If you're in an environment with Apple or Lucent access points, you should experience no problems with the SkyLine device on Microsoft Windows or Macintosh. If you have other access points, you also should have no problems--as long as you don't use WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), the encryption program used on 802.11 wireless LANs. Our Macintosh using WEP exhibited odd behavior when connected to a Cisco Systems Aironet access point. And our Windows laptop wouldn't even connect to the Aironet access point using WEP. Farallon says it has identified the problem and is working on a solution.

What's Your GUI?

Farallon's new SkyLine card is offered in a much better form factor than its old 2-Mbps product. New to the Macintosh platform with this revision is WEP encryption. The Macintosh control panel used to configure the SkyLine, which was already very clean, has improved as well. The Windows interface is exactly like that of the older SkyLine product and is similar to other Windows configurations I have seen.

The company must have listened to our complaints about the obtrusive external portion of the card. Now the external antenna housing is much smaller and doesn't stick out quite as far from the side of my Apple PowerBook. Like the older card, the new SkyLine does not support external antennae. If you need more gain, you will need to get a Lucent Orinoco card. The LED displays on the SkyLine card are still nearly useless. The only worthwhile indicator is whether the card is associated with the access point.

The improved Macintosh control-panel interface adds a number of options. Previously, you were required to type the ESSID (Extended Service Set ID) into a text field or type in an asterisk to use any access point. Now, a pop-up menu lets you choose "Select the best" (automatically uses strongest access point), "Select from list" or "Select other." The first option let me use my laptop at the office and at home without mucking with the configuration, even though the ESSIDs are different.

All Protocols Not Created Equal

Using the SkyLine card in our multiprotocol environment was not as smooth as I would have liked. TCP/ IP compatibility was excellent. When using AppleTalk, however, I needed to configure the encapsulation method depending on the access point. With MacIPX, the SkyLine card works properly only with NetWare's 802.2 framing, which made it useless in our 802.3 framed network.

AppleTalk encapsulation is a bit picky, depending on the access point's frame-translation method. Therefore, Farallon lets you select the translation method: "encapsulation," "translation--Apple/Lucent" or "translation--other." I left the configuration on "translation--Apple/Lucent" and had no problem with the Lucent or Aironet access points. It is possible there are other access points with which AppleTalk has difficulty. The Lucent card has no such configuration, and I had no problems.

Performance Is Where It's At

The biggest improvement, obviously, over the previous SkyLine is the 11-Mbps throughput that comes with 802.11b compliance. I ran the SkyLine card through a ton of performance tests using both Aironet and Lucent access points. I used Panic Software's Transmit (FTP client) for Macintosh to look at throughput.

While working with my client in nonencrypted mode, I saw performance averaging close to 5 Mbps, which was comparable to that of the Lucent card with both access points. When I enabled WEP with the b1 driver, however, the download performance dropped dramatically, to about 1.7 Mbps. Farallon told me the hardware-encryption routines on the card are slow, and the company promptly updated me to the latest driver, which does WEP encryption in software. Software-based WEP improved performance to about 4 Mbps, but it still fell short of the Lucent Orinoco card. My PowerBook G3 was unaffected by this added CPU requirement. However, this software may exact a greater performance penalty on slower PowerBooks.

WEP There Yet?

During my WEP work, I soon realized that interoperability in WEP devices is close to plug and play. I worked with three different methods of entering the WEP key. Apple uses its cute "network password," which is magically hashed into a WEP key. Lucent supports entering either five ASCII character keys or 10 hex keys. Aironet supports the 10-hex method.

In the control panel, I was allowed to configure four different keys, which is on par with most other 802.11b cards. Apple AirPort requires the key to be entered manually every time access points or WEP keys are switched. I like being able to statically configure the key and forget about it. However, this can create a security problem as the laptop automatically connects to the network.

Although SkyLine's WEP interoperability is still suspect, Farallon is working on making it compatible with all access points. On the Macintosh, I was able to enter the WEP key as 10 hex characters, five ASCII characters or Apple's network password. This is a more flexible interface than any product I have tested. The Windows configuration was not as flexible.

Vendor Information:

SkyLine 11 Mb Wireless PC Card, $219.
Available: Now.
Farallon Communications, (510) 346-8001; fax (510) 346-8117, www.farallon.com

Send your comments on this article to Robert J. Kohlhepp at rkohlhepp@nwc.com.