Wireless Home Networking - Index of

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Part IV: Using a Wireless Network
(Un)plugging into Bluetooth access points
Although most people use Bluetooth to connect
to devices in a peer-to-peer fashion — connecting
two devices directly by using a Bluetooth airlink
connection — in some situations you may
want to be able to connect Bluetooth devices to
your wireless home network itself (or to the
Internet through your wireless home network).
Enter the Bluetooth access point. Like the wireless
access points we discuss throughout this
book, Bluetooth access points provide a means
of connecting multiple Bluetooth devices to a
wired network connection.
Bluetooth APs, like the Belkin Bluetooth Access
Point with USB Print Server ($199), have a highpowered
Bluetooth radio system (which means
that they can reach as far as 100 meters,
although your range is limited by the range of the
devices you’re connecting to the AP, which is
typically much shorter) and connect to your
wireless home network with a wired Ethernet
connection. The Belkin AP also includes a USB
print server, so you can connect any standard
USB printer to the AP and share it with both
Bluetooth devices and any device connected to
your wireless home network (including 802.11
devices — as long as your wireless home
network is connected to the same Ethernet
network).
Moving forward, we expect to see access points
with both 802.11 and Bluetooth functionality built
in — multipurpose access points that can connect
to any wireless device in your home.
One other important Bluetooth concept affects the ability of two Bluetooth
devices to talk to each other: Bluetooth profiles. A profile is simply a
standardized service, or function, of Bluetooth. There are more than two
dozen profiles for Bluetooth devices, such as HFP (Hands Free Profile) for
hands-free cell phone use, or FTP (File Transfer Profile) for sending files
(like pictures or electronic business cards) from one device to another.
For two devices to communicate using Bluetooth, they both must support
a common profile (or profiles). And, for two Bluetooth devices to not only
communicate but also do whatever it is that you want to do (such as send a
picture from your camera to your Mac), they both need to support the profile
that supports that function (in this case, the FTP profile).
Making all this happen is, we’re sorry to tell you, highly dependent on the
particular Bluetooth devices you’re using. And because more than a thousand
Bluetooth devices are available, we can’t account for every possibility
here. This is one of those times where you should spend a few minutes
reading the manual (sorry!) and figuring out exactly which steps your device
requires. (We hate having to tell you that, but it’s true.)
We don’t totally leave you hanging here though. Here are some generic steps
you need to take: