(quote)
Bluetooth uses the same frequency range as 802.11b and g ...
(end quote)
That's right, and you're also right about the power meant to be limited to less than a "normal" 802.11
transceiver. I've mostly seen Bluetooth run as an extra protocol on top of 802.11b/g and thus no extra gizmos and no
reduced power limit; the USB Bluetooth gizmos do have the power output limited and these specialized gizmos were pretty
much a waste of money. All in all I never had a use for Bluetooth - I always saw it as a nice way to cripple your
otherwise OK 802.11 network. There is absolutely nothing in the Bluetooth protocol spec that hadn't already been
accomplished by other tools, in many cases over a decade before (so much for the "future" hype). Now
"Zigbee" is being touted as a "Bluetooth killer" - what is it? Why, lower-power 802.11. Sound
familiar? Wasn't that Bluetooth? Yet more hype. However, Zigbee *may* have a use in inherently very-low power gizmos
with very short range - for example tracking devices in laptops to determine where they are in a building. I'm sure
people can think of more sensible applications; I just have none of my own.
Going back to the original post, as for comments like "you absolutely must be able to see the antenna", they
are generally made by people who don't really know what they're talking about. There's a hell of a lot of nonsense on
the internet. (I'm sure I contribute to that on occasion). But the original quote gives me the impression that the
author is talking about getting a signal in a "public park" in which case he's pretty much right - the
frequency used by 802.11 will be severely attenuated by a tree so in *many* cases if you can't see the antenna, you
probably won't get a signal. In reality you get "multipaths" or the antenna may be behind some object which
doesn't block much of the signal and you manage to get a wireless signal after all - all in all, just switch on that
laptop and see what happens and in general ignore the "thou shalt not" statements.
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