Xircom (Intel) just recently released what I trust to be a competing product to Apple's Airconnect series - the Wireless Ethernet Access Point.

The link to their page is here.

It seems to be a fairly nice looking gadget and even the price is quite competitive. Now I've been threading through a bit and seen some projects about ppl hooking up to their Empeg's while the car is parked outside, with the Empeg inside it.. Can this gadget be utilized as (I think it can) the gateway to reach Empeg with fex. your laptop with a wireless ethernet card in it? Don't go too far into describing how, I know how, what I am wondering is how to fit this gadget with the Empeg and especially, what kind of gadget do I need to make it work with my car's battery...as I'm going to be installing an external amplifier (wonder why ;P) and a subwoofer, perhaps the RJ45 from the Empeg car slot could go along those audio wires I am going to have to get through to the trunk (VW Golf type 4) for those.. and power could be somehow supplied from there too so I could place the wave-LAN thing onto the 'hat compartment' in the back.

The tech specs are located here. I'm not a Macintosh man so I will rather support Xircom (Intel) this time.


Amarth

(Just a quick fix here before I start, it's Apple Airport and 3Com Airconnect)

Looking at the specs, I do see 802.11b, so it should work fine. The main reason the Apple Airport is talked about here is that it was the cheapest wireless abse station for 802.11b. It's the reason I persoanlly own one for my PC laptop. With free PC configurator programs, it works fine in a mixed enviornment. There are many other choices out there now as well, since people finally realised consumers wanted 802,11b but didn't want to pay $800 or more for the "corporate" base stations.

(Also, when did Intel buy Xircom? I missed that one)

Have a search on Orinoco on this BBS, I prefer this solution, as you dont need a bridge in the car. With the Orinoco solution, the bridge is in the house and just wireless card in the car. I did need to supply 5v to the card in the car though, and its not ideal leaving the empeg and 5v supply live in the car overnight.

- --
Rod, UK Mk2 64gig Red S/No.341

March 8, 2001
Intel Successfully Completes Xircom Tender Offer

March 5, 2001
Intel Extends Timing of Tender Offer for Xircom

March 5, 2001
Intel Reports Progress On Xircom Acquisition

March 1, 2001
Intel Receives Regulatory Approvals for Acquisition of Xircom, Inc.

January 15, 2001
Xircom Files Merger Agreement With SEC

January 15, 2001
Intel to Acquire Xircom for Approximately $748 Million

Ok, I though you needed the a Macintosh to configure the Apple Airport. Guess I read the thread too fast or missed another where this was corrected.

Anyhow, Xircom says:
The Wireless Ethernet Access Point (Model: APWE1120) has a U.S. suggested retail price of $349.00. A Wireless Ethernet Starter Kit (Model: APWE-STRKIT), which includes the Access Point and two Xircom CreditCard Wireless Ethernet Adapters, at a suggested retail price of $649.

So, not too bad either. I will check on Orinoco next.

Amarth

I am planning on putting samba to run on Empeg among with a local ftpd type server plus the good old patched SSH1 for shell connections so that I can

a) access Empeg from any nearby laptop with a wavelan card, straight through normal windows networking (w2k / w9x) and for example have winamp play straight from a samba Empeg mounted disk.

b) FTP is just another great service I may wish to have around, though it has its well-known flaws in fex. security. This would be one of the optimal file-transfer method from our local unix-boxes.

c) get logged on to the Empeg through a shell (love bash) and compile the kernel or mess around with the linux itself from afar with SSH, preferrably version 1 with the last security patches.

I'm not so familiar with this wavelan system yet as I have not had a chance to mess with one.. but I trust it is not much different than working the normal Network Interface Cards PCMCIA or PCI.

What I'm worried of is whether the wavelan range is good enough, we have a huge parking hall just under our apartments, I live on the 3rd floor and my car is parked physically straight under my apartment in the 0 floor..but there's some walls/floors between - the distance is not that great though.

Another point is how can I configure Empeg and the Ethernet wavelan device to be active (ie. powered) fex. during certain times so that my car battery won't get ruined..or is there no such possibility if the car is used daily? (the power consumption issue)

Amarth

I am planning on putting samba to run on Empeg among with a local ftpd type server plus the good old patched SSH1

Running Samba alone works fine, but running those three simultaneously might be a challenge, and practically impossible if you expect to run player at the same time.

a) access Empeg from any nearby laptop with a wavelan card, straight through normal windows networking (w2k / w9x) and for example have winamp play straight from a samba Empeg mounted disk.

Streaming files from empeg thru Samba is possible (if you don't run any other applications simultaneously) but playing music in WinAmp is probably quite uncomfortable as the filenames are just sequence of numbers and are not related to the music name (although the ID3 tags are available). Emplode is much more comfortable .

c) get logged on to the Empeg through a shell (love bash) and compile the kernel or mess around with the linux itself from afar with SSH, preferrably version 1 with the last security patches.

Forget compiling kernel inside empeg, it's way too big and has way too many dependencies. Compiling smaller projects is fine, as far as they don't use STL or other huge libraries.

I don't want to sound discouraging, but remember that empeg is not a file server - it does not have unlimited amount of memory and CPU power.

Kim

..I could tell you that I'm extremely happy with the Apple Airport product - very fast.. accross my cable modem, hooking up via ethernet I get a raw speed of about 350kbs - accross natt'd airport (using lucent cards) it drops to about 330kbs or so - not a significant drop at all...

There's several different utilities to configure the apple airport via pc's...

I've tested other access points on the market (such as the Linksys one) - significant problems...
-mark

...proud to have owned an Empeg since 00287