Wireless personal local area network

A transceiver apparatus (110) for creating a wireless personal local area network between a computer terminal (7) and one or more peripheral devices (9, 13, 23). A separate transceiver (110) is connected to the computer terminal (7) and to each peripheral device (9, 13, 23). The transceivers (110) can be connected to the terminal (7) or the peripheral devices (9, 13, 23) either internally or externally. A low power radio (112) is used to communicate information between the computer terminal (7) and the peripheral devices (9, 13, 23). Different transceivers (110) can be used for modifying the carrier frequency and power of the local area network. A microprocessor (120) is located inside each transceiver (110) and controls the information flow of the transceiver including the communication protocol which allows each device (7, 9, 13, 23) to know if other devices (7, 9, 13, 23) are communicating, which devices (7, 9, 13, 23) are being communicated to, and selectively address the peripheral devices (9, 13, 23). An Idle Sense communication protocol is used for information transfer between the computer terminal (7) and the peripheral devices (9, 13, 23).