 [Larger view] | D-Link DBT-120 USB Bluetooth Adapter
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Average user rating:  | |
 Good piece of hardware, weak software | |
| If you don't mind fiddling with software installs then this is a good bluetooth adapter to choose. It's the smallest that I could find and the range is great: My computer upstairs has no trouble connecting to my phone downstairs. Overall I give this product 3 stars because the software seems flakey. One one of my Win2K computers the install said that it completed but when I rebooted it complained about not finding BtBalloon.dll. I searched the install files and found a file called BBalloon.dll. So I copied it to \WINNT\system32 and renamed it BtBalloon.dll and it was happy. On another computer the software just stopped working and I had to reinstall. As others have said download the latest drivers from the DLink web site and don't use the ones on the CD. I use this device to connect to my Sony Ericsson T616 | |
 Installs flawlessly with a Mac and PC. | |
| This product has been with me for years. I have the revision 3 and I believe they are up to revision 5 already. It has worked flawlessly with my old Sony Ericsson T610 phone. And it works even better with my current Nokia 6600 mobile. I installed the product in my Apple PowerBook G4 and iBook Dual USB and it instantly recognized the product without any drivers. I also believe this is the same product found inside every Bluetooth-equipped Mac because Apple did release a firmware update to their internal Bluetooth and it included these external D-Link DBT-120 units, if a user had one. (The only problem is that if you updated the firmware that Apple provided, you will not be able to use the D-Link on a PC. I haven't updated mine and never ran into sync problems). I sync my address book and calendar in Jaguar and Panther OS to my mobile phone and iPod without any hitches. Pros: 3. Price. This product used to cost a lot. Now it has dropped down to USD40. Which is great, because this very same product that is installed internally in Macs still cost USD45 for the option. Shouldn't an OEM product installed during production be cheaper? Furthermore, if it's installed internally then you cannot transfer it between computers. The external is cheaper and transferrable. Cons: I love gadgets and find myself tinkering with anything technological so I usually don't have problems making one product operate with another. The problem with Bluetooth is that there is no standard way to activate and access operation between products. Each product has its own graphic user interface to contend with. Bluetooth is being billed to consumers as an easy plug and play product. I'm sure it is - just not right now as manufacturers are still fiddling with how to integrate it with their products. Hence, other consumers will have to read the manual on how to access and use Bluetooth across products. In products that come with no manual, they will have to be used to fiddling the interface. Until then, I can't wait for the time where Bluetooth actually performs the way it is billed. If it doesn't work the first time, try to understand the logic behind each product's interface. The problem is that if they can't get it to work, they blame D-Link. If you're computer recognizes the product upon install, then there is no problem. If it doesn't and the activity lights don't work, then send it back. Unlike Wireless/Wired Ethernet products, the user interface is not embedded in the Bluetooth unit. This Bluetooth product is only a vessel. The actual operation is dependent on the computer and interface it has been programmed to interact with Bluetooth. | |
| Excellent device | |
| This is a great adapter which is high quality, and relatively low price. I use it with a laptop running windows XP and a Hewlett-Packard iPAQ 2215. This adapter is very easy to setup and all of the necessary instructions and software come with the adapter. Setup is a farily automated process and the installation wizard and instruction booklet will guide you through the process. The adapter lets you use a variety of different services such as internet connection sharing, ActiveSynch, file transfer, and others. All of these services can be enabled/disabled at any point after installation and configuring them is for the most part a simple procedure which can be done by following the instruction on the computer. The adapter has a very good range of twenty to thirty yards, which is about the maximum a PDA can handle, so connecting to the adapter won't be an issue. Several of my friends and I have PDAs, so I got this adapter so we could all use my laptop as a wireless hub to get online. None of use have had any problems and it can handle several devices using it at once. As an added bonus the adapter comes with a free USB extension cable. |
