Make a Bluetooth-to-PC Connection:

Coded Messages, unseen radio signals, hush-hush techno jargon. These are the hallmarks of Bluetooth, the famously misunderstood short-range wireless technology, incidentally named after a tenth-century Danish king that lets you connect your cell phone to a PC. But what should be a snap right out of the box requires several steps before it will even work.
Bluetooth can be a right bugger for most people. The reason being is for starters, it only works differently on nearly every phone, not all PC’s have Bluetooth built in, and there’s a mishmash of incompatible versions. Did you know there are multiple “stacks” for Bluetooth, such as WIDCOMM or RFCOMM? Or that a stack is pretty much the same as a driver? It’s enough to make you want to plug in a USB cable. Read on as I demystify Bluetooth and explain how to make it work with popular phones. The good news: once configured, Bluetooth is pretty slick for exchanging data wire-less.

1) Configure your PC:
On a laptop, there’s likely a Bluetooth icon that looks like a “B” made out of a twist tie in the system tray . Double click it to get it started.
If you use a desktop PC, you might need a Bluetooth adapter such as the D-link DBT-120. Plug it in and run the install disc. Start Bluetooth and you’ll see the welcome screen.

2) What’s your stack?:
These next few steps differ slightly depending on your stack. A Bluetooth stack determines what your phone can do, such as sync data or serve as a Web link. WIDCOMM is common, especially on laptops.
But Toshiba laptops use the RFCOMM stack, and Microsoft has a more generic stack. Fortunately, most stacks require the same basic information.

3) Choose Services:
You can now select which services you want to use with your phone. Just place a check next to the ones you want. The catch: When you actually “pair” your phone with your PC, there’s another prompt that will let you specify which services you can really use with that phone and that stack.

4) Get connected:
Now, on your phone, go to the settings menu, enable Bluetooth, and click an option to “find me” or “pair” your phone. On your PC, your phone should appear in the Select a device screen. Select your phone and click Next. If you don’t see your phone, check out the “Bluetooth Trouble” at the end of this article.
Type a code for pairing - entering the same code on both your PC and your phone, for security. This can be any number - although you might have to check the manual for a specific code.
Click Repair Now. On your phone, type the same code. Now, click Yes or OK to pair the phone.

5) Bluetooth Service Selection:
We’re almost done. On your PC, you’ll see a screen that says which Bluetooth Services are available for your phone. Select the ones you want and click Next. Congrats. You have successfully enabled Bluetooth and paired your phone.

6) Lets get busy:
To use the Bluetooth connection on your PC, double-click the Bluetooth icon and double click a service icon, such as My Dial-up Networking to surf the Web or My PIM transfer to sync the contacts and other data between the phone and PC.

Configuring Bluetooth on your phone

Finding the Bluetooth configuration on your phone will require a few steps that may not be immediately obvious. In general, something close to these directions will work for most phones offered by a manufacture, although these specific directions come from the specific models listed below.

Motorola RAZR V3m:

• Press “menu”
• Scroll left to “Settings”, then down to “Connections”
• Select “Bluetooth”
• Select “Setup”
• Go to “Power” and click, then click “On”
• Click “Find Me”
• On your PC, search for and select the phone, click “next” and click “Pair Now”
• Type the code and click “Yes”

Nokia 6103:

• Click “menu”
• Go to and click ono “Settings”, then “Connectivity”
• Click on “Bluetooth”
• Click on “Bluetooth and Select “On”
• Go to and select “Bluetooth Settings”
• Make sure “Shown to all” is selected
• On your PC, search for and select the phone, click “Next” and click “Pair Now”
• Type the code and click “Yes”

Sprint Samgung A900:

• Press “menu”
• Go to “Settings” and click “OK”
• Go to “Bluetooth”
• Click “Enable” and select “On”
• Click “Visibility” and select “Visible for 3 min”
• On your PC, search for and select the phone, click “Next” and click “Pair Now”
• Type the code and click “Yes”

Motarola V360:

• Press “menu”
• Go to and select “Settings”, then “Connection”
• Click “Bluetooth”, then select “Setup”
• Go to “Power” and select “On”
• Select “Find Me”
• On your PC, search for and select the phone, click “Next” and click “Pair Now”
• Type the code and click “Yes”

Bluetooth Trouble

If you’re having trouble with Bluetooth-to-PC, it could be because…

• Your carrier has blocked file transfers. Verizon especially, is stingy with Bluetooth connections.
• On Samsung and Nokia phones, there’s a setting for “visibility”. Make sure it’s on.
• Your PC does not have Bluetooth, so you’ll need a Bluetooth Key. Search for “Bluetooth key” at an electronics Web site to see which models are available. Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR transfers data three times faster as previous versions, so get a key that supports that protocol. Even if your current phone doesn’t support EDR, your next phone might.
• Your phone doesn’t work with your stack. This problem isn’t common, but if it’s the case, then try a Bluetooth Key that supports your phone’s required stack.
• Your phone uses a specific pairing code, such as the code “0000″ used for some Nokia Phones. You’ll find the default code listed in the manual.
• Bluetooth is disabled on your PC. The easiest way to enable it is just to press the Bluetooth switch, which should glow blue.

Want to lower your cell-phone bills? You can with the next step in VoIP: Wireless VoIP. To make the move, you need a Wi-Fi phone that can tap into any available hot spot and thus emnable you to make a free or chape calls from any Wi-Fi access point on the planet.

Currently, only a few Wi-Fi phones are designed to work with different services. the $150 ZyXel P-2000W V2 handset, for example, and th $250 D-link DPH-541 work with open VoIP services such as BroadVoice. And Vonage customers can tap into accessible Wi-fi hot spots in, say, London, or Paris using the $130 UTStarcom F1000.

The latest and perhaps most anticipated Wi-Fi phones is the iPod-styled Netgear SPH101 Wifi phone for Skype. The $250 phone can connect on any open Wi-Fi Network, letting Skype users place free calls anywhere in the world where they can hit a hot spot. Also expected to be available by the time you read this is Belkin’s $180 Wi-fi Phone for Skype, which is touted as having similar features. The downside: Wi-Fi phones typically have shorter talk times - 2 to 3 hours - than standard cell phones.

None of these Wi-Fi phones include cellular service, but you can turn some smartphones into Wi-fi handsets by downloading client software to tap into your VoIP account. Skype for Pocket PC is free software that handhelds using Pocket PC 2003, or Windows Mobile 5.0. It’s far from perfect, but why pay outrageous charges when you may be able to place a call for nothing?

Chances are, if you ran a big company you’d have an expensive PBX (private branch exchange) system to juggle extensions, conference calls, and voice mail. For small businesses, a better solution is virtual PBX, which doesn’t require new hardware and is managed via the Web. You get a main number from the hosting company and then route all calls through it to other lines, be it a cell phone, home phone, or a phone abroad. You can also avoid long distance charges by routing calls via VoIP.

VirtualPBX offers conference calling, caller ID, and more advanced features such as departmental queuing starting at $9.99 a month for three users. There’s also a $25 set up fee and per-minute charges.
With features similar to those of VirtualPBX, Onebox’s Receptionist service costs $24.95 a month and four users, plus per-minute and set up fees. And GotVMail starts at $9.95 a month. Its most attractive SMB offering is a $105 monthly service that includes a toll-free and local phone number with 20 mailboxes and 1,000 local call minutes.
Do-it-yourselfers can eliminate the monthly fees entirely by building their own software-based PBX. An increasingly popular example is VoIP-based Asterisk, an open-source program available at no cost that runs on Linux and Mac OS X.

VOIP (Voice Over IP Phone Service)

You know the cost savings of voice over IP phone service, but only about 16% of small to midsize businesses have made the switch to VoIP, according to a survey by technology consultancy Savatar. Why? Because most Internet Phone services don’t offer communication packages designed for small businesses. Now that’s changing, with a variety of tiered services that can fit nearly any business model.

There are two basic types of VoIP service. The first is designed to replace your existing landline phone with VoIP. Such services are offered by traditional phone companies (AT&T’s CallVantage and Verizon’s VoiceWing), cable companies (Time Warner Cable’s digital phone and Comcast’s Digital Voice), and VoIP pioneers such as Vonage and Packet8.

Vonage is atthe forefront. Its $49.99 Small Business Unlimited Premium package includes unlimited local and long-distance calls anywhere in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico, as well as dedicated fax line, unlimited call forwarding, and the ability to send all voice mail to an e-mail account. Additional lines cost around $12.99 for 500 minutes.

The second type of VoIP service is the free or nearly free services such as Yahoo Messenger with Voice, GoogleTalk, and Skype. These software applications let you place calls from a PC or connected handset to other users of the same serivice at no charge. Most also let you call out to regular phone numbers for just a couple cents per minute.

The leader in this category is Skype, which even allows you to purchase a regular phone numbers so that people with traditional phones can call you on your PC. Skype also offers free conference calls, file transfers during calls, call forwarding, and several for-pay features. Skype for Business includes free software that lets group administrators purchase Skype Credits and then track and distribute them to employees, who can use them for Skype premium services such as calls to regular phone numbers and voice mail.

VoIP isn’t a perfect solution. The issue of 911 service has yet to be satisfactorily resolved, calls are sometimes dropped, audio quality is occassionally inferior, and when the power goes out, so does the phone service. But according to the Savatar survey, 91% of SMB’s that have adopted VoIP would recommend or highly recommend it to others.