patndoris TechnoGeek

It’s been just over two years since my first foray into the world of Bluetooth. My initial testing of the waters left me less than enthused. However, over the last couple of years, I’ve struggled, learned and come to terms with the once evil monster I know as BT. That’s not to say it all works flawlessly - it doesn’t. Bur more often than not at least it behaves relatively well now.

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Currently, I have a standard BT USB dongle (destined for the male offspring’s laptop at some point), Micro BT dongle (for my laptop - which I absolutely adore as it protrudes less than 1/2″), BT headset (also used for my mobile phone) and my cell phone can send pictures/files via BT back and forth with the laptop (quite handy as it’s also my camera of choice these days). In the pile of dead computer stuff I have a BT stereo headset that fell prey to the perils of the male offspring’s inability to predict wild canine behavior. Yes, that’s the same type of behavior that destroyed the wireless N USB adapter. The headset didn’t hold up so well when it collided at high velocity with the floor. And while not dead, in the forgotten pile is my old cell phone which played nicely with BT.

So you can see, I’ve embraced the technology. I’m hard on things with wires. If you think a few things in the dead BT pile is bad, you should see the pile of dead wired headsets! So for me, BT is a big advantage - most of the time. I seem to have to reboot the laptop from time to time to get it to recognize my headset for voice on Yahoo. And every once in awhile, BT seems to forget things it should remember and I have to pair my device again (known as re-pairing) to fix the problem. (Little tip - most BT passkeys are 0000 - how’s that for good security?) BT signals are also affected by any number of things including wireless signals (although not frequently), as well as microwaves and other electrical interference. But still, it’s a lifesaver for me.

Most people at work now come to me to get BT working to transfer data from one cell phone to another. I really have no idea how to do it most of the time, but I’m willing to try. Generally if you can enable BT, make the device discoverable on both ends, and remember the super secret 0000 passkey - you can get it to work without too much trouble. The bigger problem is not all devices are capable of sending or receiving all types of data. The best tip I have is be persistent. BT takes a little time to get used to, but once you get the hang of setting it up - you can add devices and have them working in no time!