Techie question, bluetooth?

[rightcharlie]

I have wi-fi with a router on the PC's and now a bluetooth phone (thanks santa) does the phone connect through the bluetooth to PC via the wi-fi or do i need to buy something else?


thanks in advance?

[Stu_Millard]

You'll need a bluetooth receiver (usually USB) on the PC to link your phone up. Be prepared to buy the best one you can, I bought a cheap one that wasn't that good (took up a load of CPU resources, slowed the whole show down). It's worth spending £30 and getting a decent one.

[rightcharlie]

You'll need a bluetooth receiver (usually USB) on the PC to link your phone up. Be prepared to buy the best one you can, I bought a cheap one that wasn't that good (took up a load of CPU resources, slowed the whole show down). It's worth spending £30 and getting a decent one.

nice one ta - thought that wi-fi would do it, theres always a catch isn't there - and usually one that costs money...

[rightcharlie]

is a "dongle" one? doing a search for receiver and get a load of sat nav gear...?

[Stu_Millard]

Yeah, a USB bluetooth dongle is what you need (or a PC with bluetooth built in and enabled). WiFi is for true wireless networking, they use different radio frequencies, bandwidths and protocols, hence why you couldn't detect your bluetooth phone over a WiFi link.

[rightcharlie]

Yeah, a USB bluetooth dongle is what you need (or a PC with bluetooth built in and enabled). WiFi is for true wireless networking, they use different radio frequencies, bandwidths and protocols, hence why you couldn't detect your bluetooth phone over a WiFi link.

sorry to be boring but with a nearly new laptop (packard bell easynote) how would one know if it DID have bluetooth?

[Stu_Millard]

If it has a Bluetooth device installed (and presuming you're using WinXP), it'll appear in Device Manager (Start > Right click on My Computer > Manage > Device Manager). I did try looking it up on Packard Bell's website, but there are so many different versions of the Easy Note (A, B, E, J, L, R and W) it'd be difficult to tell! Have a look at http://www.packardbell.co.uk/products/node1822.asp and see if your laptop is listed amongst them, then have a look at the specification to see if it has a built in Bluetooth receiver.

Thinking about it, if it does have Bluetooth, the casing should display a logo to say so, or at the very least it should mention a bluetooth device on the underside of the laptop (in the same way as it makes reference to the optical drive being a class 2 laser device).

[rightcharlie]

can't even work out which mine is, it says ED1 on the underneath - its a centrino though, thought they might have built in blue tooth but i did a search as you said and also there was no results in a search of the files for bluetooth and theres no such sticker anyplace so im guessing its back to the pc store to get a dongle.
thanks again for your help,
charlie