For whatever it's worth, I got irda up and running, but the range is on the order of 10 centimeters or less. It took a couple of attempts to figure the range limitation.

empeg:/proc/net/irda# cat discovery
IrLMP: Discovery log:

empeg:/proc/net/irda# cat discovery
IrLMP: Discovery log:

name: PalmE, hint: 0x0200, saddr: 0x6e82d2d8, daddr: 0x67392a4e

Hmmm ... although, if one were using an Ir Dongle placed near the f/p ... hmmm ...