Bluetooth - newbie with no clue...

[coolsilicon]

Hello folks!
First of all: great forum! I joined a couple of weeks ago and visit it on a regular - almost daily - basis. My TP does fine, no problems so far. Anyway, a few days ago I bought a Bluetooth adapter for my desktop since my TP has Bluetooth built in. Here's what I want to do: 1) exchange (small) files and 2) use the printer that is connected to the desktop. Usually, I'm the person getting phone calls from people sitting in front of a nice "blue screen", but this time it's me who has no idea how to get this [censored] thing to work. t's kinda frustating: the computers can "see" each othe, they appear within the Bluetooth neighborhood, but they can't connect. When I try to establish a connectoin I'm asked for a "PIN". Since I have no idea whether this PIN is predefined somewhere or not I just type in the same numbers (12345 for example) on both machines and click "OK". After a while both computers will come up with an error message, basically saying they can't connect due to a time out error.

Anyone here can point me to a fool proof step by step guide? I have wireless lan and could do what I want to do via this but it nags me not being able to use my new toy. Google comes up with a zillion pages but so far I've found nothing really useable. Maybe I'm plain stupid and the solution is just too simple to be seen.

Sigh, here I am, swaping a notebooks mainboard, building my own pc in the middle of the night with closed eyes and one hand on my back but *this* one is simply %&$§...

[MadeInJapan]

I'm not that familiar with bluetooth either, but isn't it for wirelss pereferals for computers, like a mouse, etc.? I don't think it's ever meant for connecting 2 PC's together, but I may be wrong.

The logical, easiest solution to what you're trying to do is a hub or even simpler, a crossover cable, connected between each of the computer's LAN ports. Just do a search for "crossover cable" on Google and you'll see what I mean. I do this all the time and results are flawless (one hint: The "workgroup" must be the same if you use a crossover between 2 computers).

[coolsilicon]

MadeInJapan:
There's a set of so called "profiles", including network, dial up network and such. I'm pretty sure you can connect two pc's - though mostly you would use Bluetooth for the kind of stuff you mentioned. I have my machines networked via crossover cable, W-lan and even FireWire, so that's not the problem.

I think I dind't say it clear enough; my main point is using the printer which is connected to my desktop without having to connect to it/my desktop with a wire plus sharing some small files. My solution so far is doing this with my W-lan setup ( router/switch/ap). I'd just like to have this "small stuff" done via Bluetooth. I don't own any Blutooth gadgets as of yet, except the adapter for my desktop and I want to play with it

[MadeInJapan]

Don't know if it's true or not but when sharing a printer with some systems, at least one file or folder of the host computer also has to be shared. Try making a folder and name it "nothing." Don't put anything in it, but "share it." See if this changes anything....also are you using NetBEUI or not with your application? I think I understand what you are trying to do now...also could be firewall settings. Anyway, these are the options I'd try. Anyway, good luck.

[coolsilicon]

Thanks for your reply. I'll take a look at what you suggest. Maybe it's in fact something related to the XP firewall (i don't use another software firewall since my DSL-modem is connected to a router where such a thing is a built in).

The protocol involved is TCP/IP, btw. On both computers I have set the IP-adress within the same range (192.168.199/200 respectively, same subnet mask, both machines belong to the same workgroup); both pc's run XP and all the other network stuff works fine...Maybe I'm just on the wrong road and the whole thing is dead simple - we'll see. Ah, should have kept my pocket closed when entering the shop

[MadeInJapan]

Don't know if I could help you. It could be so many things....
Try enabling NetBEUI over TCP/IP. Could be that both are operating at a slightly different frequency. Mice, and what not, other pereferals might have a wider frequency they can pick up....in other words, the Bluetooth device in the computer doesn't have such a wide range therfore the slight difference in frequency could keep them from connecting. Keep the Workgroup name the same. You can also "search out" the printer from the computer that the printer ISN"T attached through....searching through the network. Also make sure that the USER NAME of the computer not attached to the printer is registered in the Password list on the computer attached to the printer. These are basic network thing....I guess a way to make sure the network portion is all set up correctly is to make sure everything works correctly when you have the 2 computers tied together with a cable. Not sure if I can think of anything else. Good luck!

[ian]

Forgive me for asking this, but are you actually talking about the same things? Bluetooth doesn't use, to my knowledge at least, TCP/IP as a transfer protocol.

I'm keen on testing a Bluetooth printer adapter to enable me to have various machines sharing my one office printer - it seems perfectly plausible, but I don't expect high data transfer speeds - printing seems perfectly well adapted to this sort of transfer. As for connecting two machines via BT, I think you'll be disappointed. A PDA yes however.

These look pretty interesting: http://www.mpitech.com/bpa/

[MadeInJapan]

That's sort of what I thought....but figured this may be possible, though a challenge. Any educating here would be appreciated. Even though I'm not the guy struggling with this issue here, I figure I might learn a thing or two that may help me in the future.

[coolsilicon]

Ok guys, seems I most likely expect the wrong thing from this little toy. But anyway, I'll go on on this and try to find out as much as I can. I'll keep you informed.

@ian
After installing the software (the well known Widcomm one) on my desktop, among my network connections appeared a "Bluetooth LAN Access Server Driver" to which in fact TCP/IP is bound. I know this probably doesn't smell perfectly right , but if it's there...? A printer adapter would be the better solution but they are pricy.

@MadeInJapan
Interesting point you have regarding this frequency thing, but I think it must be something else. The computers actually can "see" each other, they just don't do the next step and connect. Since I'm a newbie to Bluetooth I'll go on and try to find out more on this. Thanks for your effort so far!

[Elhabash]

This actually is an iteresting question. I don't like Bluetooth for those exact reasons, everything is just a pain in the butt. My Bluetooth mouse (great because you don't need any external receivers or cables) works well as long as I don't install any drivers.

But anything more complicated failed me until now. One would think that connecting a Palm to a WinXP machine should be the most common application of Bluetooth and therefore work easily. Nope, I tried with a friend (who is more knowledgeable with computers than me) for almost an hour before giving up. The same thing, it was always asking for some password, even though no one set one at any time. We even removed all the login passwords and so on...
No solution, sorry. But there has to be one.

[coolsilicon]

Elhabash,
I really didn't know how difficult this Bluetooth thing would become. Maybe I thought of "plug and connect" or something like that Ok, *that* was obviously not the case - it's more like "don't plug it, just forget it, dud" Like you, I've never set a pw at any time until I was asked for this mysteric "PIN". I thought it was needed in order to establish a safe connection, so I just typed in a few numbers (same on both machines, of course) but no luck. As I said, I'll keep looking for a solution but as of yet I have no idea what it could be like. Great someone else is in my boat

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Short update:
I asked in a newsgroup on this BT-thing and one guy said could be I had to put in a certain four-digit-number, either 1234 or 0000. Well, you guess it, both didn't work. Maybe I'll just stop trying - at least for the rest of the year