Bluetooth Dongles

Question

Level 1

15 points

Bluetooth Dongles

Hey
Do i have to buy a bluetooth dongle that has mac OS support in other words do i have to install any drivers or can i just plug it in and it will work?
Thanks

Posted on Sep 5, 2005 6:19 PM

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Answer 1

GOLF

Level 1

65 points

Sep 6, 2005 1:03 PM in response to Jake85

You don't need a bluetooth dongle. If your device has bluetooth, you just need to pair up iBook and your device.

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Answer 2

Sep 6, 2005 1:05 PM in response to Jake85

Yes, if you use a USB bluetooth dongle, you should definitely get one that has drivers for your particular operating system version. D-Link makes a USB bluetooth dongle with Panther drivers. I have used that one without any problems at all.

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Answer 3

a j

Level 3

555 points

Sep 11, 2005 7:38 AM in response to Jake85

I have a slightly older iBook G4 which does not have bluetooth hardware installed. I use a bluetooth dongle made by Belkin, which fits into either of the USB ports on the iBook. I didn't need to install any drivers at all, I just plugged it in and it worked. Panther and Tiger are bluetooth ready, so no problem whatsoever.

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Answer 4

Sep 12, 2005 9:42 PM in response to Jake85

I just bought my G4 iBook from the apple store in June, and I just got a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I am trying to get it to work and am thinking that I don't have BLUETOOTH on this ibook!! How can that be? I jsut purchased the ibook and it was supposed to have bluetooth built in!!

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Answer 5

y_p_w

Level 6

17,762 points

Sep 13, 2005 12:58 AM in response to Brendan Casey

Only the latest iBooks (released July 27) have built-in Bluetooth. As far as I can tell, Apple never marketed any previous iBook as having built-in Bluetooth. Did the person selling you the computer say that Bluetooth was built-in? Here are the specs on the last two before the current ones. They both mention that Bluetooth is optional (probably via the the D-Link module).

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/ibook/stats/ibookg4_1.3314.html
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/ibook/stats/ibookg4_1.3314.html

My guess is that AirPort and Bluetooth share the same 2.4 GHz transceiver on the newer built-in units.

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Answer 6

Jake85 Author

Level 1

15 points

Sep 17, 2005 7:43 PM in response to y_p_w

Thanks for the help
so in summing up everyone that bought a bluetooth dongle (any brand) pluged it in and the mac asked for software support?
Thanks again

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Answer 7

Sep 18, 2005 7:46 AM in response to Jake85

just buy an apple recomended one and you'll be fine!

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Answer 8

y_p_w

Level 6

17,762 points

Sep 18, 2005 11:02 AM in response to Jake85

All the drivers should be built into Panther and it should be fairly easy to set up. Here's a sample chapter from a how to on using Bluetooth with Panther:

http://www.samspublishing.com/articles/article.asp?p=169576&seqNum=13

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Answer 9

Sep 30, 2005 12:27 AM in response to Jake85

I've bought 2 completely different dongles on ebay and they both worked fine, i did however break one, by hitting it with my knee...that explains why i needed 2.

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