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.

Mircosoft’s Vista, are you going to upgrade?

Just recently I put together a PC costing around $5,000.00. It’s a DreamMachine. Considering there’s going to be a technological shift appearing with the way how we’re going to be using our PC’s, I decided why not and get ready for the Windows Vista Candidate Release 1 and the beta 2 technical refresh of Mircosoft’s Office 2007. These are versions that thought they aren’t quite ready to be dispatched for shipment, are good enough however to get in the grasps of heaps of keen testers. In fact Mircosoft expects to send out over 6,000,000 copies of Vista RC1 Candidate in the next few months or so, leading upto the final shipping of the final version to large companies in November 2006 and to the rest of us in late January 2007.

Lots of questions still remain for Bill Gates Multi-trillion dollar company - Windows Mircosoft, for system makers and for those of us who have to make a choice whether or not to upgrade or keep with our 32bit Windows XP operating system.

How stable and compatible will Vista be?
I feel that one of many people’s concerns, yours too if you’ve tried it is with your current software applications and drivers that communicate with your hardware just will not work - some message will appear asking you to contact the manufactures for a solution. Boy that’s going to keep them busy for the next few years.

Some programs like communications and security packs will definitely need brand new versions. Seems like Bill Gates is trying to Monopolize the World Market again. That’s not going to go down too well with the French after they slamed that half of a billion dollar fine on his forehead. Knowing the French Government they’ll find some way to suck more money out of the Founder and Chairman of Mircosoft.

Though Vista seems to come across as a more secure operating system I’ve still ran into a few issues and feel is a little too early to make a full judgement on the current release of Mircosoft’s Vista.

How well will Vista and Office Perform?
It’s hard to say completely, but from a quick glance it’s a lot faster and Mircosoft continues to make more improvements as each day goes by. On an operating system that has 1GB of RAM (Random Access Memory), the combination seems to work pretty well. But I’m not convinced of the performance of Vista and Mircosoft Office 2007 on machines particularly using 512MB or less.

The Manufacturers of computer operating systems also face some other unknown issues at this point as well - what’s new.

Which version of Vista will the consumer buy?
Retail computer vendors have to decide which version to preinstall. Although Mircosoft say users can upgrade and most people will not do that. The low end version of Vista which is referred to as Home Basic, will be in the least expensive models.

I presume the most average user will most likely decide for the Home Premium which has the new graphics, Media Center, and Tablet PC functions. Small businesses however will most likely choose Vista Business and bigger companies may opt for the Vista Enterprise.

Most consumers will not have a choice between Vista and Windows XP; Vista will be on all retail computers the day it’s ready to be shipped out. Direct customers will be able to choose between Vista and XP though. I would expect that small businesses to choose Vista, however big businesses to buy Win XP since it more or less does the same thing. Such businesses typciallly wait for the first service pack to upgrade.

32 Bit, or 64 bit?
For the next year or so I would imagine that every system maker to choose the 32 bit version simply because it provides better support for legacy devices. Only those systems with very large memory requirements will need the 64bit right now.

Anyone going to upgrade to the Ultimate?
This is a special upgrade that not only combines the features of the business and Home Premium versions, but you’ll also be able to upgrade with out installing a new OS (operating system). So far it’s unclear what you may get from such an upgrade.

Peripheral support is also an interesting question as the OS will come with a variety of features that are enabled only as you add special hardware.

Tuner or no Tuner?
The Home Premimum still has all the features of the Home Media Center, though with all the bugs the current version of XP’s Media Center Edition clearly ironed out. Most machines or boxes if you will, will be shipped without a TV Tuner, but adding one and getting the TV features will be easier.

Tablet or no Tablet?
With Vista’s Premium or any versions above you can plug in a Tablet PC to get all the features of the tablet, including improved handwriting regconition and gesture support too. Some questions wont be answered until after the OS is out and people are starting to get used to it.

How secure will Vista be?
Mircosoft is addressing the security in quite a few ways, including forcing people to accept system changes. But no OS that allows users to install applications can be totally secure.

How good will vista play Video Games?
The best games I’ve seen so far are simulated demos that use Vista’s Direct X10 graphics, but unfortunatly there’s no hardware support for that just yet. The G-force 7950G 1GB graphics card I bought, well two actually with SLI technology are about 4-6 months away from being upgraded.

For the first year or so Computer games will continue to be made for the older typed PC’s and XP operating systems. It will take a while to se if Windows games can make a difference in a world dominated by the Xbox and Playstation.

The big question is will Vista really matter now that more applications are appearing on the Internet? Vista may herald the development of more applications that have both online and offline modes. The next few months however promise to be intertesting indeed as Vista is finally moving toward completion.

Whether they call them canaries, monkeys, or guinea pigs, more security companies are using virtual PCs to protect users.

Miners learned to love the humble canary. After a mine fire or explosion, miners would descend with the birds to possibly dangerous areas. The canaries’ high metabolism made them the first succumb if significant amounts of carbon monodixe or methane were present, thus giving miners warning of unsafe areas so they could escape alive.

Security companies are now applying the same theory into the online world.
Using thousands of virtual Pcs, systems whose processors, memory, and hard drives are all emulated in software, McAfee’s SiteAdvisor, Mircosoft’s research arm, and other groups have automated the process of going into the unsafe areas of the Web. If a site hosting malicious code compromises one of the virtual PCs, the site’s address is recorded for further investigation, the virtual machine is erased, and a new virtual machine is set up in its place. Pretty neat stuff eh?

Some security companies refer to the virutal PCs as canaries or guinea pigs, or by the technical term, client-side honeypots. Microsoft calls them honeymonkeys in reference to the million-monkeys theorem. The theorem says that a million monkeys typing random characters on a million typewriters for an infinite period of time can evenutally produce the complete works of William Shakespeare…lol

Though it’s unlikely that a million monkeys could every write a Shakespares’ play, they most certainly could help to secure the Web. Today, tens of thousands of virtual machines are crawling the Internet, clicking on untrusted links, getting compromised, being deleted, and the doing it all over again. How cool is that?

Various Companies are pursuing different plans for the technology. Mircosoft uses its honeymonkey system to research threats to Windows and map out the links connecting to malicious Web sites - a part of the Internet that its researchers refer to as the ExploitNet. McAfee’s SiteAdvisor ues the resulting database of bad sites as one component of its Web site ratings, accessible through free plug-ins for Internet Explorer and Firefox.
Easy, cheap virtualisation software is the key to the technology. Mircosoft and SiteAdvisor both run thousands of virtual PCs with management servers capable of cataloging sites. The virtual PC, which almost always runs Mircosoft Windows, appears to malicious software to be a normal, albeit vanilla, PC. The latest Trojan horses, spyware, and the Web viruses infect the virtual system without detecting that it is really a sterile environment that will quickly be deleted. How sweet is that.

Yet the attackers are adapting to security methods such as virtual PCs. Some are working on ways to detect virtual machines by creating software for exactly that purpose; if a virtual machine is detected, they avoid infecting that system in order to delay exposure. Other attackers are identifying major Web sites that have a type of flaw known as cross-site scripting. This essentially allows an attacker to load malicious code on a victim’s machine from another Web site while the user believes he/she is still browsing safely on the orginal trusted Web site.

Despite the arms race that continues between attackers and defenders, virtual PCs promise to automate the patrol of the Web for malicious Web sites. In the end, we may come to appreciate the automated monkeys of the Web as much as miners appreciated the canary.