Bluetooth and WiFi

[Guest lubby]

I have an external speaker that has Bluetooth connectivity and I tried using this today with my Hudl2.

It connected fine and started playing some music that I had saved on the HUDL, however, what I wanted to do was stream music via Spotify and listen to that on the speaker. However, as soon as I make the Bluetooth connection the WiFi disconnects. The only way to re-connect is to switch Bluetooth off and re-start. Even with Bluetooth switched off, as soon as I turn the speaker on or bring the HUDL close to it, the Bluetooth connection cuts in again and switches WiFi off.

 

Is this normal? I have never actually used Bluetooth before for ANYTHING so this may be entirely as expected but I could find nothing on line that says when you connect devices via Bluetooth that WiFi gets overridden.

 

Thanks.

[Guest pudpoh]

Bluetooth can interfere with WiFi but I have been using a a pair of Bluetooth headphones and WiFi at the same time without any issues, so it should work, you could try changing the WiFi channel on your router and see if that helps. If you want to try this the only channels you can use which do not interfere with each other are 1, 6 and 11 on the 2.4ghz band.

[Guest lubby]

Thanks. Seems that changing the channel on my router isn't that simple! I have the instructions but can't seem to get past a particular point where the next step required doesn't seem to respond.  

 

I've run out of time now so will have to leave it for the time being - thanks for your help though - I may give it another go in a few weeks if I decide that the benefit is worth the hassle!

[Guest lubby]

OK, I actually checked online how to change my WiFi frequency and it seems that the instruction manual that came with the router is wrong (helpful!) so I have now managed to change the frequency.

 

I tried ALL frequencies, including 'auto', but the result is the same - HUDL loses WiFi as soon as switch Bluetooth on. Strangely, only on Channel 6 does WiFi re-enable as soon as turn Bluetooth off again - for all other frequencies I have to restart the HUDL to get it to re-establish its WiFi connection. On channel 6 I can toggle the WiFi off and on by switching Bluetooth off and on.

[Guest state-it]

I don't use bluetooth, so can't comment in particular detail, except that it's not just a HUDL issue as the same happens with certain Android & iOS versions as well (hardware that is).

 

Scan this for instance: (Android - Jan 2013- Jan 2014) https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=41631

 

The last comment suggests using the 5 GHz band on their router solves it.  If you have a dual band router, that may be the way to go. (eg BT HomeHub 4 & 5)

Edited March 5, 2015 by state-it

[Guest lubby]

Thanks - an interesting thread. I tried changing to 5Ghz - no luck, same issue. Funny, I read that using 5Ghz 'eliminates any possible interference with Bluetooth devices as the frequencies are so far removed'.  If that's true, then this isn't simply an interference issue, it is a hardware issue whereby the device simply won't run both WiFi and Bluetooth together. I've solved the problem of using my Bluetooth speaker to listen to streamed music - there's this great new fangled thing called a 'cable' that physically connects the two bits of kit together with a wire. Such a simple solution - whatever will they think of next.............(ahem)