Tungsten T|5 and Bluetooth

[Verxion]

I have no experience with Bluetooth, though I know a ton about TCP/IP in general. I realize that Bluetooth is NOT 802.11, but I thought I would ask here:

What can I expect to do with my T|5 using Bluetooth? Does it give me a real IP and can I route packets just as though I was on 802.11?

I was considering buying a bluetooth dongle as this would give me a constant bluetooth connection for my T|5 (I have an 802.11b/g laptop with me almost all the time). I had seen some good references to a Belkin and apparently also a Kensington bluetooth dongle. Provided that they work well for me, I might go out and buy one.

I also read that some people had trouble syncing over Bluetooth (it was apparently slow). Is this a configuration problem, or is it just "how it is"? Coming from my ancient Visor Prism, it seems like syncing is generally pretty fast over USB on my T|5, so a little slowdown over bluetooth wouldn't kill me. :)

-Verxion

[Carl van Tonder]

It is slow as the max speed is 115200bps, so that's the absolute max you're getting on Sync.

[Antoine]

It is slow to sync because HS over BT is emulated over the serial port, instead of given its own dedicated COM port. It is quite slow, but can come in handhy if you plug in the T5 in an area that your cable or cradle isnt.

Think of BT as a personal wireless network and WiFi as local networking technology. BT is more or less in handy for short range connecting to other devices, rather than to a whole network of computers. With Bluetooth 2.0, a more mesh networking model will be BT's calling card.

[Verxion]

Ahhh, didn't realize the "max speed" was so low. Interesting. . .

-Verxion

[DeanDC10]

You might check my guide linked below for tons of information on this setup.

[SuperSaiyan]

Is it really that slow?
I hotsync and transfer files to/from my T5 all the time with my Linksys BT dongle and it doesn't seem painfully slow to me. Granted, I don't move big files with it but normal hotsync's, 200k jpgs and web surfing are no problem for me in my backyard :)

[DeanDC10]

HotSyncing via Bluetooth is pretty slow, but it also depends on how many conduits you have.

If it is just the four basic PIM apps it would be pretty fast.

[Tam Hanna]

Well, bluetooth is said to be badly implemented on the T series due to a hardware problem with the Serial IO link that connects the CPU to the processor.

[Verxion]

Thanks for all the good info everyone! :)

-Verxion

[Antoine]

I wouldnt say badly implemented, just not as much as some users would like. To this end, you have to ask that question, are you really getting what you paid for (see BargainPDA for how I answered that question)

[CAEDZ]

I would like to add a question to this thread concerning Bluetooth.
I have a T5, and my wife has a Zire 72 (both BT enabled). If i were to use the palmone wi-fi card for my T5, would my wife be able to pick up a wireless signal via Bluetooth from my T5 while i use the Wi-Fi card? So in other words, with me using a Wi-Fi card, can she get the wi-fi signal from my T5 via bluetooth so we can both have web access on our palms?

[DeanDC10]

I do not think this would work. You would have to enable ICS on the T5 and this is not possible.

Why don't you get a Bluetooth adapter for your PC and then you both could connect to the PC via Bluetooth? Check my guide linked below for more details.