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Connecting Devices with Bluetooth

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

People generally use IrDA (Infrared Data Association) to wirelessly share data between two devices, be they notebooks, cellphones or PDAs. Though it’s common (it comes by default in most notebooks), its line-of-sight requirement and short range sometimes become a problem. So, another option is using Bluetooth. Bluetooth offers a short-range RF (Radio Frequency) link in the range of 0 to 10 meters. RF does not have any line-of-sight requirements–radio waves can easily penetrate through walls and briefcases. Also, unlike IrDA, Bluetooth is a point-to-multipoint link, in which several devices can connect simultaneously to each other with a shared bandwidth of up to 1 Mbps. Bluetooth is not very common and comes only with some high-end notebooks. But, you can always buy a PCMCIA or USB Bluetooth adapter and make your notebook Bluetooth enabled.

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In this article, we’ll see how you can connect two bluetooth-enabled notebooks. The notebooks that we used to try this out were a Compaq Presario X1000 and an Acer Ferrari. Both had built-in Bluetooth adapters and ran on Win XP.

Snapshot
Applies to Personal devices
Usp Easier interconnects
Links  http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/



bluetooth.htm
 

Win XP creates a desktop icon called My Bluetooth Places for machines with Bluetooth adapters. Double click on the icon and in the next Window run the ‘Bluetooth Setup Wizard’. Using this wizard, set the Device name, which will be shown to other machines, and the type of the machine, laptop or desktop. Next, enable the services that your notebook will provide to other systems. You can enable exchanging of business cards, synchronization of e-mail, file transfer, network access, etc. Set device name and services on both notebooks. We will name the two notebooks Acer1 and Compaq1.

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The My Bluetooth Places window shows all your bluetooth links 

Now, it is time to connect the two notebooks. Run the wizard again on either of the machines and perform a search for other Bluetooth devices kept near by. Now we run the wizard on Acer1. After finding the second notebook, Compaq1, the wizard will show its name with an icon indicating whether it is a laptop or a desktop. Select Compaq1 and click on Next. On the next screen, the wizard will ask you to provide a PIN number that will be used for authentication and encryption. Provide any PIN number and click on the Initiate Pairing button. When you click on the button on Acer1, a notification will appear on the second notebook, Compaq1, saying that Acer1 wants to pair with it. If you wish to let it connect to your machine, enter the PIN number originally entered on Acer1. After giving the correct PIN, the two notebooks will be paired. Now, the wizard on Acer1 will give you a list of services offered by Compaq1. Select Network Access and accept the default name ‘Compaq1 Network Access’ and click on Finish. A new link called ‘Compaq1 Network Access’ appears on the my Bluetooth Places window of Acer1.

When you double click on it, Acer1 will start connecting to Compaq1. A prompt will appear on Compaq1 saying Acer1 wants to connect. When you say ‘Yes’ to it, a network connection will be established between the two. We got a link speed of 700 kpbs between the two notebooks. 

Assign an IP address to the Bluetooth network connection on the two notebooks. Now you can ping the two machines and also share files using Windows File and Print Sharing. To use Bluetooth

with Linux, read our article on it in our Linux Corner section of this issue.

Anoop Mangla

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