Bluetooth lives!

The other half has been complaining about me constantly hogging the desktop PC at home while she wants to 'surf the net' so she has managed to nick an ancient laptop (miraculously running XP) from her Mum and wants me to setup wireless Internet Connection Sharing.
As the laptop has no current wireless facility I have two options, buy a 802.11b wifi USB dongle (of which I would also need a second for the main desktop PC) or buy a bluetooth dongle.
Before you all yell how much 802.11b is faster etc.. Hear me out, I decided to go with the Bluetooth option for several reasons.

1) My Desktop PC already has a Bluetooth dongle meaning I would only have to buy another for the laptop and nothing else. Its an old laptop so I don’t fancy wasting a lot of money connecting it to the net. I picked up the 100m Bluetooth dongle for under £13, where as two 802.11b adaptors would have cost me £30+.

2) My iPaq Pocket PC connects to my main desktop just fine via Bluetooth, with a decent Internet speed. Additionally the connection seems to hold all over my 2 bedroom flat, so in reality a long range 802.11b connection would not be needed. I ordered a 100m Bluetooth dongle and seeing as the lounge is next to the bedroom (which holds the desktop PC) I cant see distance being an issue.

3) The laptop will not really be used for LAN, just Internet sharing. I know Bluetooth is slow to transfer files between PCs but I doubt the missus will be doing that!

Overall Bluetooth seems the way to go. This doesn’t however mean I disregard 802.11b completely. If I lived in a bigger home (with upstairs rooms and a garden) then I would almost certainly go down the wifi road. Furthermore my Pocket PC also has wifi functionality.
The moral of this story however is not to automatically count Bluetooth out. It is still a very valuable wireless option that can go beyond the use for mobile phone headsets. If you, like me, live in a flat then check it out - it could be the more economical option for you.