In addition to Web access and email, you can also wirelessly synchronize your Visor using the SpringPort card and HotSync application. Setup is a little confusing because you set up your device as if it were dialing into the network via a modem using the network preferences you set up for the card. Once set up, it works flawlessly, however, and is as fast or faster than a USB (Universal Serial Bus) connection. The only flaw I can find isn't Xircom's fault: there's no Macintosh support for LAN synchronization in the HotSync application. As a Macintosh user, I hope Handspring or Palm will add this soon!

Performance
A frequent question with any wireless network product is wireless range. This is a very difficult question to answer, because at the frequency (2.4 Ghz) WiFi networks operate, walls, furniture, and even plants or the human body can affect radio propagation. Rather than measure distance, which is virtually meaningless to you, I compared the SpringPort module's range with two other wireless devices, an Apple PowerBook G4 with Airport and Apple PowerBook G3 with a Farallon card. The SpringPort performed as well as either machine, and it often outperformed the Apple PowerBook G4 by several feet. If you already have a wireless network, expect the SpringPort to do as well as your existing wireless clients. If you don't, your mileage may vary: I've seen ranges anywhere from fifty feet to several hundred feet, depending on where the access point is and what materials are between the wireless client and the access point.

As with any other WiFi network, you can extend range by adding multiple base stations interconnected with wired Ethernet. At my location, I have two Apple Airport base stations connected to the in-building Ethernet, letting wireless users freely roam over the building and surrounding area. Wireless clients on a WiFi network, including SpringPort Wireless Ethernet Module users, can seamlessly roam between access points. Not surprisingly, this feature worked flawlessly with the Xircom module; I was able to perform a HotSync, while jogging, between the two wireless access points. As I did so, the Visor never skipped a beat (although my heart did by the end)!

It's difficult to give an honest assessment of the SpringPort's true speed, primarily because the included applications aren't optimized for a wireless network, and neither HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) nor POP provide good benchmarking for network performance anyway. It's certainly fast enough to be useful, however. Both Blazer and Palm MultiMail perform more than adequately. Although I have no evidence one way or the other, I would conjecture that performance limitations are probably within software running on Palm OS, and not the wireless module itself.

Speaking of software, any third party application using the Palm OS TCP/IP stack should work out of the box with the module. To test this, I used the SpringPort module with AvantGo (at http://www.avantgo.com). Not surprisingly, AvantGo's modem (network) synchronization works without a hitch. Using AvantGo to browse pages while connected works well, too, although I prefer Blazer, simply because it renders as the page loads.