I have a Toshiba Pocket PC. Can I use this with say, this (or any other USB dongle) so that I can check email in meetings, when in the bath, car etc etc ?

I believe it should be possible, if your bath is not positioned too far from your PC. If I'm not mistaken the range of Bluetooth devices is only 10 meters or so.

10m? Is that all. Mmmh... may not be worth the cost.

Yeah. I've just looked it up. Halfway this page is a comparison chart. Bluetooth is only about 800K/s too.
So it's perfect for connecting keyboards, printers and mice to pc's, handsfree phone-kits in cars, etc. because of its very low power requirements. But for almost everything else 802.11 is better.

Yeah, get youtself a 802.11b card for both, and you'll be much happier. Worse battery life, but much better range. (Though, in theory, there's a class of bluetooth device that has a higher range (I or III, i'm not sure which way the scale goes) but wi-fi is designed for wireless surfing, bluetooth is designed for wireless syncing.

Matthew

Right... so do I just need 2 cards - one for the Pocket PC, and one for the desktop? Or do I need anything else in addition to these?

Is there anything else I should know in terms of compatibility?

Nothing else you really need to know. If you've already got some sort of home network going, or are thinking of getting multiple computers in the future, I'd go with a wifi acess point or router instead of a card for your desktop. It'll be in the same price range, and more versatile.

Matthew

Yes, I already have a cat5 network with 4 PCs. I don't want to replace this with wifi though as I think the cat5 is more reliable and faster.

Can I run a USB wifi dongle from the desktop as well as the cat5? Or will I hit problems as it will see 2 networks?

What model Toshiba Pocket PC?, if it's the E740, E755 series, these either came with bluetooth or wifi inbuilt.
If its a Genio e550G it doesnt have have inbuilt wifi or bluetooth however does have a CF card and SD card slot, as does the E740, E755

If it's a E310 or E330 then these only have a SD card slot.
There are bluetooth SD Cards available, however wifi SD cards will be out soon.

Yes I agree wifi is your best bet, depending on what model PPC you have either inbuilt or CF wifi card and an access point connected to your existing LAN.

cheers,
Jai

Sorry for all the daft questions! But currently at home, I have my cable modem connected to a Netgear RP114 router. 4 PCs are accessing the Internet through this:

1. My desktop
2. laptop
3. CNC PC in cellar
4. PC in garage

So... if I get a CF 802.11 card with a PCMCIA adapter I can use this in my laptop or the Pocket PC as required.

So now I just need to know whether to get an access point like this , or one of the USB ones like this

See, at work I have just a cable modem into my PC, can I still use the access point on this (assuming I take it back and forward to work as required) ? And would I then need ANOTHER card for the work desktop? Or maybe I wouldn't, as I would only need to use the desktop OR the Pocket PC at any one time. It would just be a PITA to screw about with cables all the time.

So can I use the USB card on a PC even if its connected to a router via ethernet, and get internet and email this way? Or will there be all sorts of network conflicts?

Correct. Most people want to do things with Bluetooth that it was never really intended to do. But its great for what it was meant for. For example my Tungsten can check my email if I have a bluetooth phone, while both of them are in my pockets. I can surf (slowly) without having to hold my phone's infared jack near the Tungsten. Similarly the handheld can sync without a cradle. The theory I have heard but can't confirm is that bluetooth was meant to be an on person network. Phone, handheld, keyboard, mouse, watch, and I've heard some jokes about pacemakers.

Yeah. Bluetooth is/was supposed to be used for a Wireless Personal Area Network. So your cellphone, laptop, headset, PDA, GPS etc... would just be connected together without you needing any cables. At the moment it's still a vague promise since everybody has decided to implement the standard in their own way and with their own extensions.
If it does actually all get sorted out then it's a pretty cool idea. But we'll have to see. My old Ericsson R520m worked perfectly via Bluetooth. I would just need to be near my computer and it would resync everything. My new Nokia 7650 however is a pain to use with Bluetooth as I have to manually initiate the connection.
The main issue I've got with Bluetooth is that I'm just not too keen on the idea of yet another set of transmitters held up to my body. We've got two sets of studies which say that RF does and doesn't harm body tissues.

Can't quite find the Bluetooth whitepaper which detailed what they originally designed it for but this page mentions the main bits.

- Trevor