I bought this for a very specific hobby purpose - call it a personal challenge - to connect a rather old vintage computer to the Internet wirelessly, marrying technologies that largely didn't coexist originally. So I needed smart and specialized design, fairly flexible configuration, and reasonable cost to justify the experimentation. I managed cost by taking a chance on a shelf-pulled item, betting that the device was likely reliable and functional but had simply been deemed "obsolete" at some point. (I imagine thousands of these are working perfectly well helping to collect information wirelessly in hospitals and industrial applications right now; latest does not always imply greatest.) The bet paid off nicely. After some iteration with configuration (one must set the device's IP address, communication parameters, and local LAN connection details), I was able to get a 1983 computer with serial port connected to my home WiFi network and then logged onto a Telnet BBS to send and read messages. Not an earth-shattering application, but fun nonetheless and proof that the Lantronix WiBox does what it was designed to do very well (in this case, serve as a virtual serial modem to send and receive data wirelessly). I have rated less than 5 stars only because the antenna on mine tends to wobble loose easily, needing a quick manual tightening every now and then. That may be due to age and is probably easily correctable. In any case, it's only a slight issue that in no way detracts from the overall quality and excellently engineered internal functionality. In most applications, the device would probably have been anchored down, not moved around, and this issue would not have surfaced. Today, there are other ways to achieve what was once the specialized domain of devices like this one. One can use very inexpensive wireless communication boards and build a circuit if needed to interface with those. I will do that, too, just for fun and for greater portability. Given those alternatives, I wouldn't be inclined to sink a great deal of money into a device like the WiBox just for nostalgia's sake, but if it serves your purpose and can be bought at a reasonable price, it can be a great find.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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