bluetooth - can anyone explain what this is?

I was chatting to a guy in the local computer shop about setting up a
network between the 2 computers in the house when I get onto broadband
(next month). He suggested one was was to use bluetooth and I just
said - oh yes, ok . . . but when I got home I was thinkinging . . . so
what the heck is bluetooth.
Is it a good way of making a network?
Would it mean that the two comps can use the one modem?

On Thu, 04 Sep 2003 11:37:03 GMT, (E-Mail Removed) (Peter
Montgomery) wrote:

>I was chatting to a guy in the local computer shop about setting up a
>network between the 2 computers in the house when I get onto broadband
>(next month). He suggested one was was to use bluetooth and I just
>said - oh yes, ok . . . but when I got home I was thinkinging . . . so
>what the heck is bluetooth.

See www.bluetooth.com

>Is it a good way of making a network?

Not really - you would be better with a wireless LAN solution.

>Would it mean that the two comps can use the one modem?

--
Hiram Hackenbacker

"Peter Montgomery" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I was chatting to a guy in the local computer shop about setting up a
> network between the 2 computers in the house when I get onto broadband
> (next month). He suggested one was was to use bluetooth and I just
> said - oh yes, ok . . . but when I got home I was thinkinging . . . so
> what the heck is bluetooth.
> Is it a good way of making a network?
> Would it mean that the two comps can use the one modem?

Bluetooth is meant to be a cheap, short-range wireless connection, to avoid
the need for cables between headphones, mobile phones, PDAs, computers,
printers, keyboards and things like that. It's no good for computer
networking unless the machines are next to each other, and it's still fairly
expensive.

WiFi (802.11) is the technology that is supposed to link computers around a
house or office. You can get broadband routers with WiFi basestations built
in - then all you need is a WiFi card for each PC.

Even better, a simple network cable is at least ten times as cheap, ten
times as fast and ten times more secure. Obviously, you might need to drill
holes in the wall to install it but it's worth it if the PC normally stays
in the same place and a decent route for the cable can be found. You will
need a router to share the connection, or else you can use one of the PCs as
a router if you don't mind leaving it switched on (might be more expensive
over time due to extra power consumption ).

--
Phil McKerracher
www.mckerracher.org

Forget bluetooth for networking.. too slow. probably not as fast as the
cable connection you are getting. Go WiFi 11mbps theoretical (probably maxes
out at around 6mbps) or the 55mbps version (more expensive though)

Doz

"Peter Montgomery" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I was chatting to a guy in the local computer shop about setting up a
> network between the 2 computers in the house when I get onto broadband
> (next month). He suggested one was was to use bluetooth and I just
> said - oh yes, ok . . . but when I got home I was thinkinging . . . so
> what the heck is bluetooth.
> Is it a good way of making a network?
> Would it mean that the two comps can use the one modem?

"amstereofan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Phil McKerracher" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:YYF5b.235$(E-Mail Removed)...
> >
> > "Peter Montgomery" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> > news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > > I was chatting to a guy in the local computer shop about setting up a
> > > network between the 2 computers in the house when I get onto broadband
> > > (next month). He suggested one was was to use bluetooth and I just
> > > said - oh yes, ok . . . but when I got home I was thinkinging . . . so
> > > what the heck is bluetooth.
> > > Is it a good way of making a network?
> > > Would it mean that the two comps can use the one modem?
> >
> > Bluetooth is meant to be a cheap, short-range wireless connection, to
> avoid
> > the need for cables between headphones, mobile phones, PDAs, computers,
> > printers, keyboards and things like that. It's no good for computer
> > networking unless the machines are next to each other, and it's still
> fairly
> > expensive.
> >
>
> No it's cheap I've brought a couple of bluetooth dongles for £20 each off
> ebay 100m range and 768kb transfer rate, you can wirelessly connect to
> another pc's adsl modem and so share the internet connection etc. So ie
> roam around the garden and house wtjh a laptop. What makes you think you
> need the pc's next to each other ? Defeats the whole purpose of bluetooth
> for networking

The further the range, the more the speed drops off.... Bluetooth is classed
as a Personal Area Network (or even Pico-net I think) - ie. small area.
Originally it was a 10m range - but its since been extended - and possibly
also increased the throughput.

I would go for WLAN for networking - Bluetooth wasn't designed for
networking - rather to connect serial devices over a wireless link (eg.
laptop to mobile phone). Its since been extended to a number of things, but
as for bandwidth/throughput - WLAN is signficantly better than Bluetooth.

D