Bluetooth

[#1]

What sort of range could you expect from a bluetooth device ?
My wife's laptop with bluetooth built in only works about 6 feet from the printer, I Have tried an external usb bluetooth dongle (or what ever it's  called) on my desktop machine which is about 25 feet away and that is not recognised either

[#2]

You need to check what "class" each Bluetooth device is from the product specification.

Quote

* Class 3 radios – have a range of up to 1 meter or 3 feet     * Class 2 radios – most commonly found in mobile devices – have a range of 10 meters or 33 feet     * Class 1 radios – used primarily in industrial use cases – have a range of 100 meters or 300 feet

from http://www.bluetooth.com/Pages/Basics.aspx

[#3]

Hi gleneagles,
A quick google on the subject seems to suggest that even the most basic devices should operate between 5-10 metres away.
Jojo

[#4]

Another consideration, is whether you are in an area with more than three WiFi channels being used, as WiFi and Bluetooth use the SAME FREQUENCIES so there is a possibility that Bluetooth connectivity and WiFi throughput can be impaired if most of the WiFi channels are already being used. 

[#5]

Quote from: purleigh

Another consideration, is whether you are in an area with more than three WiFi channels being used, as WiFi and Bluetooth use the SAME FREQUENCIES so there is a possibility that Bluetooth connectivity and WiFi throughput can be impaired if most of the WiFi channels are already being used.

And wireless keyboards and mice, which these days are moving to vendor-specific 'standards', again in the 2.4GHz band, even though the older 27MHz devices worked just fine at realistic computer-to-mouse distances.

[#6]

Thanks for the replies, I Purchased a Belkin Bluetooth adapter from Amazon for £7.99 (free postage) and it works perfectly.