Subj : Re: Learned something new To : Ky Moffet From : August Abolins Date : Wed Jul 24 2024 22:47:00 Hello Ky.Moffet! ** On Tuesday 23.07.24 - 20:50, Ky.Moffet wrote to August Abolins: >> Hello Ed.Vance! > I can't find Ed's message on the topic, but anyway. Pretend > you're Ed. I'm talkin' to Ed. :) OK. I'll try. But I can't speak for Ed! LOL >>> The early searches for Bluetooth devices came up with a >>> image of a BT device that had a jack for a CAT-5 plug. >> >> Surely.. that would be easily found, it it existed. Maybe you >> misremember what the device was for. > There's no such thing. You're probably remembering a USB-to- > Ethernet adapter. ... I'm guessing the same thing. But maybe Ed thought it was something else. > Bluetooth is much less secure and a lot more likely to > randomly fail to connect. Especially does not work well with > XP. I have a BT adapter on my XP64 box for no good reason, > because it won't connect with any modern devices, and only > sees about half of them. Its only virtue is it's old enough > that the driver is for XP. There are about 5 generations of BT now. My XP laptop (a thinkpad TP40) worked well with an original generation Kobo's BT feature. It was really convenient to transfer ebook downloads via BT to the Kobo. Later Kobo models abandoned the BT feature. Meanwhile, even a later model Thinkpad T60 (also XP) simply does not work with newer BT devices. >> So.. your idea is to feed BT from your phone, to the Router, >> and then feed eth to your laptop? > Wired ethernet is more reliable and WAAAAY faster (20x to > 200x depending on your port capacity). But wifi does work > reliably with XP. The problem is that Ed's internet is supplied by the phone right now, and he refuses to use wifi. There is no "wired" way to feed the internet from the phone to his XP laptop. I really don't understand his reluctance to enable hotspot mode using wifi on the phone and feed the internet the XP laptop's wifi that way. His wife could even continue to use the phone while it's operating in hotspot mode. He'd be able to use his XP laptop and enjoy the larger screen and normal keyboard many months ago! Or.. maybe he truly does enjoy using the smaller screen and virtual keyboard on the phone afterall. > Wifi will never be as secure as wired, because it's broadcast > to the world, and you need to make sure security is set (if > not on by default). He has some kind Moto model of smartphone (I'm too lazy to check older messages for the specific one). It would have built in security for hotspot mode. As long as Ed configures a good password he should be fine and it wouldn't matter if the phone's SSID is "broadcast to the world". > One of my small entertainments is watching wifi-enabled cars > go by on the highway. It's about 200 feet away but they still > show up on any device that's looking for wifi. Some are > secure, but many are not. Hmmm.. I scan the environment for other wifi devices too from time to time. I use Fing on one of my smartphones for that. I work at a storefont that is right next to the main street in town. I'd see an SSID show up and then it would disappear a minute or two later. The one's I've seen have all been secure. I haven't noticed an open one. -- ../|ug .