What is the difference between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi?

[Job]

Can anyone explain the difference between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi? Do you need to pay for service?

[Jorgen]

Something like this http://www.imparttech.com/802.11-bluetooth.htm

Jorgen

[smashcasi]

PCWorld also has a nice quick article (http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,103848,00.asp) that attempts to answer this very question.

Basically, both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (or 802.11b) are wireless technologies. Bluetooth is targeted more at low-power, short range applications while Wi-Fi is primarily designed to blanket an entire area with the ability to access a wireless network.

There is some overlap since Bluetooth can be used to access a wireless network as well, and this has resulted in a great deal of controversy over which technology is better. I'll try to sidestep all of that and just give you a couple of simple examples:

Let's say I want to be able to access the internet on my Pocket PC wirelessly from anywhere in my house. I'd go buy a Wi-Fi access point (a device that plugs into my cable modem and broadcasts the Wi-Fi signal), hook it into my network and viola! Wireless internet anywhere in my home.

Now let's say that I'm away from home and I still want to access the internet on my Pocket PC. If I have a Bluetooth-capable cell phone and internet access through my cellular provider, I can use Bluetooth to communicate between my Pocket PC and my phone and get on the net. With Bluetooth I can also do things like make use of a wireless headset, communicate with a nearby printer to send documents directly to it, and more.

There is a plethora of information and opinions available on both of these technologies. My advice to you would be to determine what you really want to do wirelessly and do a Google search. I think you should be able to find exactly what you're looking for.

[JvanEkris]

In theory, the above example is correct. However, Bluetooth has a special profile called PAN. This is, with a good BT-module a LAN connection which has a range of 100 meters. Enough to cover a normal house. I use my Loox and a Bluetooth dongle on my desktop: Connection everywhere in my house.

Jaap

[Job]

I want to thank everyone for the replies; they were very helpful. Currently, I am not looking to make any additional purchases however, so I have plenty of time to determine exactly what I need (or merely want :D ).