things that you may need to pay attention to, depending on how your network is configured and how you are connected to the Internet:<\/p>\nWhich Bridge configuration to use<\/b>\nSection 6 of the User Manual (Configuring a Symphony Network) does a good job of describing the conditions that may cause you to change the Bridge from its default mode of both NAT routing and “Transparent Bridging”.<\/p>\nIn my case, since the UGateII router was handling Internet access and NAT routing, I changed the Bridge to Transparent Bridging\u00a0only\u00a0<\/i>(the second selection). This got rid of the\u00a010.0.0.X subnet<\/b>\u00a0that the Bridge’s NAT router had assigned to the wireless cards.\u00a0 I then had to reconfigure the TCP\/IP settings on the Symphony PC card so that it was a DHCP client of the\u00a0UGateII<\/i>.\u00a0 When I was done, I had File and Printer sharing\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0Internet access working among all machines, using only the TCP\/IP protocol.<\/p>\nIf this sounds like too much trouble, you could leave the Bridge configuration alone and just add the NetBeui protocol to all machines on the network.<\/p>\nHow many computers on your LAN<\/b>\nThis should not be an issue in small networks, but Proxim says that the Bridge can only support\u00a08 devices<\/b>\u00a0on its\u00a0Ethernet<\/b>\u00a0port.\u00a0 The number of\u00a0Symphony wireless<\/b>\u00a0nodes is limited to\u00a010<\/b>.<\/p>\nAdding protocols<\/b>\nThe installer adds and configures TCP\/IP (and some proprietary Symphony protocols) but does not add NetBeui or IPX\/SPX protocols unless you already have either protocol installed and bound to another network card.\u00a0 In most any network configuration, you should be able to get Internet access from both Ethernet and wireless nodes using TCP\/IP only.\u00a0 However, if you are\u00a0adding wireless nodes to an existing Ethernet network<\/b>, you may need to add the\u00a0NetBeui<\/b>\u00a0or\u00a0IPX\/SPX<\/b>\u00a0protocols to all computers if you have problems seeing wireless computers from wired ones (and vice-versa) in Network Neighborhood.\u00a0 Otherwise, you’ll have to change the operating mode of the Bridge as described above.\n(NOTE<\/b>: This ability to use the non-routable NetBeui and IPX\/SPX protocols is a nice benefit of using a\u00a0Bridge<\/b>\u00a0instead of a\u00a0Router<\/b>\u00a0to handle a LAN with multiple subnets.)<\/p>\nWhich drivers to use<\/b>\nThe Quick Start and User guides have multiple warnings, but it’s worth mentioning that\u00a0you need to use the drivers that come with the Bridge to install any Symphony network cards<\/b>.\u00a0 If you already have a working Symphony network, Proxim provides an Upgrade utility so that you don’t have to uninstall the existing drivers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nOne other small, but important item to note is that the installation wizard walks you through setting up shared drives or folders, but sets\u00a0full permissions with no password<\/b>\u00a0on anything it sets up sharing on and doesn’t warn you that it is doing this.\u00a0 The User Manual does mention password protecting shared resources, but I’d like to see either a warning in the installer or a default of password protection.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nHow’s it Work?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nI tested data transfer speed between a 10BaseT connected computer and wireless computer and also from wireless to wireless computer. Although it could be my imagination (or my test technique!) I reached the following conclusions:<\/p>\n\n\nData transfer is slower between wireless nodes when operating through the Bridge vs. operating in “Peer-to-Peer” mode, i.e. without the Bridge.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nTransfer between wireless nodes is faster than transfer between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nHere’s the data I used to reach these conclusions.\u00a0 I used the same 5.30MB zipped file for each of the tests and rounded transfer rates to the nearest 10kbps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nTest Description<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\nTransfer Rate (kbps)<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWith Bridge<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 [10BT] to Laptop [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n141<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n170<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nLaptop to Desktop 2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n250<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWithout Bridge<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop1 [Wireless] to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nNOTES<\/b>:\n1) A Symphony PCI card was added to “Desktop 1”, its 10BaseT connection was disconnected, the Bridge was powered down, and the regular (non-Bridge) drivers were installed on Desktop 2 for the “Without Bridge” tests.\n2) “Laptop”‘s antenna was about 3 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n3) “Desktop 2″‘s antenna was about 10 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n4) “Desktop 1” and “Desktop 2″‘s antennas were located about 10 feet apart.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis data says that you take a\u00a060% hit<\/b>\u00a0in transfer speed when operating\u00a0wireless<\/i>\u00a0nodes through the bridge (vs. Peer-to-Peer) and can\u00a0lose up to 70%<\/b>\u00a0of transfer speed going between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSummary<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThe Bridge is easy to use and solves a problem that would otherwise require fairly advanced networking skills.\u00a0 Although the cost is probably more than you’d want to spend, it’s significantly lower than competitive products (which are geared toward corporate use).<\/p>\nIt’s clear that Proxim has put quality work into the Symphony product line.\u00a0 The documentation is tops, the software is well done, the support Web site contains useful information, and you even get a utility that tells you something about the quality of your wireless connection (something I’d like to see as standard for all wireless and maybe even phoneline networking kits). Unfortunately, using the Bridge will slow your Symphony network significantly, even if you aren’t transferring data between the wired and wireless portions of your network.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Author: Tim Higgins Review Date: 1\/4\/2000 Bottom Line: Easy to install and use but will cost you speed and $. The Stats Product Name Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge\u00a0\u00a0(Bridge) OS Supported Windows 95\/98, NT4 Transmission Method Frequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS) Standard Proprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards. Network Interface 10BaseT Data rate 1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification) 0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured) Price (List \/ Street) $399 \/ as low as $340 This product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The product comes with the following items:<\/p>\n
The bridge itself with omni directional antenna<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
External power adapter<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
UTP Crossover cable<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Quick Start Guide<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
User’s Manual (available in PDF format\u00a0here<\/a><\/b>\u00a0– 675KB)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nCD Rom containing the “Composer” installation wizard, “Maestro” configuration tool and drivers.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nProxim lists the following System Requirements<\/p>\n\n\nAn existing 10BaseT Ethernet network. (This can be with or without an Internet access device.)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nAt least one Symphony wireless network card installed in a Win 95\/98 PC (which must have at least a 486\/66 processor, 16MB of RAM, 10MB of free hard drive space and a CDROM drive).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThe bridge is a small black box, measuring about 3.25 in W X 5.25 in D X 1.25 in H.\u00a0 A small (approx 3 in) antenna comes attached to the front of the unit.\u00a0 It’s attached via a BNC-like connector, but the antenna screws on instead of having a 1\/4 turn twist quick disconnect.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSimple Installation<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nInstallation was very smooth and I didn’t even need to consult the very detailed User Manual until after I was already surfing the Internet via my Symphony-PC-Card-connected laptop.\u00a0 The Bridge is preconfigured to be a DHCP client and perform both NAT routing and “Transparent Bridging” (more on this later) between the Ethernet and wireless LANs.\u00a0 Proxim figures that this configuration will work with most network and ISP combinations and it worked fine for me. You\u00a0can<\/i>\u00a0change these settings, but only via the “Maestro” configuration tool that is installed with a Symphony network card.<\/p>\nIf you are installing your Symphony network from scratch, the supplied Quick Start card instructs you to install the Bridge first, so that’s what I did.\u00a0 All you do is plug in its external power adapter and then connect it to your existing LAN.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0NOTE<\/b>\u00a0that your LAN must support\u00a010BaseT<\/b>\u00a0connections.\u00a0 Proxim supplies a short “crossover” cable that you may or may not be able to use, depending on what you are connecting into (this is explained clearly in the User Guide).\u00a0 I connected the Bridge into a\u00a0UMAX UGateII<\/b>\u00a0dialup router which has a built-in 4 port 10BaseT hub.\u00a0 Since the UGATE II hub contains an uplink port, I used a\u00a0normal<\/i>\u00a0UTP cable connected from the UGateII uplink port to the Bridge.\u00a0 Again, you may have to experiment with the type of cable you use, but you’ll know when you’re connected correctly… just look for the lit Link lights on the Bridge and the device that you’re connecting to.<\/p>\nWith the Bridge plugged in, I installed a\u00a0Symphony Cordless PC card<\/b>\u00a0into my Win98 laptop (400MHz AMD K-6, 64Mb memory). This went smoothly and after the third reboot, I launched my web browser and was rewarded with my normal Home page!\u00a0 I then checked Network Neighborhood and saw my other PCs’ shared drives and printers.\u00a0 Pretty slick!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n…but with a few things to watch out for!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nAlthough my installation went very smoothly, there are a few things that you may need to pay attention to, depending on how your network is configured and how you are connected to the Internet:<\/p>\nWhich Bridge configuration to use<\/b>\nSection 6 of the User Manual (Configuring a Symphony Network) does a good job of describing the conditions that may cause you to change the Bridge from its default mode of both NAT routing and “Transparent Bridging”.<\/p>\nIn my case, since the UGateII router was handling Internet access and NAT routing, I changed the Bridge to Transparent Bridging\u00a0only\u00a0<\/i>(the second selection). This got rid of the\u00a010.0.0.X subnet<\/b>\u00a0that the Bridge’s NAT router had assigned to the wireless cards.\u00a0 I then had to reconfigure the TCP\/IP settings on the Symphony PC card so that it was a DHCP client of the\u00a0UGateII<\/i>.\u00a0 When I was done, I had File and Printer sharing\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0Internet access working among all machines, using only the TCP\/IP protocol.<\/p>\nIf this sounds like too much trouble, you could leave the Bridge configuration alone and just add the NetBeui protocol to all machines on the network.<\/p>\nHow many computers on your LAN<\/b>\nThis should not be an issue in small networks, but Proxim says that the Bridge can only support\u00a08 devices<\/b>\u00a0on its\u00a0Ethernet<\/b>\u00a0port.\u00a0 The number of\u00a0Symphony wireless<\/b>\u00a0nodes is limited to\u00a010<\/b>.<\/p>\nAdding protocols<\/b>\nThe installer adds and configures TCP\/IP (and some proprietary Symphony protocols) but does not add NetBeui or IPX\/SPX protocols unless you already have either protocol installed and bound to another network card.\u00a0 In most any network configuration, you should be able to get Internet access from both Ethernet and wireless nodes using TCP\/IP only.\u00a0 However, if you are\u00a0adding wireless nodes to an existing Ethernet network<\/b>, you may need to add the\u00a0NetBeui<\/b>\u00a0or\u00a0IPX\/SPX<\/b>\u00a0protocols to all computers if you have problems seeing wireless computers from wired ones (and vice-versa) in Network Neighborhood.\u00a0 Otherwise, you’ll have to change the operating mode of the Bridge as described above.\n(NOTE<\/b>: This ability to use the non-routable NetBeui and IPX\/SPX protocols is a nice benefit of using a\u00a0Bridge<\/b>\u00a0instead of a\u00a0Router<\/b>\u00a0to handle a LAN with multiple subnets.)<\/p>\nWhich drivers to use<\/b>\nThe Quick Start and User guides have multiple warnings, but it’s worth mentioning that\u00a0you need to use the drivers that come with the Bridge to install any Symphony network cards<\/b>.\u00a0 If you already have a working Symphony network, Proxim provides an Upgrade utility so that you don’t have to uninstall the existing drivers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nOne other small, but important item to note is that the installation wizard walks you through setting up shared drives or folders, but sets\u00a0full permissions with no password<\/b>\u00a0on anything it sets up sharing on and doesn’t warn you that it is doing this.\u00a0 The User Manual does mention password protecting shared resources, but I’d like to see either a warning in the installer or a default of password protection.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nHow’s it Work?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nI tested data transfer speed between a 10BaseT connected computer and wireless computer and also from wireless to wireless computer. Although it could be my imagination (or my test technique!) I reached the following conclusions:<\/p>\n\n\nData transfer is slower between wireless nodes when operating through the Bridge vs. operating in “Peer-to-Peer” mode, i.e. without the Bridge.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nTransfer between wireless nodes is faster than transfer between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nHere’s the data I used to reach these conclusions.\u00a0 I used the same 5.30MB zipped file for each of the tests and rounded transfer rates to the nearest 10kbps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nTest Description<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\nTransfer Rate (kbps)<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWith Bridge<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 [10BT] to Laptop [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n141<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n170<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nLaptop to Desktop 2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n250<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWithout Bridge<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop1 [Wireless] to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nNOTES<\/b>:\n1) A Symphony PCI card was added to “Desktop 1”, its 10BaseT connection was disconnected, the Bridge was powered down, and the regular (non-Bridge) drivers were installed on Desktop 2 for the “Without Bridge” tests.\n2) “Laptop”‘s antenna was about 3 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n3) “Desktop 2″‘s antenna was about 10 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n4) “Desktop 1” and “Desktop 2″‘s antennas were located about 10 feet apart.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis data says that you take a\u00a060% hit<\/b>\u00a0in transfer speed when operating\u00a0wireless<\/i>\u00a0nodes through the bridge (vs. Peer-to-Peer) and can\u00a0lose up to 70%<\/b>\u00a0of transfer speed going between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSummary<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThe Bridge is easy to use and solves a problem that would otherwise require fairly advanced networking skills.\u00a0 Although the cost is probably more than you’d want to spend, it’s significantly lower than competitive products (which are geared toward corporate use).<\/p>\nIt’s clear that Proxim has put quality work into the Symphony product line.\u00a0 The documentation is tops, the software is well done, the support Web site contains useful information, and you even get a utility that tells you something about the quality of your wireless connection (something I’d like to see as standard for all wireless and maybe even phoneline networking kits). Unfortunately, using the Bridge will slow your Symphony network significantly, even if you aren’t transferring data between the wired and wireless portions of your network.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Author: Tim Higgins Review Date: 1\/4\/2000 Bottom Line: Easy to install and use but will cost you speed and $. The Stats Product Name Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge\u00a0\u00a0(Bridge) OS Supported Windows 95\/98, NT4 Transmission Method Frequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS) Standard Proprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards. Network Interface 10BaseT Data rate 1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification) 0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured) Price (List \/ Street) $399 \/ as low as $340 This product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
CD Rom containing the “Composer” installation wizard, “Maestro” configuration tool and drivers.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Proxim lists the following System Requirements<\/p>\n
An existing 10BaseT Ethernet network. (This can be with or without an Internet access device.)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
At least one Symphony wireless network card installed in a Win 95\/98 PC (which must have at least a 486\/66 processor, 16MB of RAM, 10MB of free hard drive space and a CDROM drive).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The bridge is a small black box, measuring about 3.25 in W X 5.25 in D X 1.25 in H.\u00a0 A small (approx 3 in) antenna comes attached to the front of the unit.\u00a0 It’s attached via a BNC-like connector, but the antenna screws on instead of having a 1\/4 turn twist quick disconnect.<\/p>\n
Simple Installation<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nInstallation was very smooth and I didn’t even need to consult the very detailed User Manual until after I was already surfing the Internet via my Symphony-PC-Card-connected laptop.\u00a0 The Bridge is preconfigured to be a DHCP client and perform both NAT routing and “Transparent Bridging” (more on this later) between the Ethernet and wireless LANs.\u00a0 Proxim figures that this configuration will work with most network and ISP combinations and it worked fine for me. You\u00a0can<\/i>\u00a0change these settings, but only via the “Maestro” configuration tool that is installed with a Symphony network card.<\/p>\nIf you are installing your Symphony network from scratch, the supplied Quick Start card instructs you to install the Bridge first, so that’s what I did.\u00a0 All you do is plug in its external power adapter and then connect it to your existing LAN.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0NOTE<\/b>\u00a0that your LAN must support\u00a010BaseT<\/b>\u00a0connections.\u00a0 Proxim supplies a short “crossover” cable that you may or may not be able to use, depending on what you are connecting into (this is explained clearly in the User Guide).\u00a0 I connected the Bridge into a\u00a0UMAX UGateII<\/b>\u00a0dialup router which has a built-in 4 port 10BaseT hub.\u00a0 Since the UGATE II hub contains an uplink port, I used a\u00a0normal<\/i>\u00a0UTP cable connected from the UGateII uplink port to the Bridge.\u00a0 Again, you may have to experiment with the type of cable you use, but you’ll know when you’re connected correctly… just look for the lit Link lights on the Bridge and the device that you’re connecting to.<\/p>\nWith the Bridge plugged in, I installed a\u00a0Symphony Cordless PC card<\/b>\u00a0into my Win98 laptop (400MHz AMD K-6, 64Mb memory). This went smoothly and after the third reboot, I launched my web browser and was rewarded with my normal Home page!\u00a0 I then checked Network Neighborhood and saw my other PCs’ shared drives and printers.\u00a0 Pretty slick!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n…but with a few things to watch out for!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nAlthough my installation went very smoothly, there are a few things that you may need to pay attention to, depending on how your network is configured and how you are connected to the Internet:<\/p>\nWhich Bridge configuration to use<\/b>\nSection 6 of the User Manual (Configuring a Symphony Network) does a good job of describing the conditions that may cause you to change the Bridge from its default mode of both NAT routing and “Transparent Bridging”.<\/p>\nIn my case, since the UGateII router was handling Internet access and NAT routing, I changed the Bridge to Transparent Bridging\u00a0only\u00a0<\/i>(the second selection). This got rid of the\u00a010.0.0.X subnet<\/b>\u00a0that the Bridge’s NAT router had assigned to the wireless cards.\u00a0 I then had to reconfigure the TCP\/IP settings on the Symphony PC card so that it was a DHCP client of the\u00a0UGateII<\/i>.\u00a0 When I was done, I had File and Printer sharing\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0Internet access working among all machines, using only the TCP\/IP protocol.<\/p>\nIf this sounds like too much trouble, you could leave the Bridge configuration alone and just add the NetBeui protocol to all machines on the network.<\/p>\nHow many computers on your LAN<\/b>\nThis should not be an issue in small networks, but Proxim says that the Bridge can only support\u00a08 devices<\/b>\u00a0on its\u00a0Ethernet<\/b>\u00a0port.\u00a0 The number of\u00a0Symphony wireless<\/b>\u00a0nodes is limited to\u00a010<\/b>.<\/p>\nAdding protocols<\/b>\nThe installer adds and configures TCP\/IP (and some proprietary Symphony protocols) but does not add NetBeui or IPX\/SPX protocols unless you already have either protocol installed and bound to another network card.\u00a0 In most any network configuration, you should be able to get Internet access from both Ethernet and wireless nodes using TCP\/IP only.\u00a0 However, if you are\u00a0adding wireless nodes to an existing Ethernet network<\/b>, you may need to add the\u00a0NetBeui<\/b>\u00a0or\u00a0IPX\/SPX<\/b>\u00a0protocols to all computers if you have problems seeing wireless computers from wired ones (and vice-versa) in Network Neighborhood.\u00a0 Otherwise, you’ll have to change the operating mode of the Bridge as described above.\n(NOTE<\/b>: This ability to use the non-routable NetBeui and IPX\/SPX protocols is a nice benefit of using a\u00a0Bridge<\/b>\u00a0instead of a\u00a0Router<\/b>\u00a0to handle a LAN with multiple subnets.)<\/p>\nWhich drivers to use<\/b>\nThe Quick Start and User guides have multiple warnings, but it’s worth mentioning that\u00a0you need to use the drivers that come with the Bridge to install any Symphony network cards<\/b>.\u00a0 If you already have a working Symphony network, Proxim provides an Upgrade utility so that you don’t have to uninstall the existing drivers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nOne other small, but important item to note is that the installation wizard walks you through setting up shared drives or folders, but sets\u00a0full permissions with no password<\/b>\u00a0on anything it sets up sharing on and doesn’t warn you that it is doing this.\u00a0 The User Manual does mention password protecting shared resources, but I’d like to see either a warning in the installer or a default of password protection.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nHow’s it Work?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nI tested data transfer speed between a 10BaseT connected computer and wireless computer and also from wireless to wireless computer. Although it could be my imagination (or my test technique!) I reached the following conclusions:<\/p>\n\n\nData transfer is slower between wireless nodes when operating through the Bridge vs. operating in “Peer-to-Peer” mode, i.e. without the Bridge.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nTransfer between wireless nodes is faster than transfer between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nHere’s the data I used to reach these conclusions.\u00a0 I used the same 5.30MB zipped file for each of the tests and rounded transfer rates to the nearest 10kbps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nTest Description<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\nTransfer Rate (kbps)<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWith Bridge<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 [10BT] to Laptop [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n141<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n170<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nLaptop to Desktop 2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n250<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWithout Bridge<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop1 [Wireless] to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nNOTES<\/b>:\n1) A Symphony PCI card was added to “Desktop 1”, its 10BaseT connection was disconnected, the Bridge was powered down, and the regular (non-Bridge) drivers were installed on Desktop 2 for the “Without Bridge” tests.\n2) “Laptop”‘s antenna was about 3 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n3) “Desktop 2″‘s antenna was about 10 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n4) “Desktop 1” and “Desktop 2″‘s antennas were located about 10 feet apart.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis data says that you take a\u00a060% hit<\/b>\u00a0in transfer speed when operating\u00a0wireless<\/i>\u00a0nodes through the bridge (vs. Peer-to-Peer) and can\u00a0lose up to 70%<\/b>\u00a0of transfer speed going between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSummary<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThe Bridge is easy to use and solves a problem that would otherwise require fairly advanced networking skills.\u00a0 Although the cost is probably more than you’d want to spend, it’s significantly lower than competitive products (which are geared toward corporate use).<\/p>\nIt’s clear that Proxim has put quality work into the Symphony product line.\u00a0 The documentation is tops, the software is well done, the support Web site contains useful information, and you even get a utility that tells you something about the quality of your wireless connection (something I’d like to see as standard for all wireless and maybe even phoneline networking kits). Unfortunately, using the Bridge will slow your Symphony network significantly, even if you aren’t transferring data between the wired and wireless portions of your network.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Author: Tim Higgins Review Date: 1\/4\/2000 Bottom Line: Easy to install and use but will cost you speed and $. The Stats Product Name Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge\u00a0\u00a0(Bridge) OS Supported Windows 95\/98, NT4 Transmission Method Frequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS) Standard Proprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards. Network Interface 10BaseT Data rate 1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification) 0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured) Price (List \/ Street) $399 \/ as low as $340 This product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Installation was very smooth and I didn’t even need to consult the very detailed User Manual until after I was already surfing the Internet via my Symphony-PC-Card-connected laptop.\u00a0 The Bridge is preconfigured to be a DHCP client and perform both NAT routing and “Transparent Bridging” (more on this later) between the Ethernet and wireless LANs.\u00a0 Proxim figures that this configuration will work with most network and ISP combinations and it worked fine for me. You\u00a0can<\/i>\u00a0change these settings, but only via the “Maestro” configuration tool that is installed with a Symphony network card.<\/p>\n
If you are installing your Symphony network from scratch, the supplied Quick Start card instructs you to install the Bridge first, so that’s what I did.\u00a0 All you do is plug in its external power adapter and then connect it to your existing LAN.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0NOTE<\/b>\u00a0that your LAN must support\u00a010BaseT<\/b>\u00a0connections.\u00a0 Proxim supplies a short “crossover” cable that you may or may not be able to use, depending on what you are connecting into (this is explained clearly in the User Guide).\u00a0 I connected the Bridge into a\u00a0UMAX UGateII<\/b>\u00a0dialup router which has a built-in 4 port 10BaseT hub.\u00a0 Since the UGATE II hub contains an uplink port, I used a\u00a0normal<\/i>\u00a0UTP cable connected from the UGateII uplink port to the Bridge.\u00a0 Again, you may have to experiment with the type of cable you use, but you’ll know when you’re connected correctly… just look for the lit Link lights on the Bridge and the device that you’re connecting to.<\/p>\n
With the Bridge plugged in, I installed a\u00a0Symphony Cordless PC card<\/b>\u00a0into my Win98 laptop (400MHz AMD K-6, 64Mb memory). This went smoothly and after the third reboot, I launched my web browser and was rewarded with my normal Home page!\u00a0 I then checked Network Neighborhood and saw my other PCs’ shared drives and printers.\u00a0 Pretty slick!<\/p>\n
…but with a few things to watch out for!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nAlthough my installation went very smoothly, there are a few things that you may need to pay attention to, depending on how your network is configured and how you are connected to the Internet:<\/p>\nWhich Bridge configuration to use<\/b>\nSection 6 of the User Manual (Configuring a Symphony Network) does a good job of describing the conditions that may cause you to change the Bridge from its default mode of both NAT routing and “Transparent Bridging”.<\/p>\nIn my case, since the UGateII router was handling Internet access and NAT routing, I changed the Bridge to Transparent Bridging\u00a0only\u00a0<\/i>(the second selection). This got rid of the\u00a010.0.0.X subnet<\/b>\u00a0that the Bridge’s NAT router had assigned to the wireless cards.\u00a0 I then had to reconfigure the TCP\/IP settings on the Symphony PC card so that it was a DHCP client of the\u00a0UGateII<\/i>.\u00a0 When I was done, I had File and Printer sharing\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0Internet access working among all machines, using only the TCP\/IP protocol.<\/p>\nIf this sounds like too much trouble, you could leave the Bridge configuration alone and just add the NetBeui protocol to all machines on the network.<\/p>\nHow many computers on your LAN<\/b>\nThis should not be an issue in small networks, but Proxim says that the Bridge can only support\u00a08 devices<\/b>\u00a0on its\u00a0Ethernet<\/b>\u00a0port.\u00a0 The number of\u00a0Symphony wireless<\/b>\u00a0nodes is limited to\u00a010<\/b>.<\/p>\nAdding protocols<\/b>\nThe installer adds and configures TCP\/IP (and some proprietary Symphony protocols) but does not add NetBeui or IPX\/SPX protocols unless you already have either protocol installed and bound to another network card.\u00a0 In most any network configuration, you should be able to get Internet access from both Ethernet and wireless nodes using TCP\/IP only.\u00a0 However, if you are\u00a0adding wireless nodes to an existing Ethernet network<\/b>, you may need to add the\u00a0NetBeui<\/b>\u00a0or\u00a0IPX\/SPX<\/b>\u00a0protocols to all computers if you have problems seeing wireless computers from wired ones (and vice-versa) in Network Neighborhood.\u00a0 Otherwise, you’ll have to change the operating mode of the Bridge as described above.\n(NOTE<\/b>: This ability to use the non-routable NetBeui and IPX\/SPX protocols is a nice benefit of using a\u00a0Bridge<\/b>\u00a0instead of a\u00a0Router<\/b>\u00a0to handle a LAN with multiple subnets.)<\/p>\nWhich drivers to use<\/b>\nThe Quick Start and User guides have multiple warnings, but it’s worth mentioning that\u00a0you need to use the drivers that come with the Bridge to install any Symphony network cards<\/b>.\u00a0 If you already have a working Symphony network, Proxim provides an Upgrade utility so that you don’t have to uninstall the existing drivers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nOne other small, but important item to note is that the installation wizard walks you through setting up shared drives or folders, but sets\u00a0full permissions with no password<\/b>\u00a0on anything it sets up sharing on and doesn’t warn you that it is doing this.\u00a0 The User Manual does mention password protecting shared resources, but I’d like to see either a warning in the installer or a default of password protection.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nHow’s it Work?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nI tested data transfer speed between a 10BaseT connected computer and wireless computer and also from wireless to wireless computer. Although it could be my imagination (or my test technique!) I reached the following conclusions:<\/p>\n\n\nData transfer is slower between wireless nodes when operating through the Bridge vs. operating in “Peer-to-Peer” mode, i.e. without the Bridge.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nTransfer between wireless nodes is faster than transfer between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nHere’s the data I used to reach these conclusions.\u00a0 I used the same 5.30MB zipped file for each of the tests and rounded transfer rates to the nearest 10kbps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nTest Description<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\nTransfer Rate (kbps)<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWith Bridge<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 [10BT] to Laptop [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n141<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n170<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nLaptop to Desktop 2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n250<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWithout Bridge<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop1 [Wireless] to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nNOTES<\/b>:\n1) A Symphony PCI card was added to “Desktop 1”, its 10BaseT connection was disconnected, the Bridge was powered down, and the regular (non-Bridge) drivers were installed on Desktop 2 for the “Without Bridge” tests.\n2) “Laptop”‘s antenna was about 3 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n3) “Desktop 2″‘s antenna was about 10 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n4) “Desktop 1” and “Desktop 2″‘s antennas were located about 10 feet apart.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis data says that you take a\u00a060% hit<\/b>\u00a0in transfer speed when operating\u00a0wireless<\/i>\u00a0nodes through the bridge (vs. Peer-to-Peer) and can\u00a0lose up to 70%<\/b>\u00a0of transfer speed going between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSummary<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThe Bridge is easy to use and solves a problem that would otherwise require fairly advanced networking skills.\u00a0 Although the cost is probably more than you’d want to spend, it’s significantly lower than competitive products (which are geared toward corporate use).<\/p>\nIt’s clear that Proxim has put quality work into the Symphony product line.\u00a0 The documentation is tops, the software is well done, the support Web site contains useful information, and you even get a utility that tells you something about the quality of your wireless connection (something I’d like to see as standard for all wireless and maybe even phoneline networking kits). Unfortunately, using the Bridge will slow your Symphony network significantly, even if you aren’t transferring data between the wired and wireless portions of your network.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Author: Tim Higgins Review Date: 1\/4\/2000 Bottom Line: Easy to install and use but will cost you speed and $. The Stats Product Name Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge\u00a0\u00a0(Bridge) OS Supported Windows 95\/98, NT4 Transmission Method Frequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS) Standard Proprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards. Network Interface 10BaseT Data rate 1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification) 0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured) Price (List \/ Street) $399 \/ as low as $340 This product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Although my installation went very smoothly, there are a few things that you may need to pay attention to, depending on how your network is configured and how you are connected to the Internet:<\/p>\n
Which Bridge configuration to use<\/b>\nSection 6 of the User Manual (Configuring a Symphony Network) does a good job of describing the conditions that may cause you to change the Bridge from its default mode of both NAT routing and “Transparent Bridging”.<\/p>\nIn my case, since the UGateII router was handling Internet access and NAT routing, I changed the Bridge to Transparent Bridging\u00a0only\u00a0<\/i>(the second selection). This got rid of the\u00a010.0.0.X subnet<\/b>\u00a0that the Bridge’s NAT router had assigned to the wireless cards.\u00a0 I then had to reconfigure the TCP\/IP settings on the Symphony PC card so that it was a DHCP client of the\u00a0UGateII<\/i>.\u00a0 When I was done, I had File and Printer sharing\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0Internet access working among all machines, using only the TCP\/IP protocol.<\/p>\nIf this sounds like too much trouble, you could leave the Bridge configuration alone and just add the NetBeui protocol to all machines on the network.<\/p>\nHow many computers on your LAN<\/b>\nThis should not be an issue in small networks, but Proxim says that the Bridge can only support\u00a08 devices<\/b>\u00a0on its\u00a0Ethernet<\/b>\u00a0port.\u00a0 The number of\u00a0Symphony wireless<\/b>\u00a0nodes is limited to\u00a010<\/b>.<\/p>\nAdding protocols<\/b>\nThe installer adds and configures TCP\/IP (and some proprietary Symphony protocols) but does not add NetBeui or IPX\/SPX protocols unless you already have either protocol installed and bound to another network card.\u00a0 In most any network configuration, you should be able to get Internet access from both Ethernet and wireless nodes using TCP\/IP only.\u00a0 However, if you are\u00a0adding wireless nodes to an existing Ethernet network<\/b>, you may need to add the\u00a0NetBeui<\/b>\u00a0or\u00a0IPX\/SPX<\/b>\u00a0protocols to all computers if you have problems seeing wireless computers from wired ones (and vice-versa) in Network Neighborhood.\u00a0 Otherwise, you’ll have to change the operating mode of the Bridge as described above.\n(NOTE<\/b>: This ability to use the non-routable NetBeui and IPX\/SPX protocols is a nice benefit of using a\u00a0Bridge<\/b>\u00a0instead of a\u00a0Router<\/b>\u00a0to handle a LAN with multiple subnets.)<\/p>\nWhich drivers to use<\/b>\nThe Quick Start and User guides have multiple warnings, but it’s worth mentioning that\u00a0you need to use the drivers that come with the Bridge to install any Symphony network cards<\/b>.\u00a0 If you already have a working Symphony network, Proxim provides an Upgrade utility so that you don’t have to uninstall the existing drivers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nOne other small, but important item to note is that the installation wizard walks you through setting up shared drives or folders, but sets\u00a0full permissions with no password<\/b>\u00a0on anything it sets up sharing on and doesn’t warn you that it is doing this.\u00a0 The User Manual does mention password protecting shared resources, but I’d like to see either a warning in the installer or a default of password protection.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nHow’s it Work?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nI tested data transfer speed between a 10BaseT connected computer and wireless computer and also from wireless to wireless computer. Although it could be my imagination (or my test technique!) I reached the following conclusions:<\/p>\n\n\nData transfer is slower between wireless nodes when operating through the Bridge vs. operating in “Peer-to-Peer” mode, i.e. without the Bridge.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nTransfer between wireless nodes is faster than transfer between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nHere’s the data I used to reach these conclusions.\u00a0 I used the same 5.30MB zipped file for each of the tests and rounded transfer rates to the nearest 10kbps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nTest Description<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\nTransfer Rate (kbps)<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWith Bridge<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 [10BT] to Laptop [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n141<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n170<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nLaptop to Desktop 2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n250<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWithout Bridge<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop1 [Wireless] to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nNOTES<\/b>:\n1) A Symphony PCI card was added to “Desktop 1”, its 10BaseT connection was disconnected, the Bridge was powered down, and the regular (non-Bridge) drivers were installed on Desktop 2 for the “Without Bridge” tests.\n2) “Laptop”‘s antenna was about 3 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n3) “Desktop 2″‘s antenna was about 10 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n4) “Desktop 1” and “Desktop 2″‘s antennas were located about 10 feet apart.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis data says that you take a\u00a060% hit<\/b>\u00a0in transfer speed when operating\u00a0wireless<\/i>\u00a0nodes through the bridge (vs. Peer-to-Peer) and can\u00a0lose up to 70%<\/b>\u00a0of transfer speed going between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSummary<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThe Bridge is easy to use and solves a problem that would otherwise require fairly advanced networking skills.\u00a0 Although the cost is probably more than you’d want to spend, it’s significantly lower than competitive products (which are geared toward corporate use).<\/p>\nIt’s clear that Proxim has put quality work into the Symphony product line.\u00a0 The documentation is tops, the software is well done, the support Web site contains useful information, and you even get a utility that tells you something about the quality of your wireless connection (something I’d like to see as standard for all wireless and maybe even phoneline networking kits). Unfortunately, using the Bridge will slow your Symphony network significantly, even if you aren’t transferring data between the wired and wireless portions of your network.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Author: Tim Higgins Review Date: 1\/4\/2000 Bottom Line: Easy to install and use but will cost you speed and $. The Stats Product Name Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge\u00a0\u00a0(Bridge) OS Supported Windows 95\/98, NT4 Transmission Method Frequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS) Standard Proprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards. Network Interface 10BaseT Data rate 1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification) 0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured) Price (List \/ Street) $399 \/ as low as $340 This product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Which Bridge configuration to use<\/b>\nSection 6 of the User Manual (Configuring a Symphony Network) does a good job of describing the conditions that may cause you to change the Bridge from its default mode of both NAT routing and “Transparent Bridging”.<\/p>\n
In my case, since the UGateII router was handling Internet access and NAT routing, I changed the Bridge to Transparent Bridging\u00a0only\u00a0<\/i>(the second selection). This got rid of the\u00a010.0.0.X subnet<\/b>\u00a0that the Bridge’s NAT router had assigned to the wireless cards.\u00a0 I then had to reconfigure the TCP\/IP settings on the Symphony PC card so that it was a DHCP client of the\u00a0UGateII<\/i>.\u00a0 When I was done, I had File and Printer sharing\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0Internet access working among all machines, using only the TCP\/IP protocol.<\/p>\n
If this sounds like too much trouble, you could leave the Bridge configuration alone and just add the NetBeui protocol to all machines on the network.<\/p>\n
How many computers on your LAN<\/b>\nThis should not be an issue in small networks, but Proxim says that the Bridge can only support\u00a08 devices<\/b>\u00a0on its\u00a0Ethernet<\/b>\u00a0port.\u00a0 The number of\u00a0Symphony wireless<\/b>\u00a0nodes is limited to\u00a010<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Adding protocols<\/b>\nThe installer adds and configures TCP\/IP (and some proprietary Symphony protocols) but does not add NetBeui or IPX\/SPX protocols unless you already have either protocol installed and bound to another network card.\u00a0 In most any network configuration, you should be able to get Internet access from both Ethernet and wireless nodes using TCP\/IP only.\u00a0 However, if you are\u00a0adding wireless nodes to an existing Ethernet network<\/b>, you may need to add the\u00a0NetBeui<\/b>\u00a0or\u00a0IPX\/SPX<\/b>\u00a0protocols to all computers if you have problems seeing wireless computers from wired ones (and vice-versa) in Network Neighborhood.\u00a0 Otherwise, you’ll have to change the operating mode of the Bridge as described above.\n(NOTE<\/b>: This ability to use the non-routable NetBeui and IPX\/SPX protocols is a nice benefit of using a\u00a0Bridge<\/b>\u00a0instead of a\u00a0Router<\/b>\u00a0to handle a LAN with multiple subnets.)<\/p>\n
Which drivers to use<\/b>\nThe Quick Start and User guides have multiple warnings, but it’s worth mentioning that\u00a0you need to use the drivers that come with the Bridge to install any Symphony network cards<\/b>.\u00a0 If you already have a working Symphony network, Proxim provides an Upgrade utility so that you don’t have to uninstall the existing drivers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
One other small, but important item to note is that the installation wizard walks you through setting up shared drives or folders, but sets\u00a0full permissions with no password<\/b>\u00a0on anything it sets up sharing on and doesn’t warn you that it is doing this.\u00a0 The User Manual does mention password protecting shared resources, but I’d like to see either a warning in the installer or a default of password protection.<\/p>\n
How’s it Work?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nI tested data transfer speed between a 10BaseT connected computer and wireless computer and also from wireless to wireless computer. Although it could be my imagination (or my test technique!) I reached the following conclusions:<\/p>\n\n\nData transfer is slower between wireless nodes when operating through the Bridge vs. operating in “Peer-to-Peer” mode, i.e. without the Bridge.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nTransfer between wireless nodes is faster than transfer between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nHere’s the data I used to reach these conclusions.\u00a0 I used the same 5.30MB zipped file for each of the tests and rounded transfer rates to the nearest 10kbps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nTest Description<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\nTransfer Rate (kbps)<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWith Bridge<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 [10BT] to Laptop [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n141<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n170<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nLaptop to Desktop 2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n250<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWithout Bridge<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop1 [Wireless] to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nNOTES<\/b>:\n1) A Symphony PCI card was added to “Desktop 1”, its 10BaseT connection was disconnected, the Bridge was powered down, and the regular (non-Bridge) drivers were installed on Desktop 2 for the “Without Bridge” tests.\n2) “Laptop”‘s antenna was about 3 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n3) “Desktop 2″‘s antenna was about 10 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n4) “Desktop 1” and “Desktop 2″‘s antennas were located about 10 feet apart.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis data says that you take a\u00a060% hit<\/b>\u00a0in transfer speed when operating\u00a0wireless<\/i>\u00a0nodes through the bridge (vs. Peer-to-Peer) and can\u00a0lose up to 70%<\/b>\u00a0of transfer speed going between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSummary<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThe Bridge is easy to use and solves a problem that would otherwise require fairly advanced networking skills.\u00a0 Although the cost is probably more than you’d want to spend, it’s significantly lower than competitive products (which are geared toward corporate use).<\/p>\nIt’s clear that Proxim has put quality work into the Symphony product line.\u00a0 The documentation is tops, the software is well done, the support Web site contains useful information, and you even get a utility that tells you something about the quality of your wireless connection (something I’d like to see as standard for all wireless and maybe even phoneline networking kits). Unfortunately, using the Bridge will slow your Symphony network significantly, even if you aren’t transferring data between the wired and wireless portions of your network.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Author: Tim Higgins Review Date: 1\/4\/2000 Bottom Line: Easy to install and use but will cost you speed and $. The Stats Product Name Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge\u00a0\u00a0(Bridge) OS Supported Windows 95\/98, NT4 Transmission Method Frequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS) Standard Proprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards. Network Interface 10BaseT Data rate 1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification) 0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured) Price (List \/ Street) $399 \/ as low as $340 This product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
I tested data transfer speed between a 10BaseT connected computer and wireless computer and also from wireless to wireless computer. Although it could be my imagination (or my test technique!) I reached the following conclusions:<\/p>\n
Data transfer is slower between wireless nodes when operating through the Bridge vs. operating in “Peer-to-Peer” mode, i.e. without the Bridge.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n\nTransfer between wireless nodes is faster than transfer between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nHere’s the data I used to reach these conclusions.\u00a0 I used the same 5.30MB zipped file for each of the tests and rounded transfer rates to the nearest 10kbps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nTest Description<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\nTransfer Rate (kbps)<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWith Bridge<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 [10BT] to Laptop [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n141<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n170<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nLaptop to Desktop 2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n250<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWithout Bridge<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop1 [Wireless] to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nNOTES<\/b>:\n1) A Symphony PCI card was added to “Desktop 1”, its 10BaseT connection was disconnected, the Bridge was powered down, and the regular (non-Bridge) drivers were installed on Desktop 2 for the “Without Bridge” tests.\n2) “Laptop”‘s antenna was about 3 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n3) “Desktop 2″‘s antenna was about 10 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n4) “Desktop 1” and “Desktop 2″‘s antennas were located about 10 feet apart.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis data says that you take a\u00a060% hit<\/b>\u00a0in transfer speed when operating\u00a0wireless<\/i>\u00a0nodes through the bridge (vs. Peer-to-Peer) and can\u00a0lose up to 70%<\/b>\u00a0of transfer speed going between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSummary<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThe Bridge is easy to use and solves a problem that would otherwise require fairly advanced networking skills.\u00a0 Although the cost is probably more than you’d want to spend, it’s significantly lower than competitive products (which are geared toward corporate use).<\/p>\nIt’s clear that Proxim has put quality work into the Symphony product line.\u00a0 The documentation is tops, the software is well done, the support Web site contains useful information, and you even get a utility that tells you something about the quality of your wireless connection (something I’d like to see as standard for all wireless and maybe even phoneline networking kits). Unfortunately, using the Bridge will slow your Symphony network significantly, even if you aren’t transferring data between the wired and wireless portions of your network.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Author: Tim Higgins Review Date: 1\/4\/2000 Bottom Line: Easy to install and use but will cost you speed and $. The Stats Product Name Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge\u00a0\u00a0(Bridge) OS Supported Windows 95\/98, NT4 Transmission Method Frequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS) Standard Proprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards. Network Interface 10BaseT Data rate 1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification) 0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured) Price (List \/ Street) $399 \/ as low as $340 This product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Transfer between wireless nodes is faster than transfer between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Here’s the data I used to reach these conclusions.\u00a0 I used the same 5.30MB zipped file for each of the tests and rounded transfer rates to the nearest 10kbps.<\/p>\n
Test Description<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n
With Bridge<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 [10BT] to Laptop [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n141<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop 1 to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n170<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nLaptop to Desktop 2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n250<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nWithout Bridge<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop1 [Wireless] to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nNOTES<\/b>:\n1) A Symphony PCI card was added to “Desktop 1”, its 10BaseT connection was disconnected, the Bridge was powered down, and the regular (non-Bridge) drivers were installed on Desktop 2 for the “Without Bridge” tests.\n2) “Laptop”‘s antenna was about 3 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n3) “Desktop 2″‘s antenna was about 10 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n4) “Desktop 1” and “Desktop 2″‘s antennas were located about 10 feet apart.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis data says that you take a\u00a060% hit<\/b>\u00a0in transfer speed when operating\u00a0wireless<\/i>\u00a0nodes through the bridge (vs. Peer-to-Peer) and can\u00a0lose up to 70%<\/b>\u00a0of transfer speed going between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSummary<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThe Bridge is easy to use and solves a problem that would otherwise require fairly advanced networking skills.\u00a0 Although the cost is probably more than you’d want to spend, it’s significantly lower than competitive products (which are geared toward corporate use).<\/p>\nIt’s clear that Proxim has put quality work into the Symphony product line.\u00a0 The documentation is tops, the software is well done, the support Web site contains useful information, and you even get a utility that tells you something about the quality of your wireless connection (something I’d like to see as standard for all wireless and maybe even phoneline networking kits). Unfortunately, using the Bridge will slow your Symphony network significantly, even if you aren’t transferring data between the wired and wireless portions of your network.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Author: Tim Higgins Review Date: 1\/4\/2000 Bottom Line: Easy to install and use but will cost you speed and $. The Stats Product Name Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge\u00a0\u00a0(Bridge) OS Supported Windows 95\/98, NT4 Transmission Method Frequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS) Standard Proprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards. Network Interface 10BaseT Data rate 1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification) 0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured) Price (List \/ Street) $399 \/ as low as $340 This product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Desktop 1 [10BT] to Laptop [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n
141<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Desktop 1 to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n
Laptop to Desktop 2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n
Without Bridge<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\nDesktop1 [Wireless] to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n400<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nNOTES<\/b>:\n1) A Symphony PCI card was added to “Desktop 1”, its 10BaseT connection was disconnected, the Bridge was powered down, and the regular (non-Bridge) drivers were installed on Desktop 2 for the “Without Bridge” tests.\n2) “Laptop”‘s antenna was about 3 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n3) “Desktop 2″‘s antenna was about 10 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n4) “Desktop 1” and “Desktop 2″‘s antennas were located about 10 feet apart.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis data says that you take a\u00a060% hit<\/b>\u00a0in transfer speed when operating\u00a0wireless<\/i>\u00a0nodes through the bridge (vs. Peer-to-Peer) and can\u00a0lose up to 70%<\/b>\u00a0of transfer speed going between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSummary<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThe Bridge is easy to use and solves a problem that would otherwise require fairly advanced networking skills.\u00a0 Although the cost is probably more than you’d want to spend, it’s significantly lower than competitive products (which are geared toward corporate use).<\/p>\nIt’s clear that Proxim has put quality work into the Symphony product line.\u00a0 The documentation is tops, the software is well done, the support Web site contains useful information, and you even get a utility that tells you something about the quality of your wireless connection (something I’d like to see as standard for all wireless and maybe even phoneline networking kits). Unfortunately, using the Bridge will slow your Symphony network significantly, even if you aren’t transferring data between the wired and wireless portions of your network.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Author: Tim Higgins Review Date: 1\/4\/2000 Bottom Line: Easy to install and use but will cost you speed and $. The Stats Product Name Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge\u00a0\u00a0(Bridge) OS Supported Windows 95\/98, NT4 Transmission Method Frequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS) Standard Proprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards. Network Interface 10BaseT Data rate 1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification) 0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured) Price (List \/ Street) $399 \/ as low as $340 This product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Desktop1 [Wireless] to Desktop 2 [Wireless]<\/p>\n<\/td>\n
NOTES<\/b>:\n1) A Symphony PCI card was added to “Desktop 1”, its 10BaseT connection was disconnected, the Bridge was powered down, and the regular (non-Bridge) drivers were installed on Desktop 2 for the “Without Bridge” tests.\n2) “Laptop”‘s antenna was about 3 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n3) “Desktop 2″‘s antenna was about 10 feet from the Bridge’s antenna.\n4) “Desktop 1” and “Desktop 2″‘s antennas were located about 10 feet apart.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis data says that you take a\u00a060% hit<\/b>\u00a0in transfer speed when operating\u00a0wireless<\/i>\u00a0nodes through the bridge (vs. Peer-to-Peer) and can\u00a0lose up to 70%<\/b>\u00a0of transfer speed going between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nSummary<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThe Bridge is easy to use and solves a problem that would otherwise require fairly advanced networking skills.\u00a0 Although the cost is probably more than you’d want to spend, it’s significantly lower than competitive products (which are geared toward corporate use).<\/p>\nIt’s clear that Proxim has put quality work into the Symphony product line.\u00a0 The documentation is tops, the software is well done, the support Web site contains useful information, and you even get a utility that tells you something about the quality of your wireless connection (something I’d like to see as standard for all wireless and maybe even phoneline networking kits). Unfortunately, using the Bridge will slow your Symphony network significantly, even if you aren’t transferring data between the wired and wireless portions of your network.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Author: Tim Higgins Review Date: 1\/4\/2000 Bottom Line: Easy to install and use but will cost you speed and $. The Stats Product Name Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge\u00a0\u00a0(Bridge) OS Supported Windows 95\/98, NT4 Transmission Method Frequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS) Standard Proprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards. Network Interface 10BaseT Data rate 1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification) 0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured) Price (List \/ Street) $399 \/ as low as $340 This product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
This data says that you take a\u00a060% hit<\/b>\u00a0in transfer speed when operating\u00a0wireless<\/i>\u00a0nodes through the bridge (vs. Peer-to-Peer) and can\u00a0lose up to 70%<\/b>\u00a0of transfer speed going between Ethernet and wireless nodes.<\/p>\n
Summary<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nThe Bridge is easy to use and solves a problem that would otherwise require fairly advanced networking skills.\u00a0 Although the cost is probably more than you’d want to spend, it’s significantly lower than competitive products (which are geared toward corporate use).<\/p>\nIt’s clear that Proxim has put quality work into the Symphony product line.\u00a0 The documentation is tops, the software is well done, the support Web site contains useful information, and you even get a utility that tells you something about the quality of your wireless connection (something I’d like to see as standard for all wireless and maybe even phoneline networking kits). Unfortunately, using the Bridge will slow your Symphony network significantly, even if you aren’t transferring data between the wired and wireless portions of your network.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Author: Tim Higgins Review Date: 1\/4\/2000 Bottom Line: Easy to install and use but will cost you speed and $. The Stats Product Name Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge\u00a0\u00a0(Bridge) OS Supported Windows 95\/98, NT4 Transmission Method Frequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS) Standard Proprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards. Network Interface 10BaseT Data rate 1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification) 0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured) Price (List \/ Street) $399 \/ as low as $340 This product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The Bridge is easy to use and solves a problem that would otherwise require fairly advanced networking skills.\u00a0 Although the cost is probably more than you’d want to spend, it’s significantly lower than competitive products (which are geared toward corporate use).<\/p>\n
It’s clear that Proxim has put quality work into the Symphony product line.\u00a0 The documentation is tops, the software is well done, the support Web site contains useful information, and you even get a utility that tells you something about the quality of your wireless connection (something I’d like to see as standard for all wireless and maybe even phoneline networking kits). Unfortunately, using the Bridge will slow your Symphony network significantly, even if you aren’t transferring data between the wired and wireless portions of your network.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Author: Tim Higgins Review Date: 1\/4\/2000 Bottom Line: Easy to install and use but will cost you speed and $. The Stats Product Name Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge\u00a0\u00a0(Bridge) OS Supported Windows 95\/98, NT4 Transmission Method Frequency-hopping 2.4GHz spread spectrum (FHSS) Standard Proprietary. Supports only Proxim wireless cards. Network Interface 10BaseT Data rate 1.6Mbps (Manufacturer’s specification) 0.14-0.44Mbps (Measured) Price (List \/ Street) $399 \/ as low as $340 This product is no longer being manufactured. No updates (hardware, firmware, or software) will be made. These pages are provided as a reference only. This product has been replaced by the Symphony <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/bbridge.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n