Compex iRE201 Infrared Wireless Access Point

The irdaNet iRE201 wireless access point is surprisingly a very small unit. It’s no bigger than your palm and it’s about 1 ½ inches thick. It reminds me of some kind of space age robot, with its black front head unit and silver back.

 

It’s certainly not the flashiest unit in town, nevertheless, it’s guaranteed to attract curious bystanders just to see what the iRE201 really is. If you’re somewhat repulsed by its looks, it’s so small you can easily hide it away in some corner of your room/office.

Compex also includes an extended Infrared transducer in order to provide a wider range for wireless activity. Make not that, the iRE201 wireless access point is not based on the 802.11b wireless standard.

As the specifications state, this is a infrared device which connects to a network and/or internet. There are a few quirks of irda devices that needs to be mentioned. Firstly irda devices do not have a long range as 802.11b wireless standards. These only work around a range of 3 feet or so. Since such a small range would make the iRE201 a very impractical unit to most consumers, and thankfully Compex includes an extended Infrared transducer which increases the units range to about 6 feet. This is still not all that great, yet certainly better than 3 feet. The range issue is merely a technological limitation and shouldn’t be mistaken of anything else.

Taking a look at the rear of the unit the iRE201 consists of a 10/100Mbps RJ45 port to connect to a network or cable modem. The IrDA Mini Dim Connector located next to it is used to connect the Extended IrDA Transducer. The RS232 Console port is for connecting an external modem if required, and of course the power jack is for powering the unit.

Well that’s about it for the physical description of the unit. So now lets see how we setup this iRE201. We’ll be connecting the unit to our existing network and we’ll be using a Compaq iPAQ PDA for testing purposes.

Here are a few more pics of the unit;