July/Aug 2005

You hear more and more talk of wireless networks, yet in your own business you may well still be stuck in the land of fixed Ethernet cabled networks. Is it possible to migrate to wireless without replacing all your old equipment?

Yes, says Symbol - and to make it achievable the company has announced a new device called the CB3000 client bridge. In essence, you connect your network devices to this, using their existing Ethernet cabled links, and then the bridge device connects them all to a wireless network. Abracadabra - you're wireless-enabled!

Up to 16 devices can be connected to each CB3000. The company suggests it could be used for equipment such as printers, scales, medical equipment, manufacturing machinery, time clocks and point-of-sale devices and systems; but they could be anything really, providing the item has an RJ45 Ethernet socket. That even includes computers, of course, although you can usually insert a networking card directly into these, so there's less need here.

Symbol says there is a real demand for this kind of capability - especially among users who need to reconfigure their physical environment regularly, or alter it to match seasonal peaks - or those who simply want to release existing devices from their fixed location, and effectively make them mobile.