Posted by T610-Girl
Have just bought a P800 and I'm looking into a bluetooth 'dongle' for an XP PC and a XP laptop. Is there anything I can buy that is relatively cheap, easy to use and install, and universal for a newbie like me?
Have read through this forum and to be honest, a lot of the BT tech stuff baffles me -- corrupted files and conflicting drives and, ARGGGHHH!
Any slow & simple words of advice? I don't want to be sitting at home screaming at my computer because it won't recognise my device and I can't understand the manual.
Posted by masseur
I have to say even though I am a techie and only use good name stuff I still get frustrated from time to time with BT and revert to IR!
Having said that there is quite a bit of help in this forum if you do hit problems so its worth taking theplunge if only for experience.
this link from earlier today points to a Belkin bluetooth dongle for around 20 quid although many people here swear by the TDK one.
So I guess the best thing before buying any is do some search for 'TDK bluetooth' and 'belkin bluetooth' or some such similar searches and see what sort of comments people are giving about these. In some cases I have seen people offer advice from beginning to end for the setup process.
good luck!
Posted by Jools
I don't understand what all the difficulties with Bluetooth are. I've had absolutely zero problems with it from day one. I know I'm using a Mac, but surely Windows implementation of Bluetooth can't be that bad? Can it?
I've read this article from tech news site The Register, but it doesn't say what the Windows problems are specifically.
Posted by masseur
Well I have a Sony vaio and use the sony BA1 dongle, supplied as an accessory, which comes with the bluespace software which is what is also preinstalled on the vaio's that have BT built in.
Its not so much that it doesn't work or is unreliable its more that it seems quite illogical to get the thing setup, its not very intuitive, and also when its setup then to activate it each time takes more steps and more time than simply click IR on.
So alot of time I just cannot be bothered with the BT.
Posted by bossjohnc
One piece of advice... DON'T buy a 3com PCMCIA BT card.
Posted by ThreeX
Well, if my MSI-dongle is representative and not a one of a kind you cant go wrong with that one. As i wrote in my "mini-review" the installation (and now daily use) is about as un-eventful as it gets!
Granted, i can only "guarantee" this to be true under WinXP Pro and Win2k Pro..
Posted by Spud_Nic
Macs are so much better to use with SE phones!!!!! (and I'm a PC User damn it!)
but with bluetooth, you get what you pay for in my expeirence, so if you pay a lot for a bt dongle etc you'll get a good one.
I'm using TDK and it's fine. I used to use a Bluetake one, which was utter rubbish.
Posted by sozugk
I've been using belkin usb bt adapter for 4-5 months now and have never had a single problem... always works fine.
Posted by dw
I have a 3ComŽ Wireless Bluetooth USB Adapter (3CREB96)
and a Anycom Bluetooth USB Adapter USB-100
The 3com dongle I wouldn't recommend to my worse enemy
it has given me many hours of grief.
The Anycom dongle has worked flawless it's been very easy
to install and everything I wanted to try with the phone has
worked w/o any problems at all I don't regret buying this
one.
_________________
T68i && T610
[ This Message was edited by: dw on 2003-08-18 18:25 ]
[ This Message was edited by: dw on 2003-08-18 18:26 ]
Posted by jbendaou
i suggest u buy a USB one, the PCMCAI ones are really bad.
i use the pcmcai 3com...i had to work on it for a couple of hours to fix it...it works fine, but it takes a lot of work to make it work
Posted by Vlammetje
Too many times the word 'work' in that post...
Posted by jbendaou
why do you think i used the
???
was a nice work, wasnt it?
Posted by Vlammetje
Sure worked on me
but then again you knew how to work me already