[Web4lib] Bluetooth

[Coral Hess]

At a previous job, my boss had what we called "the Alpha Mouse."  His
Bluetooth mouse would interfere with others' mice and move their
pointers on their screens.  When they were moving theirs at the same
time, the end result worked (or, well, failed to work) a lot like what
you're describing.  Perhaps your keyboards and mice are interfering
with one another in stupid ways, in which case you should talk to the
manufacturer.

Bluetooth also has non-zero interference issues with wireless Internet
(IEEE 802.11b and 802.11g), though you'd have to be VERY close to the
AP for any real interference to occur, and I have trouble believing it
would cause something so drastic as you describe.  Frankly, it should
be hardly noticeable, even close together.
(http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=956557 <--
and this is with an older version of WiFi.)

I hope this helps.

-- 
Coral Hess
coral.hess at gmail.com

On Wed, Jun 4, 2008 at 12:25 PM, Robin <robin at stcharleslibrary.org> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
>
>
> I hope this isn't considered off-topic, but since we use mice and
> keyboards to access the internet, I'll chance it...
>
>
>
> We recently purchased a number of Bluetooth wireless mice and keyboards
> to meet to growing demand to eliminate cables as much as possible. To
> our dismay we have found that the mice are virtually unusable. They will
> work for a little while, then the cursor will disappear, or it will
> start moving around the screen on its own, or simply become
> unresponsive. This happened in an all-staff meeting this morning, with
> the Director and all the admin staff present, so I am determined to find
> a fix or a replacement solution. We did discover that if we turned off
> the keyboard, the mouse would behave much more rationally, although
> still not in the subservient manner one would prefer, so interference
> must be an issue, but I can't believe that Bluetooth is as difficult and
> unstable to work with as our experience so far would suggest. At least I
> would think, after all the years I've spent with computers, I'd have
> heard something about it...
>
>
>
> If anyone has insights or suggestions to offer, I would appreciate them,
>
>
>
>
> We are currently using Logitech mice-and-keyboard sets, on workstations
> running XP SP 2
>
>
>
> TIA for any ideas!
>
> Robin
>
>
>
> Robin Boulton
>
> robin at stcharleslibrary.org
>
> IT Manager
>
> (630) 584 0076 x 258
>
> St. Charles Public Library District
>
>  Cell:  (630) 918 8738
>
> St. Charles, IL 60174
>
>
>
>
>
> <http://www.stcharles.library> http://www.stcharleslibrary.org/
>
>
>
>
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