Save me from this madness

[DiGiTYZED]

Now I've been very patient. I've tried 5 times over the last 5 months to get activesync to work over bluetooth. They see each other, they bond/pair, they send files but they won't sync up! It's like a one night stand - where's the friggin' relationship???

someone help this matchmaker please! whether you have Ambicom BT2000C-CF Bluetooth CF Card in ya PPC or Belkin Bluetooth adapter on ya desktop/laptop, tell me what I may be doing wrong. even if you don't have either, please put in ya two cents.

thanx in advance people

[DiGiTYZED]

p.s. - the manuals do nothing. the belkin manual only discuss HP iPAQs and the ambicom manual only details bt & activesync when the cf card is in the laptop (pc card adapter) and connecting to an HP iPAQ. idiots

[Jeff Rutledge]

Do you have the correct COM port set in ActiveSync? On my laptop, Bluetooth connects on COM5 or COM6 (can't recall offhand).

[Ultima]

What the real PITA is, sometimes (2 out of the 3 times I've set up a WIDCOMM stack bluetooth adapter like the Belkin) the serial port is NOT turned on for the PC!

Open up the BlueTooth Places. From the BlueTooth menu inside the BlueTooth Places, go to "Advanced Configuration", then click on the Local Services tab, and make sure there is a "BlueTooth Serial Port" in the menu. If there is not, click the "Add Serial Device" button, and give it an unused COM port, like COM 3 or 5 or 6 or something, then tell ActiveSync to sync using that COM port as Jeff suggested.

Also, good luck with the Ambicom stuff. I've got a USB dongle and I had a CF BT Adapter made by them (they were dirt cheap, $10 after rebate for both, and I did get the rebates back). Unfortunately, as I soon found out, their software for my laptop was the worst software I've ever had the disprivilage of (attempting to) run. If their PocketPC software is in the same boat, then I pity you for installing it. I would have liked the BT2000 CF card if it actually worked, as my Toshiba 3505's compact flash slot would have been perfect for it. I emailed them about possibly being able to use a quality bluetooth stack like WIDCOMM's with it, and they never emailed me back. 2 months later after I bit the bullet and bought a D-Link BT120 or whatever (which works PERFECTLY) I sent the fine folks over at AmbiCom a picture of what I did with that CF BlueTooth adapter....I flattened it (as if CF wasn't flat enough) under my car tire then I drove a nail through it. The USB dongle might be of use, because someday someone might come up with a way of making it use the WIDCOMM software. Hell, I'd even pay a small shareware fee for that. It works fine as a bluetooth adapter on a Mac though, so if I ever come across a Mac user that needs a bluetooth adapter, I may offload it on them. Go figure.

[DiGiTYZED]

Do you have the correct COM port set in ActiveSync? On my laptop, Bluetooth connects on COM5 or COM6 (can't recall offhand).

yup! COM4

[DiGiTYZED]

I'm assuming it's best to get a bluetooth adapter that uses WIDCOMM Bluetooth drivers

Does Socket's Bluetooth compact flash card use WIDCOMM drivers?

If not, what's the recommended BT CF card (preferably with WIDCOMM Bluetooth drivers)???

Is there an comparison page somewhere?

[taxus]

2 months later after I bit the bullet and bought a D-Link BT120 or whatever (which works PERFECTLY) I sent the fine folks over at AmbiCom a picture of what I did with that CF BlueTooth adapter....I flattened it (as if CF wasn't flat enough) under my car tire then I drove a nail through it.

Well, that's what I would like to do right now to my D-Link DBT-120 USB dongle.

I upgraded my iPAQ h2210's ROM yesterday, and now it won't connect with my PC. Why? Probably because on my PC I'm using the 1.2.2.15 Widcomm driver, and I can't upgrade to 1.4. (The 2210 is now using the 1.4.1 Widcomm driver.)

I have seen many complaints about the DBT-120 in forums. The problem is that many manufacturers like D-Link still ship Bluetooth adapters with hopelessly outdated Widcomm drivers, because they don't want to pay the license for a newer version.

When I try to install the latest driver, I get asked for a "software key" that was supposedly written on the CD, package or whatever. It never was included. No matter what I try (including copying the license.dat file from my CD), nothing works because I don't have that software key.

There is supposed to be a web form (http://66.45.42.85/dlink/) for D-Link customers who "lost their software key". That form reports that my MAC address is not legitimate.

All D-Link support could do was to refer me to Widcomm (Broadcom actually) email support.

I will probably have to do as Spam Target (http://home.comcast.net/~spam-target) suggests on his web site: buy a Belkin F8T001 second generation Bluetooth USB dongle.

[Ultima]

When I wrote that, I still had an iPaq 2215, now I have a 6315 instead, and I never noticed that the DBT-120 failed to operate until now, as I was syncing over Wi-Fi or using my USB Cradle. Also, I was primarily using it for dial-up access through my bluetooth phone, which is actually broken right now on the 6315s, to my (unpleasant) surprise.

Hmm...looks like it may be time to use the replacement plan I bought on the adapter and switch to a different brand. ;)

[taxus]

To my great surprise, Widcomm answered my mail and sent me a software key. (Last year they never answered my email.)

I successfully installed version 1.4.1 build 6 of the Bluetooth software, and it's now working again. Well, the network access is, Bluetooth ActiveSync too, but not ActiveSync over network. (Can't remember how I had made it work before.)

[Ultima]

Which email did you contact, and where did you find the driver download? I searched all over their site and could not find a location to actually download the 1.4.x drivers...even if I did have a key code...

[taxus]

I downloaded the driver from the D-Link web site. This (http://www.d-link.com/products/support.asp?pid=34&sec=0#drivers) is where you download drivers for the D-Link DBT-120. First, you have to select the model you have. Mine is revision A2.

They're also available on the D-Link Support web site (http://support.dlink.com/) (why have two different sites for support? Beats me!). You can download drivers, manuals, and there is also a small FAQ. E.g. for my model (there are two other pages for later revisions):

DBT-120 rev. A1, A2, B1, B2 Support (http://support.dlink.com/products/view.asp?productid=DBT%2D120#)

That's a better page than the D-Link Canada support page, which says practically nothing. I would have downloaded the wrong version.

Item one in the FAQ says what to do if we don't have a security key (http://support.dlink.com/faq/view.asp?prod_id=1328&question=DBT-120%20/%20DBT-120_revB3). Basically, they refer you to a Widcomm/Broadcom page where you can ask for a key using a web form, and they give an email address (at Broadcom.com) for support.

Broadcom actually answered the same day, on a Sunday evening.

[taxus]

Oh, and now I can ActiveSync over the network, but I'm not sure what I did to make it work.

I've spent hours on that crap to make it work. If they want Bluetooth to succeed, they'd better make it more user-friendly!