In a nutshell, Bluetooth is a wireless technology that provides wireless communications among computers, printers, mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, and other electronic devices. You can connect as many as eight devices together with Bluetooth, with one device acting as the master device and up to seven slave devices. (This labyrinth of connected devices is called a piconet; you can have up to two piconets.) For example, you can have a desktop PC, a laptop, a smartphone, digital camera, MP3 player, digital video camera, and headphones all linked wirelessly. They can share a high-speed Internet connection, share data, and use a single printer.
Bluetooth is a wireless specification intended to replace the need to use physical cables between devices. For example, Bluetooth enables you to wirelessly connect keyboards, mice, and printers to your laptop or computer. You also can use Bluetooth to wirelessly connect a mobile phone to your computer or laptop to sync settings, transfer photos or videos, or share contacts. Many other types of Bluetooth devices are available as well, including some that don't even connect to computers or laptops, such as devices used inside automobiles, exercise equipment, and games.
Bluetooth uses radio waves to transmit signals, much like many other types of technologies such as FM radio, television, and Wi-Fi. One primary difference between Bluetooth and other radio wave technologies is the distance between devices. Bluetooth is designed for very small distances; Bluetooth is personal. You set up connections among your devices in a personal area network (called a PAN). Bluetooth is good within about 164 feet (50 meters), whereas other radio wave technologies can reach miles or hundreds of miles.
At the time of this writing, the current Bluetooth version is 5. Bluetooth 5 has low-energy wireless transfers to allow small, low-powered devices to use Bluetooth. Transfer rates for Bluetooth 5 are up to 2 Mbit/s instead of the usual 1 Mbit/s. If you're thinking of setting up a permanent wireless network between computers, however, you may want to stick with the 802.11 standards described in Chapter 33. But when you're connecting non-computer Bluetooth devices, wirelessly connecting a printer, or occasionally transferring files between computers, Bluetooth can't be beat.
The following are some Bluetooth buzzwords and concepts that you'll encounter in this section, as well as in the instructions that come with Bluetooth devices:
A non-computer gadget such as a smartphone, MP3 player, or electronic pedometer that supports Bluetooth is called a Bluetooth device. A standard desktop PC or laptop computer usually isn't a Bluetooth device, although many laptops include built-in Bluetooth capabilities. As a rule, turning your PC or laptop into a Bluetooth device is easy. You simply plug a Bluetooth USB adapter — a tiny device about the size of your thumbnail — into any available USB port, and presto, your computer is a Bluetooth device. Making your computer into a Bluetooth device doesn't limit it in any way. Bluetooth extends the capabilities of your computer so that you can do things such as the following:
When you install a Bluetooth adapter on your PC or laptop, you also install radio drivers. Windows 10 comes with many radio drivers preinstalled.
If you plan to share a single Internet account among several computers or Bluetooth devices, you should install your first Bluetooth USB adapter in the computer that connects directly to the router. That will give other Bluetooth devices that you add later easy access to the Internet through that computer's Internet connection.
After you've installed a Bluetooth adapter, or if your device is itself a Bluetooth device, you'll find a new icon named Bluetooth in the Settings applet. You also can view Bluetooth information in the Device Manager.
To view the Devices list, choose Settings, click Devices. Figure 30.1 shows the Bluetooth menu option that appears in Settings when a Bluetooth device is attached or built into the computer.
To see how the same device looks in Device Manager, show the desktop and press Windows+X. Choose Device Manager and expand the Bluetooth list, as shown in Figure 30.2. Your list may be different from the one shown here, but the important point is that you can view and manage the Bluetooth device in this list as well as in the Devices app.
You will have a Bluetooth icon (which looks very similar to the letter B) in the notification area of the Windows desktop taskbar. The Bluetooth Settings screen is your central point for installing Bluetooth. To open that screen, click Settings from the Start menu, or double-click the Bluetooth Devices notification area icon (see Figure 30.3). Initially, the Devices list is empty. If you don't see a Bluetooth Devices icon in the notification area, make sure to select the Show the Bluetooth Icon in the Notification Area check box.
As you install devices and join devices to a Bluetooth PAN, you see the names of those devices listed on that screen.
The shortcut icon that appears when you right-click the notification area provides options for adding a Bluetooth device, sending and receiving files, and joining a PAN.
Many types of Bluetooth devices are available on the market. Most have some means of making the device discoverable (visible) to other devices. Whether you have to make your PC discoverable to install a device depends on the type of installation you're about to perform. As always, you need to read the documentation that came with your device for specifics.
On the shortcut menu for the Bluetooth Devices notification icon, clicking the Add a Bluetooth Device option opens the Settings window with the Devices option showing. Windows attempts to locate any devices available. The sections that follow show you how easily you can connect Bluetooth devices to your laptop or computer. This example shows you how to connect a smartphone to your computer. We then walk you through the process of transferring files to and from that device.
To add a smartphone to your computer using Bluetooth, you must have a device that supports Bluetooth. Also, your computer or laptop must have built-in Bluetooth or a Bluetooth adapter plugged into it.
Use the following steps to connect the device to your Windows computer:
Windows sets up a connection between the two devices.
After your two devices are connected, you can join them as a PAN so you can transfer files between them using the Bluetooth connection. To do so, follow these steps:
Now that your devices are joined to a PAN, you can transfer files between them, print to a Bluetooth printer, and so on. Read the following two sections to find out how to do this.
You can't do much when you connect a smartphone to a computer via Bluetooth. One feature that is handy, however, is the feature to send files from your phone to Windows. You can, for example, send picture or video files from your phone to your computer. To do this, follow these steps:
Not only does Windows 10 make receiving files from a Bluetooth device, such as an Android-based smartphone, easy; it also simplifies sending them to the device. Follow these steps:
Windows sends the file(s) from your computer to your other device. Depending on the size of the files, the transfer process may take several minutes.
You've seen how to create a PAN to allow a smartphone to connect to your computer. You also can create a Bluetooth PAN as a short-range wireless network to connect other types of devices together wirelessly. A PAN is commonly used to connect a laptop to a desktop PC, although it can be used to connect other types of Bluetooth devices. As a rule, joining Bluetooth devices to a Bluetooth network is a simple matter. Most of the action takes place automatically, behind the scenes.
To understand the basic procedure, assume you already have a desktop computer with a functional Internet connection. You've already installed a Bluetooth USB adapter on that computer, so it's now a Bluetooth device. On that desktop computer, click the Bluetooth adapter icon in the notification area of the Windows desktop. Click Open Settings and make sure Allow Bluetooth Devices to Find This PC is selected, as shown in Figure 30.15. Click OK.
On a laptop computer (or a second computer), activate Bluetooth or, if necessary, plug in a second Bluetooth USB adapter. The objective is to connect the laptop to the desktop in a PAN. To do so, starting from the laptop computer, follow these steps:
After the connection is established, you should have Internet access on both computers. You can share printers and folders, and move and copy files between computers using the techniques described in Chapter 16 and Chapter 20.
Note, however, that if you made the Bluetooth connection to only one computer in an existing local area network (LAN), you have access only to the shared resources on the Bluetooth-enabled computer, not all the computers in the LAN.
If you can't get any connectivity at all using Bluetooth, try the following remedy:
The Network and Sharing Center folders on each PC should have similar Bluetooth network entries.
If you can't get Internet connectivity from the computer you're connecting to the PAN (assuming the PAN already has Internet connectivity), go to a computer that's connected to the cable modem or router. Open the Network and Sharing Center and click the network item next to the Connections label. In the Activity area, click Properties and select the Sharing tab. Choose Allow Other Network Users to Connect through This Computer's Internet Connection and click OK twice to save your settings.
If you still have problems connecting to the Internet, check the settings for the Windows Firewall. In the Cortana search box, type fire, and then click Windows Firewall in the results area. Double-click a rule from the inbound or outbound rules list to adjust the settings.
With these settings, you should be able to connect to the Internet from the other computers in the PAN.
Remember that many different Bluetooth devices are available on the market. If none of the techniques described here help you make the connection between two computers in a PAN, refer to the instructions that came with your Bluetooth device.
This chapter has been about installing and configuring Bluetooth devices and Bluetooth networks. Bluetooth devices provide an excellent alternative to many commonly wired devices. They're usually fast and easy to set up and can provide a great way for users to communicate between computers without relying on more complex networking. Here's a recap of the technologies covered in this chapter: