Web Server Packed into RJ45 Connector

VinceTronics writes "Electronic Design magazine has a review (.pdf) of the XPort by Lantronix, a product that packs an entire web server into the volume of an RJ45 connector! This includes an 80186 controller, an OS, the TCP/IP stack, a 10/100 Ethernet transceiver, and the LAN interface magnetics. Downside is that the serial interface to the controller tops out at 300 kbps, but for $33 (in 10K quantities) it's a cool, easy way to net-enable just about anything."

No big deal...

[tha_mink]

I used to have an ear ring that could run seti@home.

Good Thing

[dreamchaser]

It's a good thing that the review wasn't hosted on one of these things! They sound really cool, but there's no way they'd handle a slashdotting! Then again...maybe a Beowulf cluster of them would...

Great!

[Anonymous Coward]

Now my fridge, toaster, washer & dryer can have their own IP addresses & websites.

Bring on IPv6 to deal with it!

Re:No big deal...

[popeyethesailor]

But does it have OGG support ?

Imagine a beowolf cluster of these...

[Anonymous Coward]

...it'd be really small.

Re:I'm wondering

[Hulver]

If you were a fridge manufacturer and wanted to web-enable your fridges, you would buy as many of these as you built fridges.

Imagine being able to check on the temparature of your fridge over the internet. Even install a web cam inside it. Check what groceries you need from work.

Pow. Cheep, web enabled fridge.

The only problem would be script kiddies. I 0wnzers your cuccumber man

A House of Cables...

[DasBub]

Everyone suggests that these could be used in toasters, fridges, etc. etc... But would you actually run cables to all of these devices?

I can just picture Old Man Stevens handing his wife a juicer for her birthday. Old Lady Stevens lets out a little sigh and grabs a crimper and a spool of Cat5.

FIGHT THE FUTURE!

Re:I'm wondering

[Anonymous Coward]

web cam inside it.> At last! We will finally know if that little light really does turn off when you close the door!

Re:Let me get this straight

[Saint Aardvark]

Where have you got a crapload of RJ45 cables? That's right, an office. What's the biggest driving force behind Internet technologies? That's right, pr0n. So just imagine the HUGE surge in live secretary upskirt cam websites this product will enable.

Hell, there'll be so many, it'll simultaneously turn around the tech slump AND drive us all to IPv6.

Until, of course, someone mistakenly installs 10,000 of these babies in the server room. All those geeks...<shudder>

cool

[JeanBaptiste]

but dead flies are smaller, cheaper, and in greater abundance :)

Proof at last!

[docbrown42]

Imagine being able to check on the temparature of your fridge over the internet. Even install a web cam inside it.

That would be SO cool! I'd finally be able to get the PROOF of the existance of the little guy who turns on and off the light in my fridge!

Re:Great!

[chef_raekwon]

I wouldn't want to get home and find out I've been H4X0R3D and have a freezer full of rotten food, so I don't think I'd ever give them world visible addresses.

what, you don't want the world to know what temp you are running your crisper at?

(i know they aren't visible, but the sarcasm tags ARE there)

Hacked my toaster !

[bushboy]

Damn scr1p7 k19913s hacked my toaster - now all it serves up is toast with burn marks that reads "r00ted ya"

That's not a 16 port hub

[cyber_rigger]

It's my Beowulf Cluster. :^)

Re:I'm wondering

[chef_raekwon]

Add this thing, and suddenly your products are web-enabled.

add another, hack with the tcpip stack, and your fridge is now a router!

Re:These seem cool

[DickBreath]

to me and others in my line of work they're a security nightmare. Due to the small size, it's not hard build a device that could be hidden inside of a building on a network leaving it open to the person who left it there.

Because such a computing device can be misused, we need to write our legislators and get these outlawed.

Re:Great!

[le_jfs]

I want one!
I can't wait to code a MUD (multi-user dungeon) for my fridge!

~$ telnet fridge.home
user: le_jfs
password: *********

Welcome inside your fridge!
It's dark. It's cold. You can hear a little hum coming from everywhere.

command> open door
The door is now open. Magically, the light turned on. You can see a path to the kitchen south.

command> look
The fridge contains a ten-days-opened bottle of milk, some ham and some cheese.

command> look cheese
It's greenish.

command> put cheese in bin.
The Cheese screams in terror. He resides now in the bin.

command> look ham
It's bluefish. It has some activity on it. A fly probabily layed eggs on it.
You are hungry.

command> wield knife
You are now armed with a knife.
You are hungry. You are cold.

command> kill ham with knife
You attack the ham with a knife.
The ham strafes and ignores you.
You attack the ham with a knife.
The ham takes a cut and cries.
You attack the ham with a knife.
The ham flees south

command> go south
You are now in the kitchen.
There is some ham in bad condition lying on the floor.

command> kill ham with knife
You attack the ham with a knife.
The ham begs you to stop. It really hurts.
You attack the ham with a knife.
The ham dies with a tremendous 'Aaaaarg'.

You won.
You are hungry.

command> go shopping.

Re:Good Thing

[cr@ckwhore]

It's a good thing that the review wasn't hosted on one of these things! They sound really cool, but there's no way they'd handle a slashdotting!

Ahh... but then again, *maybe* it is. Wouldn't that be the cat's ass?

Re:No big deal...

[The-Perl-CD-Bookshel]

Wait, if these cost $30 - $50 wouldn't that bump the price of the endabled product up about $1,000?

Re:Great!

[Mr. Bad Example]

I wouldn't want to get home and find out I've been H4X0R3D and have a freezer full of rotten food

All your bouillabaisse are belong to us.

Re:Good Thing

[Anonymous Coward]

RJ45 - you could certainly fit that in a cat's ass.

I mean I think.

Re:No big deal...

[The_K4]

Hmmm......i believe you have slashdoted your friends.
With friends like that who needs enemies?

Re:No big deal...

[Cyclometh]

The additional price is only an issue if you consider this item being added to some product as new functionality. This is a godsend to any product in development that had some type of networking integration already slated for its feature set. In fact, for products being designed with this type of functionality in mind, this might actually reduce the final cost.

Engineer Drone: "Yeah, hey boss- we could build it ourselves for a boatload of cash, or we could shell out $30/pop for 10K of these things and spend a few weeks integrating them into the widget. Whaddya think?"

PHB: "Ka-ching!"

Re:No big deal...

[pixelpusher220]

I can see it now....

Me: Hey Baby, come here often?

Babe: No...hey is that a webserver in your pocket?

Me: Why yes it is!

Babe: I thought it would be bigger...

Me: Dooooooh!

Re:Great!

[Sgs-Cruz]

command> Open ice cream tub.

You are eaten by a grue.

Re:Good Thing

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think the cat would be impressed. Particularly after it got slashdotted and the webserver in its ass had a meltdown! Meeeeoooorrrrrrrrrrrrooooooowwwww! Boom!

Re:Great!

[Mitchell Mebane]

Title: Livin' in the Fridge
Author: Weird Al Yankovic

There's somethin' weird in the fridge today.
I don't know what it is.
Food I can't recognize.
My roommate won't throw a thing away.
I guess it's probably his.
It looks like it's alive . . .

And livin' in the fridge . . . livin' in the fridge,
Livin' in the fridge . . . livin' in the fridge.

There's something gross in the fridge today,
It's green and growin' hair.
It's been there since July.
If you can name the object
In that baggie over there,
Then mister, you're a better man than I.

It's livin' in the fridge.
(You can't stop that mold from growin'.)
Livin' in the fridge.
(Can't tell what it is at all.)
Livin' in the fridge.
(You can't stop that mold from growin'.)
Livin' in the fridge.

Tell me, do you think it should be carbon-dated,
Fumigated, or cremated and buried at sea?
You try to save a little bit of your home cookin',
Couple weeks later, got a scary-lookin' specimen.
It always happens my friend,
Again and again and again.

Somethin' stinks in the fridge today,
And it's been rottin' there all week.
It couold be liver cake or wooly mammoth steak --
Well, maybe I should take another peek . . .

Livin' in the fridge.
(You can't stop that mold from growin'.)
Livin' in the fridge.
(Can't tell what it is at all.)
Livin' in the fridge.
(You can't stop that mold from growin'.)
Livin' in the fridge.

Livin' in the fridge.
(Don't know what it is, don't know what it is.)
Livin' in the fridge.
(Don't know what it is, don't know what it is.)
Livin' in the fridge.
(Don't know what it is at all.)
Livin' in the fridge.

Re:Good Thing

[FunkyChild]

Well maybe the CAT5's ass, anyway.