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Basic Operations

Dell™ TrueMobile™ 300 Bluetooth™ User's Guide

  Starting or Stopping a Bluetooth™ Device

  Using Quick Connect

  Connecting With Bluetooth Setup Wizard

  Creating a Connection From Entire Bluetooth Neighborhood

  Finding Bluetooth Devices

  Finding a Service

  Bluetooth Connection Status

  Sending Information To Bluetooth



Starting or Stopping a Bluetooth™ Device

To start the operation of a Bluetooth device, in the system tray of your computer's Microsoft® Windows® operating system, right-click the Bluetooth icon and select Enable Bluetooth Radio. The Bluetooth icon is blue in color with a white insert when Bluetooth is running.

To stop the operation of a Bluetooth device, in the Windows system tray, right-click the Bluetooth icon and select Disable Bluetooth Radio. The Bluetooth icon is blue in color with a red insert when Bluetooth is stopped.


Using Quick Connect

The Quick Connect option allows you to quickly reestablish a previous connection or establish a new connection and remember it for future Quick Connect use.

In the Windows system tray, right-click the Bluetooth icon, select Quick Connect and then the Bluetooth service that you wish to use.

If your computer has created a connection to the desired type of service in the past, the options on the shortcut menu are:

If this computer has never created a connection to this type of service, the only option on the shortcut menu is Find Devices.... Select this option to search for devices that potentially provide the desired service, select a device from the list, and then click Connect.


Connecting With Bluetooth Setup Wizard

  1. From the Folders pane of Windows Explorer, right-click My Bluetooth Places and select Bluetooth Setup Wizard.

Or

In Windows Explorer, with My Bluetooth Places selected, from the Bluetooth menu, select Bluetooth Setup Wizard.

Or

From the Windows system tray: right-click the Bluetooth icon and select Bluetooth Setup Wizard.

  1. Follow the wizard's on-screen instructions.


Creating a Connection From Entire Bluetooth Neighborhood

  1. From Windows Explorer, select Entire Bluetooth Neighborhood, right-click a device name and select Connect to... the desired service.

Or

NOTE: Only available services are displayed in the menus.
  1. In the Folders pane, expand Entire Bluetooth Neighborhood, select a device, and then, in the right pane, right-click a service provided by that device and select Connect to... the desired service.


Finding Bluetooth Devices

The Search for Devices option looks for the available Bluetooth devices and displays the devices that it finds in My Bluetooth Places.

To start a search for devices, in the Folders pane of My Bluetooth Devices, select Entire Bluetooth Neighborhood, open the Bluetooth menu, and then select Search for Devices.

NOTE: The Bluetooth menu is only visible when My Bluetooth Places is active.

Periodic Search for Devices

Bluetooth can be configured to automatically search for devices on a regular basis (click the Bluetooth Configuration panel and the Discovery tab).

One of the advantages of Bluetooth is the mobility the wireless connections allow. However, mobility means that devices may move in or out of connection range during the time between the automatic updates performed by Bluetooth. To be certain that the displayed list of devices in the neighborhood is current, or if automatic periodic inquiry is not enabled, force an update of the device list using the technique described in "Finding Bluetooth Devices."

Some devices within connection range may not show up in the list of devices found because:


Finding a Service

The process of determining the services that a device provides is called Service Discovery.

Starting a Service Discovery

In the Folders pane of My Bluetooth Places, right-click the device name and select Discover Available Services from the shortcut menu.

Some services are hardware dependant; this computer cannot provide the fax service unless it has a physical fax modem, for example.

Some Bluetooth services use virtual "hardware." The Bluetooth Serial Port service, for example, does not use a physical port on this computer. Instead, it creates virtual serial ports that operating system programs can see and use as if they were actual physical ports.

Each Bluetooth service that this computer is capable of providing can be started automatically when Bluetooth starts. Each service can be setup to require security measures before allowing a remote Bluetooth device to connect.

Bluetooth services require a Bluetooth program on the remote device; services and programs usually have coinciding names; i.e., there is a Bluetooth Fax Service and a Bluetooth Fax Application.

The Bluetooth device supports the following services:

Bluetooth Serial Port — A wireless connection between two devices. This connection can be used by programs as though a physical serial cable connected the devices.

Dial-up Networking — Allows a device to use a modem that is physically attached to another Bluetooth device.

Fax — Allows a device to send a fax using a remote Bluetooth cell phone, modem, or computer.

File Transfer — Allows a device to perform file system operations on another Bluetooth device; browse, open, copy, etc.

Headset — Allows a Bluetooth headset to be used as the audio input/output mechanism for another Bluetooth device, such as a computer or cell phone.

Network Access — Allows a device to access a Local Area Network via a second Bluetooth device that is physically connected to the network.

PIM Item Transfer — Allows two Bluetooth devices to exchange.

PIM Synchronization — Allows two Bluetooth devices to synchronize Personal Information Manager data.

Network Access — Allows a device to access a Local Area Network via a second Bluetooth device that is physically connected to the network or allows a remote device to become part of an ad hoc network provided by the Bluetooth server.

Audio Gateway — Allows the microphone/speakers on a Bluetooth device (typically a computer) to be used as the audio input/output mechanism for a remote Bluetooth device, such as a cell phone.

All Bluetooth servers do not necessarily provide all of these services. For example, network gateways may provide only the Network Access service.


Bluetooth Connection Status

The Bluetooth Connection Status dialog box displays information about the state of a connection and provides a means to disconnect an active connection.

To display the Connection Status dialog box complete the following steps:

  1. In My Bluetooth Places, from the Folders pane, select a device.

  2. In the right pane of My Bluetooth Places, right-click a service name and select Status from the shortcut menu.

Information provided is:

Status — Connected or Disconnected.

Device Name — The name of the device to which this computer is connected.

Duration — The length of time that this connection has been established, displayed in hours, minutes and seconds. Depending on the service, the connection may time out (automatically disconnect) after a specific period of inactivity.

Activity — The number of bytes sent and received over the connection.
NOTE: To change the power transmission level of this computer: from the Bluetooth Configuration panel, click the Hardware tab, click the Advanced button, and then change the setting in the Maximum Power Transmission drop-down list. The Advanced button is not available in all countries.

Signal Strength — A graphic indicator that ranges from Too Weak through Good to Too Strong.

The controls in the Bluetooth Connection Status dialog box are:

Properties button — Displays the Bluetooth Properties dialog box for this connection.

Disconnect button — Closes the connection.

Close button — Closes the Bluetooth Connection Status dialog box.


Sending Information To Bluetooth

This feature is used to send information to another Bluetooth device. Data types include files from:

Using "Send to Bluetooth"

  1. Select the program from which you will be transferring the document:

  2. From the program's File menu, select Send To, and then select Bluetooth from the shortcut menu.

  3. Select a device from the shortcut menu to send the data

Or

Select Other..., choose a device from the list, and click OK to send the data.


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