On Wed, 23 Feb 2000, Alan Mead wrote:
> I'm not the original poster and I cannot afford any new equipment right
> now... but I'm really interested in wireless networking for my home and
> hoping that Linux will have complete support. So I was following this
> thread and I'd be interested in the details... But I thought that current
> solutions were more like 2.5 megabit not 28 kilobit?
We recently have bought some IR network cards from some mob in Israel (I
think it is called IR-lan).
They come in 2 models: one connects to a running network card or hub
(different cables of course). This model needs a power supply as well. The
second model connects to USB port and does not need any power supply.
The first model is of course supported by any OS, as the device is totally
transparent to the computer; it is just like a cable.
The 2nd model however, needs OS support. We are told by the manufacturer
that only Win98 supports it. Indeed Win98 sees it as a USB network card.
We tried it with 95 and NT4 for a couple of hours to no avail.
I did benchmark those cards. The ones that connect to a network card gave
me around 200-250KB/sec on a large ftp. The USB ones, to my surprise, were
faster; they gave me 600KB/sec download speed on the same large ftp! This
is consistent with the manufacturer (that rates them as 10Mb devices).
We are mounting one of the former model IR-lans in each of our classrooms
here. We have 50 Laptops each with a USB IR-lan device. This way we have a
"roaming" computer lab. It can be setup in minutes; just move the laptops
in, and turn them on.... voila! they're on the network :-)
I would love to get one of those working on my Compaq Laptop, so I
wouldn't have to run a cable across the sitting room every time I want to
use it at home. Unfortunately I need both good USB support and the device
drives for the IR device; both of which are hard to come by in Linux
world :-(
cheers,
Hossein
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