Saturday, May 14, 2005

I hate Bluetooth and/or Nokia PC Suite 

I was waiting to be able to use my mobile phone as an audio device for my laptop since years and did not really understand why nobody implemented this up to now. So I was really exited when Andy pointed on a recent entry to a Skype Push-to-Talk application for Symbian phones using Bluetooth. I should have know better.

I was never able to get Bluetooth working properly. I used an Acer Bluetooth stick on my previous laptop together with my Siemens mobile phone, but never managed to get it working properly, so I finally gave up and used the cable. Only the Siemens headset and the Siemens phone worked with Bluetooth.

When I got my new laptop I detected the Acer Bluetooth stick in a drawer after some time and having nothing else useful to do at the moment, I tried to use it again (yes, I did install the drivers first before I attached the stick). The only result was an immediate and complete freeze of Windows. So I forgot the whole issue for one year.

Now having also a new Nokia mobile phone and a Bluetooth headset, and knowing that a friend of mine is always using his Bluetooth headset talking to his laptop, I decided to give it another try and buy a new Bluetooth stick from Belkin featuring also headset connectivity on the box.

So I first tried it with the mobile phone and the Nokia PC Suite to and it worked. At least for some time. I finally detected that it works always after Reboot. Then it continues to work, but after the first save-to-disk it does not work anymore. It seems to be some problem with Nokia PC Suite, because Nokia PC Suite discovers the phone and connects, but refuses to communicate properly and also blocks all other programs to communicate. On the other hand, if I switch to the USB cable, it works immediately.

So I should have know better. I installed the above Skype PTT program from Usefulapps and when it was done, the Readme opened.

The first thing I read was: ... OhOH!
If you are using PC Suite for Nokia you will get error message "Can not find Bluetooth serial port" from Useful server. In order to resolve the problem disable(uncheck) all PC Suite Bluetooth ports by using PC Suite Connection properties dialog and restart the computer. In order to use PC Suite again stop Useful server by using Start/AllPrograms/Useful/Skype PTT for Nokia 6600/StopServer and enable PC Suite Bluetooth ports.
Ok, I tried everything proposed and even some things more, eg some popups from useful app ordering me to boot the laptop and the phone, which I did, booting the laptop and the phone at least three times in different orders. The Usefull application on the phone never could get in touch withuseful app on the laptop.

So I finally gave up after two hours trying. Maybe I am too stupid for this.



Comments:
In order to copy/install things to your phone you do not need Nokia PC Suite. You may use right button Send To/Bluetooth menu from Windows Explorer(File manager)
 
I also expected bluetooth wireless technology to be as seemless as with the wires.... oh how wrong I was - it barely even works!
 
haha, here we are two years after this thread started and it's still the same bluetooth rubbish. Nokia pc suite still sucks too.
 
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