Which one is good, Wireless 802.11b or Bluetooth the competition is on and we shall look at the best technology by comparing their pros and cons. After which you shall be able to pick the kind of technology best suited for your environment.

A little about 802.11b: An IEEE standard with the speed ranging up to 11 Mbps, this was the great achievement in terms of getting rid of the wire and moving into a wireless network, although it was an expansion over 802.11a. A lot of wireless products emerged into the market, which were relatively cheaper in price with great capability of going wireless with good amount of data transmission rate and performance. It became the one stop shop for SOHO networks.

A little about Bluetooth: A wireless substitute which invented to serve Personal Area Network or PAN. This technology is mostly found in the digital cameras, mobiles phones, PDA's as well as desktop computers. It servers the purpose of a peer-to-peer networking due to its low bandwidth of about 700 kbps and a maximum distance of about 30 feet. Bluetooth has capabilities of connecting at maximum 8 devices in a small LAN.

Wireless 802.11x

Wireless 802.11b is an IEEE standard given to WLAN or Wireless Local Area Networks which are compatible with the original 802.11 and 802.11a running on 2.4GHz with a speed ranging up to 11 Mbps. You can use this technology on a broadband connection as well on the Local Area Networks.

802.11x standards would work on the Data Link and Physical layer of the OSI model (this model defines the way of data transfer between these 7 layers) just like its previous members of the family. There job is to make sure the communication goes through successfully according OSI model either or a wireless or a wired LAN.

There are two modes Ad-hoc and infrastructure, on which a wireless 802.11b connection can be is established. Ad-hoc mode is a peer-to-peer connection and an infrastructure is a client-server connection to say is simply.

Advantages of a wireless connection are in terms of its cheap priced Interoperability with good data transfer rate of 11 Mbps with a good coverage area approximately around 100 meters.

Disadvantages are the Security and shared RF Band.

Bluetooth

Ericson was the first one to introduce Bluetooth technology in there devices as a short range data communication protocol. It was then approved and has been recognized by IEEE as 802.15 standard as many companies like Intel, Toshiba, Nokia clubbed together and formed a Bluetooth SIG group in 1998 which was later joined by giants like 3Com, Motorola, Microsoft and list goes on and on and today the list has gone up to 1500 members.

Due to its hopping segment technique running on unlicensed 2.4 GHz band its coverage area is short range only as the frequencies keep switching during the radio transmission for the fact it is not a legal transmission. Bluetooth is the most securest and robust form of data transmission and would operate at a slower speed.

Advantages of Bluetooth are again its inexpensive and scalable Interoperability with voice/data compatible ad-hoc devices consuming low battery power.

And Disadvantages are the low data transfer rate running on short range RF shared band.