wireless networking - Is Bluetooth faster than Wi-Fi?
2014-06
jt0dd
I notice that on my iPhone, when I use my personal hot-spot to distribute Wi-Fi, if I have Bluetooth enabled, the phone will make a Bluetooth connection to my laptop instead of a Wi-Fi connection.
So I'm wondering:
Is Bluetooth faster than Wi-Fi?
Spiff
The Bluetooth standard maximum data rate is at best 3Mbps or about 2.1 after protocol overheads take their cut.
Wi-Fi on the other hand maxes anywhere from 54 to 1300+Mbps depending on whether you have "g", "n", or "ac" Wi-Fi and what enhancements the adaptors and router support.
So no. Bluetooth is not faster than Wi-Fi. Not even vaguely close.
Bluetooth v3 and v4 have higher data rates but the actual data transfer in those implementations happens over Wi-Fi; Bluetooth is only used to set up and negotiate the connection.
jonathanconway
I have the Sony DR-BT50 wireless headphones.
I've been able to successfully pair them to my iPhone and play music through them, but no such luck with my PC.
I can add it to the bluetooth devices, but when the "Driver Software Installation" screen comes up, I get a red X and "No driver found".
Any ideas how to fix this?
(I have a bluetooth keyboard & mouse paired successfully, so it's not a problem with my laptop's bluetooth.)
jonathanconway
I found the solution!
You have to uninstall all the bluetooth drivers and download and install the driver from Anycomm.
Described here:
http://windows7forums.com/windows-7-hardware/8235-how-add-a2dp-support-windows-7-a.html
Windows 7 came with no A2DP support and MS asked bluetooth hardware manufacturer to add this feature in driver upgrade. All bluetooth hardware on laptop where most of the time we need A2DP are made by Broadcomm (widcomm software), Toshiba or CSR. The last 2 manufacturer seem to have A2DP in Vista which should work in W7 but for Broadcomm nothing around. I have a Motorola S9 that I wanted to connect to Dell d410 laptop with no success. This old dell laptop comes with a BT 355 internal blutooth adapter and refused to connect to my headset. After looking around for a few time a figured out how to enable A2DP in Windows 7.
First download this driver from Anycomm a German headset company:
ftp://drivers.anycom.com/beta/usb200...8500-vista.exe
uninstall all your Bluetooth devices in device manger and ask to delete software also.
Install the downloaded software natively (no compatibiliy mode needed)
scan now for hardware changes in device manager...it should install all devices including an audio handsfree driver.
Scan for your bluetooth audio and connect.
Go to you audio output devices and select the headset as an output.
Enjoy now stereo bluetooth music and movies!
davenpcj
I had a similar problem with a Mini USB Bluetooth dongle from IOGear I picked up today. Device contains a standard Broadcom chip, and windows 7 could install drivers for it, but it would ask for drivers for every device, and wasn't able to actually use any of them.
The drivers shipped with the device included the full widcomm bluetooth package, which it seems most manufacturers provide. [Manufacturer's Drivers for Vista/Win7 32/64][1]
Downloaded the Bluetooth Driver installer from Broadcom's website, had to use google cache, website seemed to be down. Broadcom Download, and [Google Cache][3].
It's a small download, it downloads another installer to actually do the work. But now that it's installed, the native windows 7 bluetooth support for my stereo headphones (A2DP device) and cellphone (calls/audio) are working great.
Link1: www.iogear.com/support/driver/BT_VISTA_7_v6.2.1.500.zip Link3: webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:0SrsQE0iqQwJ:www.broadcom.com/support/bluetooth/update.php+http://www.broadcom.com/support/bluetooth/update.php&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us