Does anybody know if there's a performance difference between Bluetooth tether vs. USB tether? I know Bluetooth is a slower technology. However, I don't know if the speed difference comes into play when you're talking about 3G speeds (via VZAccess).

Thanks in advance!

The 8130 does support Bluetooth tethering. I'm on it now.

VZW limits what their devices can do.

My daughter uses VZ, and her account includes BT tethering. It's what sold me on upgrading to the Pearl.

Wirelessly posted

Bluetooth tethering definitely works under Vista. Any thoughts on performance vs USB?

I regularly BT tether my Pearl to my PowerBook. Performance is a bit slower than my cable broadband access, but nothing that deters surfing, emailing or uploading files. I've even downloaded software installs OTA painlessly. The EVDO Rev 0 speed is so good on my 8130 that I don't really regret that it's not a Rev A device... yet.

I'm with Sprint and for some reason my connection is faster with bluetooth. I'm also using Vista.

'Beer' in mind that I'm a noob to the BB and tethering stuff...

First I connected via the 'USB tether' to my BB Perl 8130 and everything worked ok. Although the speed was slower than my Comcast broadband the connection was very usable.

With my USB tether working I decided to also configure my vzAccess w/ a Kensington USB BT adapter (which certainly does work with the 8130), but the speed seemed much slower than the USB tethered connection.

Ideally we could have both 'modes' configured and select which connection we want to use via the vzAccess app. That way if the battery had plenty of power and we only needed a brief, modest speed connection we could use the BT connection. Otherwise wire-up the USB and charge + connect. The problem I'm facing right now (and I'm really hoping I can resolve it) is that with BT configured the vzAccess app does not find my 8130 connected via the USB. I noticed that when the WWAN tried searched for the USB-connected 8130 it starts searching at COM4 and my USB modem connection is on COM3. In looking at the Device Manager, I see two "RIM virtual serial port"s at COM4 and COM5.

If anyone has both USB and BT configured, please let me know...

BTW, I'm running on a Gateway MX8738 with Windows XP Media Center 2k5 (I rolled my own bootable install CD w/ MX8738 drivers using nLite).

Cheers,

TheRiv

Can you just use the Windows DUN? I have mine set to search for the modem device and the modem over bluetooth, and connect to first available (only works if you search for the BT modem first though).

As for the OP's question, I don't have VZ but I'm using an 8100 over T-Mobile EDGE. Speeds of the EDGE network are pretty slow (max around 300 kbps down, 60 kbps up), but hey, I'm not paying for any of it.

At EDGE speeds, it really doesn't matter whether you use BT or the USB, but it's actually *more* stable over Bluetooth. I've been connected for about 18 hours, and have pulled down over 400 MB of data (yeah, slowly at 25 KB/s for most of it, but it held the connection). I'd have disconnects over the USB every couple hours or so. It's a HUGE battery hog though, so watch out.

I've got this same exact problem, have you been able to find any more information on how to correct this?