Bluetooth - ARGH!

[braytonak]

After round three of trying a Bluetooth product, I'm really not feeling any love for this technology. It is so f'ing convoluted. It's seriously NOT plug and play. From the endless amount of "profiles" (or are they logical ports, services, configurations or just whatever anyone wants to call them?) to the passkeys and authentication vs pairing, etc. Ugh!

I recently attempted to use a Bluetooth notebook mouse on our notebook. Forget that. Not only do I have to turn the mouse on manually, but I have to tell the notebook to reconnect each time. The mouse went back to the store.

I have a PocketPC that I want to sync with the notebook using Bluetooth instead of USB. I fumbled with the stupid thing for an hour last week, and it finally started working by itself...repeatedly. Good, eh? No. It doesn't sync anymore. ActiveSync seems to have a mind of its own about what "port" it's using, which if I have this right, is really just a Bluetooth "profile" or "service" or "configuration", depending on which help file you use. (I presume it's just a Logical Port?)

Anyway, ActiveSync is set to use COM 6, which is what the Toshiba BT software says the PDA is connecting on. But ActiveSync doesn't see it. Suddenly COM 7 showed up as an option in ActiveSync, but I can't get the BT software to use a different port. The Toshiba software is pissing me off. Are there alternatives? Isn't there an easier way to just get the damn setup to function reliably? I don't see what the buzz is all about.

 

[RT]

I've had ActiveSync do this to me before now - refusing to use the actual COM port of the Bluetooth adapter and instead seeming to pick a port at random and thereafter insisting on attempting to use only that port, no matter how many times you tell it otherwise. After some searching around various forums, I found I wasn't alone. It seems uninstalling and reinstalling Activesync is usually the easiest way to get it to "see" the correct COM port again. It worked for me, so if you haven't already tried it, it may be worth a shot.

 

[alcoholbob]

And that's why Bluetooth technology is dying in the PC market as soon as it came...

 

[braytonak]

I'll try the uninstall / reinstall routine. It seems that's an acceptable way of fixing problems these days. :sigh: