I was troubleshooting Bluetooth connection today and I thought that this is somehow related to software (PipeWire, bluez, bluetoothd and all that stuff). But no. Apparently Bluetooth barely works when WiFi antenna is disconnected from my ASUS motherboard.
Anyway, this might save a lot of time for someone, so I’m posting it here.
Wifi and bluetooth are often on the same chipset and share the antenna. You’ll see this on embedded devices as well.
Helpful post, thanks.
Having knowledge in electromagnetism it would seem pretty obvious to me that you need antennas to do the wireless-ing, but IDK what the average person knows.
Did that knowledge indicate how cell phones, which are much smaller than a desktop PC, obviously don’t require visible external antennas to get WiFi and Bluetooth?
Huh. Interesting.
I never connected my “wi fi” antenna because I use a wire for the interwebs.
I would NOT have guessed that it is also used for bluetooth. I might use bluetooth.
Thanks!
I usually connect it as a backup/so I don’t lose the antenas but im also mostly wired. Good to know that it helps with my Bluetooth as well. Being able to easily hookup your phone to pc via Bluetooth is underrated. Especially via the phone link windows app, so many features and things you can do when you have em hooked up.
Most of the time Bluetooth and Wifi are provided by the same chip. Bluetooth runs on 2.4GHz, like WiFi up to N-band.
Edit: I’m too slow, looks like!
It would be a waste to give them separate antenna, they both operate on the same frequency (and often with the same radio, although the BT side of an m.2 card is often supported by usb instead of pcie)
