Interoperability-wise, it was easier to connect other vendors' products to Symbol's AP than any other FH AP. Initially, we had difficulty connecting Aironet's PC Card at 2 Mbps. (The units would associate, but we could not transfer files.) After a little tweaking with the Aironet PC Card parameters, we were able to complete our tests. BreezeCOM, Proxim and, as expected, Symbol cards connected out of the box at 2 Mbps. Nortel's card connected also, but it is limited to 1 Mbps. Performance with all the other cards was very good.

At 1.06 Mbps, Symbol's multistation performance was slightly slower than Aironet and BreezeCOM, among the FH products. Its average throughput of 1.01 Mbps in our single-station interoperability tests was second to that of Aironet, but the best among products that achieved interoperability with all other products. In the FH product realm, the Spectrum24 AP finished second to BreezeCOM in our short-range, walled-office and long-range, open-office tests. It was second to Proxim in our long-range closed-office test of FH products. Average performance across all three range tests was optimal at 860 Kbps. Although Symbol shipped its AP with high-gain antennae that it claims are used in virtually all of its installations, we asked for antennae that were more comparable to the other FH APs. (We don't doubt that long-range performance would have been better with the larger antennae.)

Unlike other APs that provide several Ethernet interfaces, Symbol's AP only included a 10BASE-T interface. The vendor states that it's the interface of choice in 95 percent of wireless LAN installations, but it also sells an AP with a fiber interface. While this is a reasonable approach, Aironet's more flexible interface options would be best for a site that wanted to do on-site sparing for a large number of APs deployed in different LAN environments.

From a management perspective, Symbol's AP provides comprehensive capabilities. The console interface, while not quite as easy to navigate as Aironet's, was sufficient in the lab. This AP supports telnet access and includes a Web interface. Plug-ins are available for major network management platforms, including HP OpenView and IBM NetView. Other strengths include its ability to act as a wireless repeater or bridge, strong protocol filtering capabilities and a full range of security options, such as wired equivalent privacy support.

Besides support for Mobile IP, which enables roaming across IP subnets, Spectrum offers the NetVision phone system, an H.323 voice-over-IP system that communicates using standard Spectrum24 access points.

Like its PC Card, the Spectrum24 AP carries a higher price than other products in this space, but its robust feature set somewhat justifies its $1,895 tag.

Aironet Wireless Communications AP3500 Frequency Hopping Wireless Ethernet Access Point
Physically identical to the AP4500 except for labeling, the Aironet AP3500 AP shares the same well-designed configuration and management interfaces. As with InTalk's AP, you can also configure it as a wireless repeater, but not as a wireless point-to-point bridge. Since the 4500 delivers better throughput than the AP3500, Aironet does not offer a wireless point-to-point bridge version of the latter. However, the vendor offers wireless station adapters that let you connect Ethernet and serial devices to a 3500-based network; unfortunately, they are not IEEE-compliant. While the 3500 is a respectable offering, Aironet's long-term strategy appears to emphasize direct-sequence technology; it maintains a presence in the FH camp to serve those applications that can benefit from this alternative.

In the lab, the AP3500 had no trouble communicating with Proxim's and Symbol's PC Cards. In fact, the Proxim card was faster when talking to the AP3500 than its own AP. But we experienced problems with the BreezeCOM PC Card, which would not associate, and Nortel's PC Card, which ran intermittently and was unable to complete our performance tests.

Performance was generally fair; at 1.4 Mbps, the AP3500 was second only to BreezeCOM in our multistation performance tests. In our single-station interoperability tests, the AP3500 had the highest average performance--1.1 Mbps--but those numbers did not include the Nortel product, which we could not get to interoperate properly. In our range tests, the AP3500 turned in average scores as compared with other FH products, but they were only half as good as Aironet's DS AP 4500 offering. At $1,695, the AP3500 is competitively priced.

Proxim 8521 RangeLAN802 802.11 Ethernet Access Point
Given Proxim's significant investment in the proprietary OpenAir wireless LAN technology, some in the industry have questioned its commitment to the 802.11 standard. Nevertheless, the 8521 RangeLAN802 AP is a solid product that incorporates a broad feature set, as well as a decent Web-based configuration and management interface.

Unfortunately, performance is not really one of this product's strong suits. The 8521 turned in the slowest performance of any of the 2-Mbps FH products tested at 920 Kbps. In fact, Proxim's own PC Card achieved better performance when connected to Aironet, BreezeCOM and Symbol APs than it did when connected to the 8521. Furthermore, other PC Cards performed slightly worse with the Proxim AP than with competitive products. The 8521's performance in the multistation tests was also well below average at 683 Kbps. On a positive note, performance in our range tests was better than we would have expected in light of our lab experiences, and at 460 Kbps, it was the best of all FH products in our long-distance, closed-office tests.

Though performance wasn't great, interoperability was solid. We experienced some initial difficulty with BreezeCOM's PC Cards, but some new firmware from BreezeCOM, coupled with adjustments to the 8521's dwell-time parameter, let us complete our testing. Interestingly, to change the dwell-time parameter, we need to secure a special password for the AP from Proxim. This struck us as a rather odd restriction.

From a design and features standpoint, Proxim's AP is competitive with other FH offerings. In addition to the Web-based management interface, Proxim includes support for SNMP and telnet access. The telnet/console interface was not quite as well-designed as the competition, but it worked smoothly during testing.

The 8521 includes a 400-milliwatt radio, helping the AP ace our range tests: It achieved the best performance in our long-distance closed-office test of any FH product tested, despite its lower overall average scores. The 8521's $1895 price tag is identical to Symbol's, but considerably more than other FH APs we tested.

BreezeCOM BreezeNET AP-10 PRO.11 Access Point
BreezeCOM AP-10 PRO.11 Access Point's most notable aspect is its diminutive size. Smaller than a typical paperback book, the AP-10 packs a lot of functionality into a modest form factor. Nevertheless, BreezeCOM makes a few compromises: A 10BASE-T interface is your only network interface option, and you'll need a proprietary cable to connect to the console port. Another potential limitation is the relatively small, fixed antenna configuration, which hindered our range tests. An optional modular antenna configuration is available.

In terms of configuration and management, BreezeCOM's AP did not support telnet or HTTP access, so we were confined to the console port or SNMP. According to the vendor, a Web interface should be available by the time you read this. The console configuration screens were easy to navigate during testing. While the AP-10 supports IP protocol filtering, it does not offer MAC-address filtering, a capability included in all of the other FH products we tested.

Like BreezeCOM's SA-PCR PC-Card, the AP-10 has a high-speed 3-Mbps mode for a significant performance boost. While some may criticize this as proprietary, BreezeCOM supports 802.11 devices at 1 Mbps and 2 Mbps, so you really aren't sacrificing standards compliance for performance.

The BreezeCOM PRO.11 turned in the best overall performance numbers of any of the DH products tested, except for problems we experienced getting Symbol's PC card to maintain a 2-Mbps connection. In our range tests, BreezeCOM's AP did not fare quite as well. While performance was the best of any FH product in our long-distance open-office and short-distance walled-office tests, we could not maintain association with the AP during our long-distance, walled-office test.

The BreezeCOM AP's cost is quite low, offering excellent performance at a superior value.