Macbook Air - Bluetooth PAN - Very Very Slow

I'm in the same boat... 😟

Plus for me, the initial connection is always problematic, .. when selecting "Connect to Network", nothing happens for a while, then when I tweak the Bluetooth & Network settings, it'll hook on.

But as you say.. it's slow as molasses. Sigh....

I'm having similar troubles- VERY slow connection through Bluetooth PAN to a AT&T Tilt. Works fine on the Powerbook.

The symptoms, if I do a parallel ping (open a shell, ping your favorite site) the ping times rise to over 16 SECONDS (>16000ms!)

This is a big deal. I bought this for light connectivity. The Tilt itself is more usable on the network, or the big, lunky Powerbook.

I might have a solution for you, but its a crappy one.

I have the exact same problem with this phone and my new 17 Inch Macbook Pro.

What fixed it for me was using a Bluetooth Dongle instead of the built in Bluetooth. You need to add a second PAN connection in the Network Prefs and repair everything, but when you get it all configured correctly and use the Dongle instead of the built in Bluetooth, I bet it works flawlessly.

There is something wrong with how Apples newer Bluetooth hardware is interacting with this phone. I even went to an Apple Store and tested on another 17 inch Macbook to make sure it wasent just my computer. The older Macbooks worked fine, so its something in the newer hardware.

Call Apple, make them aware that this is an issue with all their newer stuff. Let them (and me) know if using an external bluetooth adapter fixed the issue for you.

I am suffering with the same issue. It is annoying the **** out of me. The system is a new MacBook Pro and i am using a HTC Tytn.

On the bluetooth connection i get varying latency. If I switch to using the same device other WIFI then it works as it should.

Is there a solution yet other than ditching the built in hardware? I am not carrying around a bluetooth dongle!

Cheers

Aidan

I have returned my MBA for that reason. I use HTC Tytn II and the bluetooth connectiong is ESSENTIAL for me. I use the bluetooth to connect to the Internet and to my bluetooth stereo headset. MBA's performance was really poor with both PAN and Headset.

That was my very first Apple computer i get, and i believe it's going to be the last.

I was well aware of BT PAN problem, but also just discovered headset problem while trying to use the Anycomm FIPO. Crystal clear sound with intel mac mini and slightly older MBP. But terrible sound with MBA. Really really disappointing.

It seems obvious that Bluetooth PAN on the MBA is totally useless. I'm very disappointed, as I had high hopes when my trusty old 12 inch PB got retired and I moved over to the Air. But first the connect "selection" item is hidden deep in the Leopard menustructure, and then it's so slow and mostly just plain dead.

I hope for a firmware upgrade real soon.

Using an external USB BT dongle PAN works fine, I'm writing this right now using one (MBA + Conceptronic USB BT + SE K800i phone)

But it ruins the whole fundamental idea of having a lightweight setup.

The problem is definitely software related.

I have a brand new Macbook Pro 15' (previously I had a Macbook black 1st gen) and I am unable to connect to the internet using Bluetooth PAN and an AT&T Tilt on Internet Connection Sharing.

This was always possible and fast on my Macbook black.

On the Macbook Pro I installed Windows Vista on BootCamp, and connected the Tilt using also Bluetooth PAN with the Macbook Pro. The internet connection on this OS works perfectly well (which is what is allowing me right now to reply this thread).

Apple has to be made aware of this issue so they can release soon a software fix on this particular issue.

So here's something for people to try. I also get the slow Bluetooth PAN connections. After accidentally deleting my Bluetooth Network services, I created a new Bluetooth service (not Bluetooth PAN). I set the phone number to be "*99#" (do not include quotes), in Advanced -> Modem I selected my cell phone maker for Vendor, and put in the correct APN for my cell provider. I now get much better speeds. It's still not as fast as it is on my older MBP, but much better. The caveat is that I can't simply go to the Bluetooth menu, select my phone, then select connect to network. I have to connect via the network perference pane or via the Modem menu bar item.