Back in the Seventies, to be “groovy” (cool) you had to be wired, man. This meant either that you hardly ever slept, had an insatiable appetite for exotic substances, or that you wore a Walkman 24-7 and had two Wharfedale speakers mounted above your bed, their cables festooning the bedroom chandelier like a ship’s bunting.
Fast forward three decades, and now it’s cool to be wireless. Even if you still had speakers in the bedroom they’d be bereft of cables these days – though chances are your partner would not tolerate such boy’s toys in the boudoir.
My own setup is more practical. My partner and I both work from home, inhabiting offices separated by a corridor wherein resides Hal, the Wi-Fi Internet gateway (aka modem).
Our laptops connect wirelessly but, until now, my desktop PC has been tethered to cyberspace by a cable snaking under the office door and across the corridor (albeit partially concealed by an antelope hide that parted company from its owner to pursue a career in interior design).
Last week I gave the desktop machine a new lease of life with a long overdue upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 and replacing the inelegant Ethernet cable with a cool wireless adaptor.
This consists of a tiny USB Wi-Fi dongle from Sandberg, the Danish manufacturer whose products almost always impress.
Installing the software from the manufacturer’s CD was a breeze. A quick reboot, then just plug in Sandberg’s Wi-Fi adaptor to a vacant USB port and away we go.
I confess that I left the old Ethernet cable on the floor for a few days while I waited to see if the Wi-Fi dongle would behave itself, but any fears were groundless. The wireless link seems every bit as fast as the cable, with the added advantage that the neighbour’s dog can’t chew on it.
The Sandberg Micro Wi-Fi USB Dongle, to give the device its official title, is decent value at €22.31 ex VAT. It works with all recent flavours of Windows, from XP to Win 7, as well as Mac OS and Ubuntu 10 & 11. Its tiny size ensures you can’t accidentally bend it or damage the USB port, which is a potential risk with full-size adaptors if the computer lives on the floor.
For those who like to pour over specs, here’s the low-down:-
* compatible with IEEE 802.11b/g/n standards
* compliant with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed
* indoor range: 100m
* outdoor range: 300m
* frequency band: 2.4000 ~ 2.4835GHz
* data rate: 150/72/54/48/36/24/18/12/9/6/5.5/2/1 Mbit/s auto fallback
* security: 64/128 Bit Key Length WEP Encryption, WPA and WPA2
* supports WPS function
* built-in antenna
* transmit power: 13~18 dBm
The device offers push-button encryption for fire-and-forget security that could not be more simple to set up.
Not sure what to do with the redundant Ethernet cable. It seems a shame to cast out such a loyal and faithful servant after so many years. Maybe I’ll drape it, like a Hawaiian lei, around the neck of the of the wall-mounted antelope head and hope Herself doesn’t notice.
www.sandberg.it
Cliff Hutton
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