Now let's talk about the respective software packages, starting with XTNDConnect.  I won't cover installation, just making serial connections.  I'm hoping that installation is clear from the manufacturer's documentation.

OK, so assuming that you've got XTNDConnect installed and the window up, you should see something like this:

Hitting the Refresh button will cause the Bluetooth^® dongle to search for devices.  Currently my window shows three devices within ear-shot, and one of them happens to be a BlueRadios module on a clients project board (BULL1).  That's my target.

So here's what you do.  Go to Tools -> Options and you'll see this window:

What this says is that my Bluetooth^® serial port access in on com18, so I open Hyperterminal to com18 and I get this window:

From here, single click on the target (BULL1 in this case), hit OK and the connection is made.  To terminate the connection, just hang up in Hyperterminal.  Every time you try to connect, you'll get the above window and you can select whatever device you wish to connect to.

 BlueSoleil

Next up: BlueSoleil.  After installation, you'll be prompted to install a device (plug in the dongle).  When you do, you'll get this window:

For our purposes, just make sure that the security box at the bottom is UNCHECKED.  We want to keep the monkey wrenches out of the works, and security settings can certainly be a hang-up (no pun intended).  Click OK, and we're looking at the main window:

             In the above example, I've already done a search for devices in range.  As you can see, they appear as icons "orbiting" a big, happy yellow/orange sun.  That sun is actually a button that you can click on and initiate a new search for devices.  However, searches done from that button do not eliminate targets that are no longer in range or have been turned off.  To get the true current list of devices, go to View->Refresh.  This will eliminate everything and start a fresh list.

OK, so we're looking at the icons for the devices in range.  There's also a line up of icons across the top of the window that represent available services for any given target.  Double click on a target icon and you'll see icons light up across the top for what the target is offering.  In this case, BULL1 will light up the serial icon (third from the left).  To connect to the device, right-click on the target, go to Connect->Bluetooth^® Serial Port Service, like so:

Then you'll get this window:

Click 'No' unless you intend to connect to this device every time you open a port.  Then open your terminal program to whatever com port it's been assigned to (38 in my case) and you're good to go.  To disconnect, right-click on the icon from BlueSoleil and choose disconnect.

And that's the basic gist behind the two Bluetooth^® packages that we deal with these days.  But there's more you should know...

The BlueSoleil software can be finicky sometimes.  It can discover targets, then refuse to connect to them.  I've circumvented this issue in several ways: swap dongles (a mismatch can cause it), reinstall the software, those sorts of things.  It always seems to want to assign higher and higher com ports, and it seems that the higher the port number, the more likely it is to be finicky.  But not once have I seen it caused by a problem with the target device.

I've worked less with XTNDConnect, so I haven't had as much opportunity to see it do silly things.  But one thing we have seen around here is that once it's on your computer it's pretty much there to stay.  I cannot strip this thing from my machine.  The "Add/Remove" programs button just blinks at me when I hit it and I swear I hear it laughing at me.  In spite of that, I'm sure there's a way to get it off, but it's unknown at the time of this writing.  The software seems to work alright and it hasn't caused me any other headaches, so I'm willing to look the other way for the time being.