I recently invested in an all-new notebook PC, just for those occasions where I'm on the train and bored.

I had hoped to go the cheap option and buy a simple data cable for my phone to connect it to the web via my mobile.

Little did I know, the notebook I had bought had no serial port, limiting my options.

After my exploits with home networking, I was feeling somewhat daring, so I tracked down a Bluetooth card on the internet.

Bluetooth is a fairly new system where computer products, mobile phones, and other products like headsets can communicate with each other minus wires.

The card is made by American company 3Com, and as far as I can see, it is one of the first PC devices for the new technology.

No instructions?

Once the slim new card turned up in the post, I settled down with a cup of tea and rattled the box upside down a few times to try and find the instructions.

I eventually realised they were printed on the CD cover, and consisted of insert CD, insert card ... hope for the best.

Not filled with confidence I did as they said, and ... nothing.

The installation software refused to believe I had actually put the card into the side of the PC.

I tracked the problem down to my operating system.

Windows XP woes

For some reason, despite XP having been on release since last October, 3Com had released their card minus new software.

A quick search around their website found the right software, which was a stonking 18 meg download. Once again I was left thanking my broadband luck.

From there on, things got a lot more simple.

The instructions on the website were thankfully clear and concise, and the card was installed within a few minutes.

A reboot later, a bit more searching on 3Com's site, and my Ericsson T68 was talking to my laptop.

The ultimate test then was whether I could get the phone to dial onto the internet.

3Com's software helpfully duplicates any dial up networking connections, and creates a version that dials up via your mobile.

Wrong password

The connection initiated, and after I realised I was typing in the wrong password, I was connected.

Initially the speed was 9.6kbps, which isn't going to set the world alight. Most ordinary telephone connections are up to four times faster.

The important thing, though, was that it worked.

Bristol-based mobile phone company Orange offers quite a few different ways to connect to the internet on the move.

The 9.6kbps connection was through a standard GSM connection - in other words, the same way you make voice calls on your mobile phone.

They offer a second method, called HCSCD, which can connect you at 28.8kbps - just a shade below most telephone line speeds.

"Always on" connection

The most interesting of the three offerings is GPRS, previously featured here on Digital Future.

Orange are touting the system as being "always on", with theoretical speeds more like that of a 56k modem.

When we tested the system last year, the speeds were more like 28k.

It was also notoriously unreliable, blighted by variable line speeds (usually for the worst), and drop out.

Eager to check if the system had improved, I connected on GPRS for the first time in about six months.

I have to report, I was pleasantly surprised.

It seems many of the problems Orange had when they launched the product have been ironed out.

Speeds seem at first check to be above 28k, with the BBC Bristol homepage downloading in times of between 20 and 30 seconds.

Charges by the megabyte

The downside of GPRS is that instead of charging by time online, Orange charge by the amount you download.

It works out at around £10 per megabyte depending on which package you get from them.

Hardly ideal for surfing the internet, but very handy for downloading e-mail on the move.

Our final Bluetooth test was to see how far away the phone could be from the notebook.

Home tests revealed the system seems to have a little bit of a problem with brick walls.

With the phone upstairs and me downstairs at either end of the house, the two refused to talk.

In the BBC open plan newsroom I could easily get the phone over 10 metres away, without any noticeable loss in speed.

Worth honorable mention at the end, Sony Ericsson produce some free software which allows you to synchronise your phone contacts and calendar over Bluetooth.

Very handy for those of us who like to use those features in Outlook.