Some corp systems are still hard wired and require a datajack to access. Also a datajack can be used in place of a sim module.
A datajack allows the user to interface with any electronic device via a fiberoptic cable.
You can link cyberware devices to each other at your option. So you have smartlink instailed in your eyes and you link it to your datajack. Thus you could string a cable from your datajack to the smartgun and bam. Wireless.

Also there could be various storage devices with out a wireless signa, so a datajack might be requried to access it.

I wasn't aware of that. Do you have a page reference for that?

read the various programs that require a sim module they say a datajack can also be used.
"Datajacks also allow users to slot and mentally access chips, softs, and BLTs"

How do you think people hacked before sim modules.

You can use 'trodes.

I don't think so. There is a seperate piece of cyberware that fills this function.

You can use 'trodes.

You can use 'trodes.

See above answer concerning the 'trodes.

I take it, then Fortune, in your games, you allow 'trodes to allow data transfer between implants and outside devices?

Because the way I've always interpreted 'trodes, was that they provided direct neural interface only.

I'm not comprehending the difference then. I'll freely admit that this whole part of Shadowrun is my weakest area.

The way I see it is that a 'trode net (or datajack) will allow you to interact with a Commlink. This then allows you to interact with other things. Where am I going wrong?

Direct nerual interface: a way to issue commands from your brain to an electronic device. Also allows the device to output information to your brain, but in a limited fashion when compared to a full blown simsense signal.

Data transfer: Moving files or streams of data from one device to another. Keep in mind, the section on Technomancers establishes that the metahuman brain is not capable of data storage.

The former is akin to a keyboard/mouse, or more properly, a force-feedback game controller, since it allows for limited bi-directional communication. The latter would be analogous to using a USB cable to copy music from your computer onto your iPod.

Where the difference matters is when you have data on an implant that has no external connections of its own, and you want to move that data to an external device without using wireless. Say a runner records a video using their cybereyes. They later want to download that video into their external commlink, but don't want to risk someone eavesdropping on the transmission.

If 'trodes can pick up data directly from implants, then all the runner has to do is slap a bit of 'trode paste next to their eye, stick the end of the connection cable into the paste, and download the file.

If 'trodes only provide DNI to the brain, and don't ever interact with implants, then you run into the problem that the brain can not store or process raw computer data. The runner would have to have their cybereyes internally connected to a datajack and plug into that. Alternately, if you have access to a simrig, you could play back the video on the cybereyes' built in image link, and use trodes to make a simsense recording of the runner watching the video (a less than optimal solution, since the video is then filtered through the runner's sensorium). As another alternative, I've heard quite a few GMs allow cyberware implants to be skinlinked, which would provide another means of data transfer.

Implants can be connected to other implants, but nothing says that any implant has to connect to all other implants automatically. If you want want one datajack that connects just to your cybereyes, and a separate datajack that connects to your skillwires, you can have the doc put them in that way.

That's cool ... and thanks. I just wasn't quite understanding the distinction you were making.

I always disliked the idea of 'trodes anyway, and have rarely used them in games I have played in (or GM'ed). I prefer the image of ubiquitous Datajacks.

I'm pretty sure he didn't mean an sound wave white noise generator, he probably meant an electrical white noise generator.

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As far as whether it's possible to jam a skinlink, if you want a physics explanation of it, the answer is absolutely yes.

The skinlink supposedly sends a voltage across the skin to transmit a signal.

You could interfere with this by introducing noise voltage to the skin. You could use a stick-n-shock type device for this if you wanted to, but if you had a strong enough electrical field noise generator, you could generate much the same effect.

Basically, if you can generate an electrical signal in a medium, it's possible to introduce noise into it. It's just that some media are easier to interfere with (ie, introduce noise to) than others.

In my games, I simply assume that the 50 nuyen price of a skinlink includes an adapter that connects to your datajack on one end, and your skin on the other, which allows you to circumvent the comm. It's just like when you buy a ps/2 mouse, and it includes a ps/2 -> USB connector. They don't know which you'll have, so they just throw in the tiny piece of electronics to avoid having to accept returns.

I'm very much in favor of allowing the fully hardwired setup, because I can't imagine that certain hard core individuals don't require that. And I figure if you're adding skinlinks, it implies the ability to remove wireless completely.

Or devices that have built in sim modules.

I'm not 100% sure of what programs Jack Kain was refering to with his statement about "programs which require a sim module", but I'm thinking he was referring to Knowsofts and Linguasofts. However, if you read closely for the entries on those two, it's merely the "Direct Neural Link" that a sim module can provide that is what's required. Datajacks can also provide this "Direct Neural Link" according to the rules for knowsofts and linguasofts on p.320 and p.321.

As for BTLs, the most common class of BTL, the direct input chip is accessible by direct slotting into a datajack. The section on BTLs on p.250 leaves no question about it; I suggest that you re-read this section before declaring that you can't use a datajack by itself to access BTLs.

I'm going to have to disagree with you there. it'd be downright silly to put a "wireless enabled computer" into a datajack, if said computer couldn't directly access data going to said jack.

The word "needs" doesn't appear anywhere in the text on datajacks. It "allows" fiber optic to be used, but in a wireless world there I belive there are other options.

Security for one. Bodyware has a device rating of one and Headware has a device rating of three; commlinks can do better than that in the firewall department, and have the system and response available to run beefier IC. Plus, by PAN'ing everything together, you reduce the number of entry points an outside hacker can use to get into your stuff to one: the commlink that's the hub of the PAN.

Interesting observation. It feels wrong to me, but I didn't find anything in the SR4 book to refute it on a casual flip through.

One would hope. Unless of course, they get covered in the FAQ. (Though I can't remember if anyone had skinlink questions when Bull solicited questions for the Matrix/Wireless portion of the FAQ a while back).

One thing did occur to me after I posted this: trode users accessing the matrix in full VR could not be placed under a full body RAS override, because a limp-asleep body couldn't manipulate thumbwheels or AR Gloves or any of the other common input methods used as an alternative to Direct Neural Interface. While partial RAS override is not unheard of in SR (previous editions made allowances for partial RAS overrides, to allow deckers to use the keyboards on their cyberdecks while immersed in full VR), SR4's description of RAS override is a superficial one, only describing the full-body effect.

I'm not sure if I really believe in the FAQ any more. I was looking through my old forum posts and there's one from over a year ago whining about the FAQ not being out yet.

Unless a technomancer or another skinlinked person shakes your hand, yes.
I suppose that the prefered greeting gesture of 2070 is going to be the thumb-in-ear finger wave.

Skinlink hacking is actually a very good use for subdual combat.

The fact that FanPro has the freelancers actively soliciting questions for the FAQ on Dumpshock, and Adam is saying it's coming "real soon now" gives me hope.

I haven't gotten to the point to where I'm factoring perusing the SR4 FAQ into the decision of whether or not I want to read Shadows of Latin America while listening to Guns & Roses Chinese Democracy before or after playing Duke Nukem Forever on the day that they all come out.