Why did Sony skip the Irda port?

[hfhintzen]

I am currently using a PCG F403 notebook, much to my satisfaction. It talks to my phone and my brand new Sony Clie (NR70V/E, foldable type) over the IrDa port.
Now I want to upgrade to a new VAIO notebook and to my surprise I find Sony doesn't support Infra Red any more. This would be ok if they'd switched to bluetooth all the way. But neither the notebooks nor the Clie support that.
In fact, irda is the only way the Clie talks to the world wirelessly.
What is the idea behind this? Aren't Sony products supposed to work together? How do I connect to the Net using my phone?

Herman

[dogscoff]

I agree. Some kind of wireless connection would have been nice, IrDa, bluetooth or *something*. You shlule be able to get a USB or serial cable for your phone - they are quite cool because they charge the phone from the PC.

[AlanHudson]

Can't that Clie take the Bluetooth Memory Stick?

[pchow_uk]

In the short term it's gonna be a bind as both my Ericsson SH888 and Handspring Treo have IR ports but it is a pain having to line up the IR ports when I'm using the Ericsson IR modem and I mostly use the USB cable for the Treo as it's so much faster than IR.

I bought a cheap USB IR widget that works well and now you can get USB IR dongles so you don't have a little box on a string hassle.

Bluetooth stuff is the way to go though as then I'll be able to use stuff when it's still in my bag or pocket! No need to dig out the phone to use it's modem.

What I really want is a Bluetooth Ethernet base station (if such a thing exists). Sure you only get 700k -ish bandwidth but that's plenty for connecting to the internet (my cable modem is only rated at 512k anyhow). Then I can pick up and put down my little C1 when I'm watching TV and they mention some web page without getting tangled in string. A full wireless ethernet card would be overkill.

[twynne]

Sorry for hijacking the thread, but take a look at the Inventel BlueDSL (Bluetooth ADSL router) - it's one of the best purchases I've ever made. Every once in a while someone lists one on eBay and you can snap it up fairly cheap. There are other models on the market, but I'm v. pleased with Inventel.

Good luck,
Tom

[pchow_uk]

Cheers. I'd seen some pages for Bluetooth ADSL / ISDN routers but I'm waiting for an Ethernet one. I have Telewest Blueyonder cable (having had a run-in with BT a couple of years ago and vowed never to give them another penny as long as I live...)

The Motorola cable modem has an Ethernet 10 port on it and that goes into my browser PC which is also a firewall proxy for the rest of the network on a Ethernet 100 hub. It's sad but true - this is my house we're talking about

[twynne]

Sounds as bad as my flat. I use the BlueDSL as a DSL modem on my wireless (802.11) network as well. So I can access the DSL either via bluetooth, wireless, or plug direclty into the hub at 100mbps. Mates love it when they visit as they can bring a laptop and be constantly online. :smileygrin:

The bluedsl actually has the standard plug for DSL, but also an ethernet and a USB connection. Nonetheless I don't think this will work for you. But Inventel also make a product call EtherBlue which might do the trick. Take a look at their website.

Take care,

Tom

[twynne]

Take a look here:

http://www.bluedsl.net/etherblue_descript_eng.htm

[pchow_uk]

Thanks. The Etherblue thingy looks just the ticket. It will plug into the hub and has a DHCP relay and some encryption.

I don't know how secure these things are compared to 802.11b kit. The Etherblue claims to have a range of up to 100m instead of the normal 10m so it's possible that someone could hijak your connection...

The Lucent Wavelan stuff we use at work has registered MAC addresses as part of it's security so you have to register each PC card with the base station. I'll have to read up on how to configure the BlueSpace software.

[twynne]

Well if it works like the bluedsl (which i assume it does) the security is within the bluetooth connection. You can only pair with the inventel products when you put them in pairing mode - otherwise they're not discoverable at all. And you should also be able to encrypt the bluetooth connection for add'l security.