Belkin Shows Bevy of Wireless Tools
Adapters, extenders, and servers help users set up and share wireless access.Mike Hogan, special to PCWorld.com
NEW YORK-- Belkin, known for its assortment of connectivity devices, is extending its line of handy adapters, dongles, and doo-dads--most of them wireless--at this week's TechXNY show here.
Among the new entries: USB adapters that create personal networks, access points, print servers, and a wireless Gaming Adapter.
Instant Example
Many of the new accessories have odd--even avante garde--shapes, and most are low-cost. Many are unusual combinations you never thought you'd need. But then perhaps you're at a trade show with a notebook that's just a cable, port, or adapter shy of an Internet connection. For reasons too maddening to enumerate--such as hard-wired room jacks, business center PCs without hard drives or e-mail editors, or overcrowded public Wi-Fi hotspots--you might need a wireless workaround.
For example, Belkin is showing two new Bluetooth-enabled USB adapters to establish an ad hoc personal area network (PAN) between two or more Bluetooth-capable devices. Its model FBT003 supports the standard 33-foot Bluetooth range for a wireless handshake between, say, a laptop and a Web-connected cell phone. About the size of a fountain pen cap and priced at $30, the FBT003 is small enough and cheap enough to appear regularly in any road warrior's luggage. Its 721-kilobit-per-second bandwidth (typically performing at 300 to 400 kbps) suffices for exchanging sizable files rapidly or even for sharing a broadband connection.
For handling a wider circle of friends, Belkin offers the slightly larger model F8T001, with a pop-up antenna that extends its transmission range to 333 feet. Priced at $40, the FBT001 can handle traffic for up to seven Bluetooth devices, including the one whose USB port it uses.
The FBT001 is clearly appropriate to some analysts' unrealized vision of strangers connecting at trade shows, shopping malls, and sporting events to create temporary PANs for business data-swapping, gaming, or personal networking.
While still rare today, both USB and Bluetooth connections are appearing in high-end cell phones, digital cameras, and other consumer devices. Eventually, both are likely to become common features of phones at all price points. Both Belkin models include user authentication and 128-bit encryption, so you can decide when to connect--and with whom.
Resource-Sharing Aids
Another device on an impromptu PAN could be Belkin's Bluetooth Access Point with USB Print Server, which is meant to give multiple users wireless access to a wired network, USB-equipped printer, or Internet connection (either broadband or dial-up).
This $149 modem-size box has the same 33-foot range as the FBT001, plus an Ethernet port for a wired LAN connection and two USB ports for printers. It can handle print jobs from both wired and Bluetooth-connected devices.
For even wider connectivity, Belkin offers its new Bluetooth GPS Adapter for use with a personal digital assistant or notebook. This adapter can pinpoint your location and provide turn-by-turn directions to your destination on your computer display, courtesy of the bundled Belkin software. Audio-equipped devices can simultaneously broadcast the directions audibly. The GPS Adapter isn't much bigger than a folded flip phone and is expected to cost $300 when it ships in December.
Wireless Recreation
When you escape the trade show, you and a friend might relax with a multiplayer Internet game enabled by Belkin's 802.11g Wireless Gaming Adapter.
The $130 wireless access point, scheduled to ship November 1, is ostensibly a recreational device that lets multiple users share the Internet connection of a PC or gaming console.
As homes continue to be populated with increasingly sophisticated recreational devices like Media PCs, TIVOs and Xbox consoles, however, Belkin expects telecommuters to take advantage of their computing power to do real work--if they can be networked together.