Lifedrive Essentials: Bluetooth -- The Other Broadband (The Axis 9010)

A year ago when I bought my Lifedrive, I tinkered around with at least two broadband devices for wifi access. I already had a hardwire router and did not want to change over to a wireless router since I did so very little wireless computing to begin with. I picked up a D-Link router (purchased at a store opening for $10) and tried to use it as an Access Point. This was just plain stupidity and led to a few wasted hours trying to do configurations which would just end up in the router trying to be ...well, a router instead of an Access Point. I then picked up a Linksys Access Point and this, for the most part, worked very well. However, it was not without its own problems. The Lifedrive was very finnicky and crashed on several occasions. Yes it was very fast downloading files and webpages in what appeared to be no-time flat. But along with this wonderful speed came a few problems:

1. The Link was essentially always on.
2. Always on would lead to about a 15-30 minute battery life.
3. Security was a major issue. I found a few names accessing the Access Point that were not mine. A problem resolved when I changed to WPA instead of WEP.
4. The Lifedrive (1.0 OS) was essentially unstable after leaving Versamail and Blazer.

Then, the Access Point would run into other problems. For some unknown reason once I changed the encryption from WEP to WPA for greater security, the Lifedrive would tend to crash or slow down considerably. The longer the WPA key string was, the longer my download times and the greater the connection issues decreasing the battery life.

One solution that cropped up over this time frame was a wireless solution that I had used with my old Tungsten T -- Bluetooth! Just about all advanced Palms link up well with bluetooth phones so I took the logical step of having the machine link with an Access point through a network to print out documents. This was relatively advanced at the time and worked extremely well with the Tungsten T. The device, the Axis 9010 pictured above was originally listed at $400, but I was able to buy one from an auction site for about $40.00. It runs on Linux and is extremely easy to program. The one thing that I liked about it was the fact that its range was supposed to be about 50 feet, but you could get it to about 100 feet and surf without worrying about anyone attaching to the network. Most Wardrivers are not really looking for a bluetooth Lan connection. Additionally the Axis uses RADIUS which is relatively more secure than even a regular WEP or WPA secure connection.

Thus when my Linksys started acting strangely I took out the Axis 9010 Access Point and put it back to work with my Lifedrive. It has been flawless. Infact, although it works at only 1/10th the speed of the Linksys, it provides a consistent and constant data transfer rate. One of my favorite things about the bluetooth access point is the fact that the Lifedrive and the access point stop communicating with each other once the files have been downloaded or the webpage completed. Thus, downloading a 10mb podcast for example will take about 5 minutes, but once it is done, the transmitter for the Access point stops as does the Lifedrive. The Lifedrive will shut off 3 minutes after the completion of the download, but not during it. Thus battery life is conserved rather nicely.

The throughput speeds are not amenable to access SKYPE or anything like that. But if you download, surf or print intermittently the access point is something that you should look at very closely, particularly if you are having problems with WEP/WPA or the 802.x solution. I keep it as a backup, but for the last few months I have been using bluetooth exclusively.

My take on the bluetooth functionality working better on the Lifedrive than on the 802.x solution is that I believe that Palm has been working with IR (Infrared) longer than just about anyone. Additionally, with the introduction of the Tungsten T, Palm became increasingly resilient and aggressive in regards to having communications transmitted over both IR and Bluetooth. I think that the European market, which at the time was very involved in Bluetooth communications, became a major target for Palm. Ericsson and Nokia were phenomenal in this and the ability to communicate with the Palm was instrumental in the success of the early Tungsten products. With Palm continuing to produce three different versions of the Tungsten, bluetooth became perfected over time. Add to this the fact that many, including myself, became increasingly bothered by the hotsync process, the ability to do this via wifi was very appealing. While their competitors concentrated on the 802.x position for wifi access, Palm chose Bluetooth. Hindsight would dictate that the 802.x position won this battle, but in terms of battery preservation and security I believe that Palm was right.

802.x on the other hand, seems to be something of a thorn in the side of Palm for the past few years and a much newer technology to Palm. None of the current Treos, including the new 700 series have native 802.x wireless lan with the Palm OS. The Lifedrive was one of the first products in the Palm line to come out with dual Bluetooth/802.x Lan support. In other words, up to and including the release of the Lifedrive, wireless lan in the form of 802.x is still a work in progress.

The plus for us "old guys" is that if the Wifi link is broken or there are problems with the conventional access points then Bluetooth from home is still an option. With the preservation of battery life one can have a rewarding experience with a bluetooth Access Point. The downloading of web pages is a little slower but reliable.


Setting up the Bluetooth Lan for the Lifedrive is very easy. Just open the bluetooth connection screen and have the machine search for the Bluetooth Lan Access Point (Axis 9010) while it is on. The Lifedrive's software takes care of the set up.


One of the nice things about this set up is that if you have a bluetooth telephone, all you have to do when you want to switch from one to the other is choose (See diagram). In addition, if you can get more than one Axis Access Point, the two can be linked together to produce a relay access point. I have used this once or twice, but there is an obvious delay with response times trying to do this. But again, if you are just accessing small files or doing IM, the delay is not that noticeable. For the most part, for small solutions one Axis 9010 is sufficient. Note that the Axis 9010 as with other bluetooth access points essentially works with any networkable bluetooth device. This means that you can use it with just about any Palm device that has bluetooth Lan, that includes the entire Tungsten line, including the Tungsten T (my favorite device for form factor). It also means that it will work with all other non-palm bluetooth network devices. The device is also very much compatible with up to 5 simultaneous connections. The official document states 6, but your connection speed tends to be untenable with 6 and I have found 5 to be compatible with no appreciable delay in either upload or download times.

Technical:

The Axis 9010 has the following:

1. Axis ETRAX 100 LX, 32 bit RISC, 100 MIPS CPU. With relatively excellent parallel computing and no appreciable degradation in signal with 5 simultaneous connections per my observation.

2. 16 Mbyte DRAM, 4 Mbyte Flash.

3. RADIUS authentication protocol. Of note, Linksys actually charges extra for RADIUS support with its 802.xx products. With the Axis, this is free.

4. Full Spec Sheet

5. Software: Embedded Linux.


Alas, the Axis 9010 is currently unavailable, having been discontinued by Axis, but a used machine can be found with due diligence and I would say that if you are looking for a relatively stable and low-battery consuming access to the internet with your Lifedrive or Bluetooth-Lan device, this product should receive your attention.


LDD.