Wtf is an infrared port??

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No, not internet. If there are two laptops with infrared side by side, you are able to transfer files between them using it.
 
You can also use it to print to some printers... ie HP 6P printer.

That is actually a very useful feature. I use it at a customer site frequently when I need to print something off that I forgot to print off.
 
the advantage of the infared port is that it offers a instant wireless connection between 2 devices (Desktop PC, Laptop PC, PDA, PocketPC, Printer, etc.)

the disadvantages are:
1. the infared ports must be lined up with each other, any movement can cause disconnection
2. it only works at short distances (usually a few inches away from each other)
3. extremely slow transfer rate

infared was a nice laptop feature before bluetooth and wireless-B,G,etc became widely used. Infared can still be useful for certain tasks (as mentioned earlier) like printing, or small PDA file transfer (although all newer PDAs have bluetooth and wirelessB built in, which offer much faster transfer rates).
 
I guess I have to take back my statement about the "extremely slow transfer rate" of Infrared. I googled for the transfer rate of Infrared and I guess there are newer standards with much faster transfer rates than the one to which I was referring to earlier...

Understanding Infrared Speed

The Infrared Data Association (IrDA) has developed four transfer rate (“speed”) standards for short- range infrared data transmission:

SIR* (Serial Infrared): 115.2Kbps, which is broadly adopted in mobile phones and many portable devices. MIR (Medium Infrared): 1.152Mbps, which is rarely adopted. FIR (Fast Infrared): 4Mbps, which is adopted in laptops and digital cameras and some Pocket PC PDAs. VFIR (Very Fast Infrared): 16Mbps, which is supported by Windows XP

so I guess the answer to your question is... it depends on what IrDA standard the Infrared connection on your Laptop uses. But I think it would be safe to guess that it uses FIR or VFIR.
 
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