Using Toshiba's Bluetooth PC Card with Microsoft WindowsXP

WindowsXP will not be a Bluetooth enabled operating systgem presumably until Service Pack 1 is released this fall. Therefore the Toshiba Bluetooth PC Card will not work with the packaged software.However, Toshiba does offer a free downloadable version of their Bluetooth stack at:

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/su/su_sc_modItemList.jsp

(Unfortunately, this stack is meant for Toshiba PCs only, thus support is difficult to obtain. Also, it does not support the Bluetooth File Transfer Profile so you may want to go in a different direction [ www.anycom.com ] with your Bluetooth cards.)

Download, unzip, and install this software. Your WindowsXP machine should now recognize the Bluetooth PC Card and have the proper drivers for it. Once the Bluetooth PC card is properly installed, run Bluetooth Manager to start the card, then run Bluetooth Service Center to interact with it (both programs will located in the Bluetooth Toshiba Stack folder of the Programs menu).

Using the Toshiba Bluetooth Service Center

When the Bluetooth Service Center is opened, it will do a search for all other Bluetooth devices. To repeat this search at another time in the menu click Bluetooth > Device Discovery. Once a device is recognized it will be listed in the "Remote Devices" selection of the combo box. Devices that are recognized as being present will have a status of "Not Connected", while devices that were once recognized but weren't found on the last search will have a status of "Ghost".

To find the services offered by a device highlight the device then click the small refresh icon. Once device services are found, you can connect to them by highlighting the service then clicking on the link icon.

To see what services your PC Card offers, goto the "Local Device" selection of the combo box.

To add a Virtual COM port to your list of services, in the menu click Bluetooth > Local COM Wizard.

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This portion of the site is maintained by Eric Fuller