Customer Reviews

Hawking Technology H-BT10U Bluetooth USB Adapter

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I had a nightmare trying to connect my Nokia 3650 to my PC running XP. The adapter comes with Widcomm Bluetooth software 1.2.2.18. There was no update available from the Hawking's website. Installing the software and the bluetooth adapter was straight forward. However, trying to get a connection established between the PC and the phone was a huge ordeal. Every time I initiated a connection and enter all the passcodes, I get an error message saying the phone disconnected. There is no explaination why this error occured. When I tried to reconnect, I get another error message. It took me a while to realize I needed to unpair both the phone and the pc before a new connection will work. I tried connecting from the pc, the phone and reinstalling the software. Nothing worked. During the reinstall, windows couldn't find bluetooth device driver. Pointing windows to the cdrom didn't work. Only pointing it to c:/windows/system32 got me past that one. After pulling my hair out for 5 hours, I finally found the solution using a google search.

1. unpair the phone and pc
2. find the COM port used in the bluetooth setup->config->local services->bluetooth serial port
3. configure mRouter to use the COM port found above
4. connect/pair the phone and pc
5. you still get the connect error message
6. start PC Suite

Steps 2 and 3 are very important. Once I did all that, the connection worked. I don't know if the problem was because of the phone or Widcomm's software, but I got it to work. I hope this helps anyone else who may encounter the same problem.

Plug and play for my Mac running OS 10.2.4.!! Just connect it to the extra keyboard usb slot and run the bluetooth setup program in the Application/Utilities folder. I had no problem pairing it up with my two Sony Ericsson T68i's. I used Apple's iSYNC to synch my iCAL and Address Book with the phones. One tip I'll give is to keep the Mac's calendar event times correct with the T68i's is by verifying that the correct GMT zone in your phone matches the selection in your computer otherwise, you will get incorrect times in the phone (dependant on the error in the GMT setting in your phone...you can verify your phone setting by selecting Settings... Time & Date... Advanced... Time Zone).

I had the dreaded connectivity problems with my Nokia 3650 as others have had. But here is my solution because the one that the previous reviewer had didn't quite work for me. Ok, here are my steps:

1. Install the bluetooth software on the CD (not from the website - version 1.35 I believe).
2. Install PC suite from Nokia website. (On the reboot, there should be the mRouter icon in the system tray. Right click it and select properties and make sure both COM3 and COM4 are checked.)
3. Make sure bluetooth is enabled on your phone.
4. Open "My bluetooth places" icon.
5. Click "Entire Bluetooth Neighborhood" and your phone should appear.
6. Pair the pc to phone (any code will do).
7. Right-click the now-paired phone icon and select "connect bluetooth serial port". An error may appear, check to see if the mRouter icon changes. If it does, then you can now open PC suite. Done.

Some problems I have encountered were on the reboot of my system. My PC "forgot" what the bluetooth dongle was. I simply unplugged it and plugged it back in and that worked for me. Also if you have problems re-establishing connection,unpair the phone AND pc, turn off phone, reboot PC,and then start at step #3 again. This may not be the ideal solution for everyone but it worked for me. Hope this helps!

I connected my pc (WinXP) & my Nokia 3650 in about 10 minutes, right out of the box. I didn't bother downloading anything, I just used the cd's that came w/ the Hawking adapter and the phone.

If, after you install Nokia's PC Suite, you get an error message that says something like "Error creating Bluetooth connection" - just ignore it. You can see the mRouter icon in your tray is active. It's a "known issue" w/ Nokia but it's only a display - the connection's really there.

I gave this 4 stars, not 5, because while it was easy to set up, the 'manual' is practically non-existant. I followed the step by step instructions. ...

I have the iPAQ 2215 and a PC running WinXP. It took me three days of agonizing trial-and-error to get this device to work. However, the difficulties I had were related to my iPAQ and PC configurations, not the USB adapter itself. I agree with other posts recommending this one because it's the cheapest and they all seem to work the same.

The distance limitation is also very restrictive; it only works in a few rooms in my house. But again, this is a limitation inherent in BT and I don't think that another USB adapter would work any better.

I would also advise that anybody running with hardware and/or software firewalls very carefully consider their implications when establishing a BT network.

Product support tends to be difficult to obtain with BT products because everybody says that it's the other guy's problem. However, I found a very helpful web site that offered excellent guides and expert users eager to help. Couldn't have been successful without them.

Plus, bring along plenty of asiprin, blood pressure medication, patience, and a few 'Hail Marys' when you install this.

Bluetooth was a bear to get working with my HP 1945, but now that I have it working it has been really cool. The hardest part is finding information on how to make the two devices work together. The manual and tech support from HP and Hawking are about useless.

I am using the bluetooth for wireless web browsing, activesync, and file transfers. Some sights to help you with getting these setup are:

http://www.pc-counselor.com/How_to/bluetooth_network.htm - For setting up the wireless web browsing (this was very painful to setup)

http://www.bluetoothnews.com/features/ActiveSync.htm - For setting up activesync.

http://www.bluetooth.com/ - Official bluetooth site

http://www.brighthand.com/

Make sure you download the most current driver from Hawkings. I couldn't get it work with my PDA with the driver they sent on the CD.

So far I am able to connect to my PC and surf the net through-out most of my house.

Overall I am happy with the product and the price and would recommend it.

I'd like to echo many of the sentiments voiced here. In summary here's my experience:

1) Installed drivers from CD onto Windows 2000 laptop. Initially found device but kept giving message that "Local device could not be found".
2) Uninstalled drivers and installed latest from Hawking's website. Didn't work.
3) Email Hawking for their "unlimited free support" and got the following reply:

Please go here for info on how to use the Widcom bluetooth
software with Blue tooth Applications.
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=449

Which contained no useful information.

4) Tried again. Still getting the "no local device" popup but obviously this is in error because I was able to pair the device with my SonyEricsson T616 phone (hint: initiate from the phone) and get files transfered. Will be trying to get a wireless data connection next.

So overall got it working, but 2-3 hours of fiddling, rebooting etc. for a $30 device that should be "plug and play" according to the box seems a little silly.

I purchased this USB adaptor after I bought a bluetooth enabled cell phone. Installing the bluetooth adaptor was very easy to begin with and I was able to synchronize my Outlook contacts and meetings easily.

The only problems that I got was when I tried to setup my cell phone with more than one PC through the same bluetooth adapter. The Hawking tech support could have been a bit more useful other than saying "we won't help unless you have proof that it's not your cell phone that is at fault". However, after a lot of effort in uninstalling and installing the software I have been able to use the bluetooth connection without a problem.

Good value for money, easy to setup but don't put too much faith into Hawkings tech support.

I took this puppy out of the packaging, popped it into the USB port on my iMac, and I was bluetooth-ready. My computer immediately recognized the device, and I had no problems using iSync to download my entire address book and iCal calendar onto my new Sony Ericsson T610 cell phone.

I'm a very computer-savy person having assembled all my computers and wired all my own networks. Yet for some reason, I wasn't at all able to get this bluetooth module to work correctly on my computer.

To make a long story short, the hardware wasn't being recognized correctly and Hawking tech support sent a generic "reinstall driver" email--that was in response to my email where I told them that I had already reinstalled drivers/software/etc.

Hours of my time wasted. Never again. negative-5 stars if it would allow me to