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Wireless USB hubs
HaggiZ writes "Here is alternative to the clutter of USB cables and keys sitting on your desk. Now Belkin has announced their own wire-free USB setup. It's a wireless USB hub, allowing your to plug devices into the hub and have your PC/laptop elsewhere and not need to worry about running cables along the livingroom or study to reach. Very handy for laptop users, I can imagine some very handy uses for so HTPCs as well. Shipping in spring for a shave under $130."
Wireless USB is a lot faster, according to specs it has 480 Mbit/s, whereas Bluetooth is only 721 kbit/s.
Sigs are bad for your health
Ooh, Slashdot short memory! Don't forget we're not buying Belkin after the fiasco with their routers redirecting occasional DNS requests to the Belkin website to show an advert.
Happened a little over a year ago and Slashdot was up in arms about it!
High bandwidth DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN LOW LAG!!!!
Even in ethernet the time to send the first byte dwarfs the per byte cost. The connection could still have a bit of latency even if the bandwidth is high...
Monstar L
Clearly Tesla coils are the solution.
Sounds like Belkin is competing with this (and I assume other similar) product:
http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/server/
Haven't used it, but I'm intrigued by the idea.
This articleo th/index.php
http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/05/09/uwbblueto
Dicusses the use of Bluetooth as a mediator between the different UWB implementations.
Will the Belkin/Freescale units interoperate with future products using Intel Wimedia? Or is the proposal in the MacWorld article just what is needed for speedier and wireless USB connections?
Any info on the security implications of carrying your precious "data" around on a high-speed wireless usb key?
Other than that I'd be very pleased to diminish the rats nest of cables and be able to place things like scanners independent of the computers location.
# ~: no sigs today
Look here:
http://www.usb.org/about/faq/ans5#q4
It describes the maximum length of cable and the next question describes what to do to extend the range.
I dunno. The specs. are the same as the Linksys WRT54GS, only with 2 USB ports. I think that's 8Mb of flash RAM in total; but I'm fuzzy on all that.
Have a look over at OpenWRT.org, and check out the list of packages & requirements available in their distro. Their distro is quite nice, in that installation is absolutely minimal to what is required, saving the remaining space to install, oh, let's say the Asterisk PBX package for example. Even pptp is 'optional'.
OpenWRT has a great chart of which routers are supported, plus their specs.
The asterisk possibility got me really excited, but I haven't had the time to play further. Still I kinda think that while it is a great router plus NAS, the CPU is a wee bit underpowered for full Asterisk, for example. But so what?! Its still a heckuva little server for a neat price. If it can run Asterisk, it must be able to run your libraries, but I dunno.
Here's some related info too.
What Linux package supports a webcam? The Asus stock firmware supports the webcam, but those bright purple gui colors just scream "void my warranty and flash me properly with a real Linux distro!"
You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
So true. And yet another dongle eating up a port...
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
Can't answer definitively, but so far, most manufaturers of early UWB devices are quoting ~30ft usable range.
1. It doesn't exist yet. At the Belkin booth at CES they showed the plastics but nothing inside. Instead they took me over to these two huge boxes that were performing the USB function. When I laid my hands on the box I think I left no less than 3-layers of skin. (it's hot, really hot). This product is not going to be ready for prime-time in March.
2. It isn't interoperable with any other UWB technology that is going to be introduced in the market place during 2nd half of 06'. This product is using Freescales proprietary UWB chipset. WiMedia, the clear winner of the UWB standards issues has much more market traction and pull behind it. Companies like Intel, Microsoft, Samsung, Toshiba, and Dell are behind WiMedia. With these gorillas behind this solution its only a matter of time before Freescale and its DS technology go obsolete or they buy a WiMedia company. UWB is going to be a revolutionary point to point wireless technology, but it has to be done properly, with interoperability events and multiple chip vendors. Proprietary solutions in this day and age do not work for the end consumer because the consumer want to have a choice in what they are buying.
Take my advice and wait on a product that will truly meet market needs.
Regards,
UWB-Guru