I have an old Toshiba Libretto 70CT and a modern Dell laptop; both of them have IrDA ports.

I notice that the IrDA port gets detected as some sort of serial device, but I'm wondering...what the heck can I actually DO with the IrDA port?

Doing various searches for IrDA, I see a lot of descriptions of various features and protocols but I must be an idiot because I can't figure out what you actually can DO with it.

The main thing I'd like to do is connect up to my LAN/Internet. I think either IrNET or PPP/IcCOMM or IrLAN or something like that may be the solution. For example, this link: IrNET for Linux-IrDA looks promising, but it's dated 2001.

So, is it possible for my modern Dell laptop to "share" its LAN/Internet connection with my Libretto 70CT via the IR ports? I'd love to get that working because otherwise the Libretto has no network connection. Currently, I physically remove the Libretto's hard drive and boot it up on another computer in order to apt-get install more software.

But my question is broader--what else can be done with IrDA?

For example, IrDA seems to be a protocol for cordless peripherals. But are such peripherals actually available? I'd love to use a wireless mouse and/or wireless gamepad for playing games. But do these products even exist in IrDA compatible form? Everything seems to use radio wireless (Bluetooth).

Thanks for any help!

Interesting.

I too have an OLD Toshiba laptop, and it too has an irDA port on the back. Due to the awkward location of the port, my best guess as to its intended use is for communicating with the docking station (which I don't have) and thereby being ethernet-enabled.

As it sits now, it has a modem built in, but there doesn't seem to be any way to use the apparently built in ethernet capability, unless this is what that IR port is for (so the docking station would have a LAN connector, whereas the laptop doesn't.)

I'll be curious to see what info presents itself here :-)

SVA

I think the IrDA port was / is supposed to communicate with IrDA enabled printers: You point your device at an IrDA printer, and "Print". No wires. I don't think it was ever very popular (eg bright sunlight & it would't work). Wireless took over. I think IrDA is pretty much obsolete.
I once had a palmOS device with IrDA for printing. It didn't work. I didn't care.
With a bit of hacking, you could possibly use it to control your TV. Or possibly not.

IrDA is short range line of sight communications with devices like printers, modems, fax machines, LANs, PDAs, digital cameras and of course other laptops. Short range means ~1 meter and line of sight means the IR ports must be visible to each other just like your TV remote control. As stated blue tooth is replacing IrDA. So yes it is possible to share the internet.

IMHO due to the limitations (angle, line of sight) of IR a RF wireless keyboard/mouse is a better choice.

Yes, RF is a better technology. However, my adorable little old Toshiba Libretto 70CT does not have RF. I don't have the docking station, so the ONLY ports are the IrDA port and a 16bit PCMCIA slot. No Bluetooth. No USB. No serial port. No parallel port.

Just a quick update--

I've been trying to get IrNET working (IrNET for Linux-IrDA). It turns out that I don't need to install anything; it's already built into the kernel in Debian 4.0 as well as Ubuntu 7.10. However, I did need to create /dev/irnet according to the linked instructions.

I have not yet gotten it to work. Maybe I just don't have the IR ports lined up right. Maybe one or both of them are bad. Maybe I'm missing some step. Anyway, I'll continue to try to figure it out...

Before there was Bluetooth, IrDA was the way to get peripherals (e.g. printers), PDAs and phones talking to computers with wireless comms, and even some wireless LAN. My old Nokia mobile phone has IrDA, and I can only synch and rob files off it via IrDA on my old P-III laptop (now a multi-boot test PC and phone synch station

However, you can apparently also use the IrDA port to set up remote control stuff, if you're that keen.

Check out the Linux-IrDA quick tutorial.

Can you tell me your problem in detail