| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| sally_in_wales |
Bluetooth botherNext installment of the saga of Sally's new laptop. Regular listeners may recall that just before Yule I bought a bluetooth adapter for the printer (cos himself swore the laptop was compatible- of course it wasnt), but nil desperandum, easily and fairly cheaply obtained a bluetooth adapter for the laptop, and a second one for the old laptop to let us be really flexible round the house.Well, got everything installed, have even got it to a point where it finally recognises that the other laptop and the printer exist, but I can't make it do anything else. The help files are no use, they don't seem to be able to conceive of the idea that the devices could be waving limply at each other but not hugging, kissing nad exchanging useful information. Blasted technology... |
| dougal |
Sally - you may recall that we previously discussed that a Bluetooth connection was essentially an alternative to a *single* USB cable.
It is for connecting *private* resources to *a* computer - not for *sharing* things like printers, or for computer-to-computer connections. Those are *network* tasks, and the province of a different type of wireless technology. Bluetooth technology is about keeping things private and *not* sharing them. Example: a Bluetooth mouse - you only want it to waggle the pointer on *one* screen. So, remove the complication of Bluetooth on the second computer. Take off its Bluetooth adaptor. Then "Pair" your Bluetooth computer with the Bluetooth printer. You should then be able, on your computer, to change the printer setup from connecting via USB to connecting via Bluetooth. Achieve that much before trying anything else. |
| sally_in_wales |
Trying that, it won't let me pair to the computer, keeps saying either that the device is not recognised, or that the connection is timing out.
Its not range, I'm sitting within 2m of the printer and its has a 100m range. Both devices are the same make and range, and I'm baffled |
| dougal |
You have to Pair the devices before anything else can happen.
It sounds to me as though the printer isn't responding correctly to the computer's Bluetooth adapter. I dunno anything about XP's bluetooth or the devices you have. Start by reading the documentation relating to pairing for *both* devices. Carefully. Twice! A standard thing is to try and start from a (hopefully) secure footing. So, switch off *everything*. Restart the computer. Restart the printer and its adapter. Then try and pair them. If that fails, check the info on the adapter for a "hardware reset" back to "factory default settings" or an equivalent to that. (Next to try - look for a section on diagnostics). And try again. You might remove and reinstall the drivers for the computer's Bluetooth hardware. If all else fails, you'll have to contact the suppliers tech support people, who may direct you to the manufacturer. |
| dougal |
Oh and this might help
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/883258 |
| culpepper |
Dont know about with a printer but when hubby wanted to access his phone we bought a bluetooth dongle.It (the pc)had to be told to allow acces to the other item before it could connect.
Then it showed a little icon down in the tray (If I remember rightly). Then we used the phone manufacturers software to access it. There wasn't a time limit once it recognised the bluetooth device. The phone accessed the PC and visa versa with passwords so Im guessing the pc is waiting for one? I think you have to make it accessible by specifying no password or something like that. |
| mrutty |
Dougal is correct. Bluetooth is single master to multiple devices. Each device must establish a context with the master. You need to tell both the master and the slave that you want to set a context (normally you press the search buton or set to discovery mode) and the devices in the main will flash fasher as they locate each other and make the context (you may need to add passwords at this point default on most devices is 0000 which isn't very helpful).
Also check to see if there are any wireless networks near by as the early bluetooth kit was very noisy and took out networks or the network blasted the bluetooth away. When I worked for Voda we looked into bluetooth alot and I know that the IT guys hated it as it was so crap. The colouring in department clearly liked it but then they would 
|