This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.
Thanks for asking.
Let me send ahead that Remote Buddy itself is *not* affecting (or even
"killing") your internet connection. The problem at hand is *physical*
and not a software problem or a problem specific to or solveable by
Remote Buddy. It's important for me to stress this point.
For basic information, continue to read the short answer, for an
answer including more detailed, technical explainations, jump right to
the long answer.
## Short answer:
What you observe is a physical phenomen and not a software problem or
a problem solvable in software (even the best software can't change
physics). Bluetooth and 802.11 WiFi connections share the exact same
radio frequency ranges. Therefore any Bluetooth traffic can have (but
rarely does have) an effect on the quality of your WiFi connection.
The Wii Remote (unlike other Bluetooth remotes supported by Remote
Buddy) *requires* to be constantly searched for, so that Bluetooth
traffic *has* to happen regardless of whether the Wii Remote is
connected or not (for details, see the long answer).
For possible solutions, please see the "Possible solutions" list at
the end of this post.
## Long answer:
What you observe is a physical phenomen and not a software problem or
a problem solvable in software (even the best software can't change
physics). Bluetooth and 802.11 WiFi connections share the exact same
radio frequency ranges.
Any Bluetooth traffic can have an effect on your WiFi connection. In
the case of the Wii Remote, Bluetooth traffic is taking place
regardless of whether the Wii Remote is connected or not:
1) When the Wii Remote is not connected: since the Wii Remote (unlike
for example the Sony BD Remote) can't automatically connect to the
computer by itself, it unfortunately _has to_ be constantly searched
(polled) for - which of course causes Bluetooth traffic. This
necessity is a direct consequence of how the Wii Remote works. You can
stop / pause the polling by deactivating the Bluetooth Receiver in
Remote Buddy through its pull-down menu.
2) When the Wii Remote is connected: button presses (and a constant
stream of IR camera data whenever the IR mouse mode is active) is sent
by the Wii Remote over Bluetooth to the Mac.
That the simultaneous operation of Bluetooth and WiFi at the same time
can lead to degraded performance of both connection types
is also documented by Apple at
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicedrivers/Conceptual/Bluetooth/BT_Develop_BT_Apps/chapter_4_section_3.html
Summary:
1) Since the Wii Remote can't connect to the Mac by itself, the only
way to support it on the Mac is to constantly poll for it. This is a
requirement of the Wii Remote hardware, not Remote Buddy. In fact,
Remote Buddy goes a very long way to provide the best support for all
Bluetooth remotes it supports. In case of the Sony BD Remote, for
example, no polling is necessary and thus also isn't taking place.
Polling will only take place after a Wii Remote has already been
paired *and* the Bluetooth receiver in Remote Buddy is active.
2) Since Bluetooth and WiFi use the same radio frequency ranges (2.400
- 2.485 GHz), they can interfere on a physical level. This is a
physical problem (or hardware problem, if you so want) of the
standards involved, not a software-level problem. Since Bluetooth uses
frequency hopping, that interference is usually not noticable. I
personally have never been able to reproduce that phenomen.
## Possible solutions:
1) Bluetooth and 802.11b/g/n all use the same 2.4 GHz frequency band.
Unlike 802.11b/g, the new draft 802.11n standard can also use the 5
GHz band, which is not used by Bluetooth (=> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11n)
.. By configuring your 802.11n capable WiFi base station (like f.ex.
the current AirPort Extreme or Time Capsule) to use *only* the 5 GHz
band, you can avoid collissions between your WiFi and Bluetooth
traffic completely. That, however, requires that all of your WiFi
devices support 802.11a or 802.11n connections (AFAIK the iMac G5 does
not - adding a Mac-compatible 802.11n USB stick to it could be an
option, though).
2) Try to make your WiFi base station to use a different channel for
your connection. This can, but not necessarily has to help.
3) Connect to the Internet via Ethernet.
4) And for the sake of completeness: stop using the Wii Remote (and
unpair it in Remote Buddy > Preferences > Hardware > Bluetooth
Receiver, so it's no longer being searched for).
Best regards,
Felix Schwarz