IDC Connection

[webjack]

On the Yamaha Keyboard USB device list, it mentions "USB-LAN Adaptors" (including a Buffalo and a Planex model) as well as a variety of "Wireless Game Adaptors" from various manufacturers. Are there any advantages or disadvantages of picking one category of device over the other?

[begginer]

From my limited experience (see later thread), the pros and cons of the two methods are:

USB Adapter - likely to be newer technology, so you get G, G+MIMO, N which increase in range and bandwidth. USB being all pervasive these days there is a greater range of makes and models on the market. Therefore also probably slightly cheaper. Disadvantage as you see on these various noticeboards is that unlike your PC, it's tricky to update the Clavinova with the latest drivers and there's no CD drive to put in the CD you normally get with these sorts of things, so you're actually limited to a very small range of makes and models the clavinova supports. If you have one of the required models then it's probably just plug n play, i.e. plug it in and it works. Another disadvantage (only slight) is that you have to configure the Wireless network settings in the setup page of the Clavinova. BUT the biggest problem to me was that the Clavinova didn't support WPA security settings, only WEP, which made it incompatible with my work laptop which needed WPA not WEP (WEP is the older less secure protocol).

Gaming adapters aka ethernet bridges. The advantage includes that the Clavinova thinks its on a normal ethernet LAN so doesn't need the wireless network settings configured (only the LAN settings which must be done anyway). The clavinova doesn't know its on a wireless network, so its WEP limitation doesn't apply (you are only limited by what the ethernet bridge can do - typically both). A disadvantage is that you need to configure the ethernet bridge using a computer (plug it in and set up the wireless network settings) before you can use it - but this is relatively straight forward. Once configured, you just plug it into the Ethernet socket and your away. You can move it to any ethernet device (including your games console, hence the name) which instantly becomes wireless. There tend to be less of these around so may be harder to get, slightly more expensive, and older technology (I could only find a G model - but I was particularly after a Belkin). The unit itself is a bit bigger than the USB adapter which is like a big memory stick, however, the ethernet bridge can sit underneath the Clavinova almost out of sight whilst the USB is put into the socket on top of the Clavinova, and I think I read somewhere it must be taken out to close the lid, whilst the ethernet adaptor can stay plugged in.

I went for the Ethernet Bridge because of the security settings problem and that despite being less models on the market it was actually easier to find than the limited range of USB adapters the Clavinova would support, and the price delta was pretty small.

Hope that helps.

Begginer

[rodmichael]

I purchased the Planex adapter. While it's true that you only get the choice of WEP encryption, I'm not sure that for your home network that the difference between 64-bit (WEP) and 128-bit (WPA) encryption is substantially important. I guess you'd have to be Warren Buffet or Bill Gates before someone would spend the computing power to crash 64-bit encryption (number of key possibilities = 1.4 with 24 zeros or 14 billion trillions). In the end, it's the distance from your wireless router that's most important and mine is far enough away that I have pretty slow transmission rates and I even have occasional difficulty connecting or maintaining a connection.

EDIT: I miscalculated. The key possibilities for WEP 64-bit encryption are approximately 3.7 followed by 15 zeros or 37,000 trillion. My calculation is based on 10 possible numeric and 26 possible alpha characters at each of 10 key positions, so 36 to the 10th power=3.65616 E15.