Infrared and Bluetooth

Infrared and Bluetooth

Today’s wireless network environments are not limited only to 802.11 wireless LAN equipment. As a Network professional, you should be familiar with other popular wireless standards such as infrared and Bluetooth.

Infrared

Infrared wireless is the type of wireless communication that is used by VCR and TV remote controls, along with some computer peripherals. Infrared is typically a line-of-sight technology, which means that the signal is lost if anything blocks the pathway between the two devices. With infrared, the two devices will need to be within one meter of one another.

       Infrared devices contain a transceiver that sends and receives light signals as on-off patterns to create the data that travels at transfer rates up to 4 Mbps. Because line of sight is required, you may need to use a radio frequency solution such as Bluetooth if line of sight becomes an issue.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a radio frequency wireless technology that allows systems to connect to peripherals over a distance of up to 10 meters away. Bluetooth is more flexible than infrared because it will automatically connect to other Bluetooth devices and does not depend on line of sight. This is a popular technology used by handheld devices to connect to other networking components.

     Bluetooth is less susceptible to interference because it uses spread-spectrum frequency hopping, which means that it can hop between any of 79 frequencies in the 2.4 GHz range. Bluetooth hops between frequencies 1600 times per second and provides a transfer rate of up to 1 Mbps.

      Bluetooth is a popular technology with handheld devices such as PDAs and cellphones. Bluetooth is popular with these devices so that users can use their wireless headsets with their cell phones and talk “hands free.”

There are huge security risks with Bluetooth, as it is possible for a hacker to connect to your cell phone remotely via Bluetooth and steal data off your phone. In order to secure your Bluetooth-enabled device, follow these best practices:

• Disable Bluetooth If you are not using the Bluetooth feature on your
phone, then disable Bluetooth through the phone’s menu system.
• Phone Visibility If you are using Bluetooth, then set the phone’s visibility setting to invisible so that hackers cannot pick up on your phone with a Bluetooth scanner.
• Pair Security Ensure you are using a Bluetooth phone that uses pair security, which allows people to connect to your phone only if they know the PIN code you have set on the phone.