Mobile computing can be achieved at most 30% by PDA phones due to the limitations on input, display, applications, memory and CPU speed. How do we get Internet for our laptop on-the-go, or as a back-up for broadband Internet on the laptop at home for the mobile phone users who have canceled the home phone service? It is reported that 25% of mobile phone users voiced the inclination of abandoning home phone service.
Hotspot service is expensive, sparse and segmented. The Wi-Fi capability on Pocket PC's is still ahead of its time now. Fun to try: T-Mobile HotSpot WiFi at Border's book store - first 24 hours free. I tried it and it is great. $6/hour pay-as-you-go plan or $30/mo plan are basic choices.
T-Mobile's $20/mo unlimited anywhere 40Kbps GPRS Internet pipe is still the primetime bottomline. Now that nights and weekends are free from at least T-Mobile, a 7Kbps CSD (circuit-switched RAS (Remote Access Service) dial-up) connection pipe works economically for a lot of people, e.g., for PDA friendly sites, or as a terminal for controlling remote tasks. Either GPRS or CSD, and for CDC, dial-up to corporate LAN or ISP, it calls for a wireless modem or the Pocket PC centric Internet pass-through capability.
How do we get wireless data connection for the laptop, hopefully via your XDA I? And if we can, what channel do we use for that between the laptop and the XDA I, IrDA or Sync port? For O2 users that are on ROM 3.17 (before 4.0), the answer is easy since there is this wireless modem application:
http://www.sourceo2.com/NR/rdonlyre...5e3iadmr2qr6kna/CTS1299-1+Setup+Xda+Modem.PDF
No luck for the rest.
Look at how many times this question has been asked. I bet that this is the single most frequently asked non-trivial question, THE perennial issue of XDA. Here is a round-up of all the links on this issue:
http://www.xda-developers.com/modem/
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=6085
Other topics (replace the topic number from the above link):
6280, 6263, 6143, 5751, 5580, 4973, 4928, 4783, 4638, 4661, 4601, 4570, 4067, 3950, 3612, 3406, 3291, 3164, 2816, 2795, 2718, 2643, 2383, 2126, 2065, 1954, 1773, 1581, 1430, 1142, 1127, 1081, 973, 915, 904, 596, 487, 119, 108, (Less informative: 6074, 3689, 3303, 3151, 2323, 1683, 1550, 1568, 1011, 717, 608, 578, 291, 186,)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?p=27042
Other topics (replace the topic number from the above link): 29341
http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/articleview.php?s=17252daff8ab7bcdcbdf960fe992756f&articleid=5710
http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/showthread.php?s=6f96cc8be8832dc10c6aacc8aea1cfbf&threadid=6663
http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/showthread.php?s=6f96cc8be8832dc10c6aacc8aea1cfbf&threadid=23987
http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/showthread.php?s=6f96cc8be8832dc10c6aacc8aea1cfbf&threadid=12982
http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/showthread.php?s=6f96cc8be8832dc10c6aacc8aea1cfbf&threadid=9195
http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/showthread.php?s=6f96cc8be8832dc10c6aacc8aea1cfbf&threadid=4725
http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/showthread.php?s=6f96cc8be8832dc10c6aacc8aea1cfbf&threadid=7515
http://www.pdaphonehome.com/forums/showthread.php?s=fbe61c7d81a966344d591622be1a0d4d&threadid=5067
http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=23805
Other topics (replace the topic number from the above link): 23287, 20720, 9054, 6825, 6726, 5206, 4727, 3156
I didn't go through more than 20% of them - someone please pick up from where I left off and come up with an in-depth survey. As far as I have seen, here are your options:
Option 1: wait for ActiveSync 4.0 (hopefully with PPC-sentric Internet pass-through) or a commercial package. There is such a commercial solution http://junefabrics.com/ for Treo but they replied my email and said that they don't support XDA. The market is so big, craving for a commercial package. God knows when it comes, or at all. To software vendors, it is a business risk to develop such applications fearing that the capability come native with ActiveSync or WM200X.
Option 2: the original hack, the first xda-developers.com link above. I have yet to try whether or not it works for my XDA phone. If anyone tries it and get it to work, let us all know. I don't see the "substantial negative effects" that substantial as far as my use is concerned. I wonder if we can use the USB sync cable instead of buying or constructing a serial cable.
Option 3: buy an AirCard or a modem-capable phone for your laptop. The Siera 750 card can be purchased from eBay for $70 ($300 from T-mobile). The dilema is, if you get a GPRS data-only plan with a new wireless line number from T-Mobile, it's $30/mo, and your XDA is still not connected! The same plan, if added to your voice plan as an additional feature, is $20/mo. T-Mobile does not make you a cloned SIM. Even if you have a family plan and your other phone is modem-capable, using the other phone for your laptop would not work in the case of T-Mobile US since the feature is added to the wireless line, not your plan! The latter is far more preferable. But with the AirCard solution, you would have to switch the SIM card back and forth - very inconvenient - you could end up losing your SIM. Hardware capability wise, the XDA is an air card and then some. We only need some software code to get it to do what an AirCard does! I have yet to research how to clone my SIM card for the AirCard use. http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=3961 may be a starting point.
Option 4: XDA II, as the last link above suggests. I am not sure how well it works. Can some XDA II users tell us whether or not you can use it for the wireless modem and at the same time run applications like Excel or even Pharos GPS which uses the sync port?
Option 5: the ROMKitchen
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/wiki/ROMkitchen
or the "sooo yesterday" Special Edition ROM w/ WModem
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/wiki/SpecialEditionROM
Note that in June 2003 at the second link (6663), SwampNut showed us the light at the end of the tunnel but he meant the "XDA Developer Special Edition" of ROM. I am exploring the possiblity of carving the wireless modem out for it to work on XDA without ROM upgrade
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=6442
As of now, ROMKitchen is based on 4.00.05 Microsoft WM2003 test ROM
Wait for the new kitchen that is based on ROM 4.01.16 WM2003 official release plus Radio 6.25.02 (T-Mobile new posting) or higher.
Option 6: T-Mobile WM2003. The version posted mid March is ROM 4.01.16 and Radio 6.25.02 Unfortunately, it does not come with the wmodem application. I am asking people who have upgraded to try the wmodem.zip file in thread http:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?p=27042
The chance that it works is no larger than 50% based on Mad Max's comment on 4.0 series modem in thread: "Wireless Modem are not available under any 4.xx ROM available today" where "today" was Aug 03, Wireless Modem on Special Edition was from O2 ROM 3.x hooking into radio stack but hooks changed under ROM 4.xx:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?p=29341
I may have missed some options buried in the links, but very few.
Most of the talks so far have been focused on using the XDA as a passive modem. I used to use WinGate to share my DSL Internet connection at home back then when routers were pricy. WinGate is software that runs on one PC with two NIC cards, which serves as the Internet gateway. A gateway is a router, a proxy server for Internet. The client machines talk to it over LAN to get Internet. Can an application be developed or ActiveSync be enhanced to mimic what WinGate does, i.e. making XDA an Internet Gateway. This approach makes more sense as XDA II gets WiFi - your laptop would get WiFi speed automatically instead of being stuck in the GPRS/CSD speed. I even went as far as checking with WinGate's US reseller, and the answer is "not yet but in the future plan". (I doubt that it's in their future plan; it's just politically right.) This solution would be nirvana. I wish XDA application developers could crank out something this good, soon!
XDA has the Internet out of the box when you place it on the cradle. ActiveSynch 3.5 is designed to use the PC as the Internet gatway:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnppc2k2/html/ppc_through.asp
The other way doesn't work. ActiveSync is not symmetric yet; it's only PC centric Internet pass-through. The new ActiveSync 3.7.1 doesn't seem to address this major inability:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/resources/downloads/pocketpc/activesync37.mspx
Come on, a Pocket PC is a real computer as Pinoccio is a real boy!
Mr Gurus....can u help me...why did my wmodem on XDA 1 that have installed 3.17.03 ROM already, cannot use USB as connection ?? :?: :?:
Have given up
I am not as guru-ish as my screenname sounds. I meant to galvanize responses and solutions but that didn't materialize. I am very reluctant to hack it into working. Now that I got Motorola V600 for my daughter on the family plan, I am to buy a bluetooth dongle to use that for my wireless modem. There is another thread in the networking category that basically talks about using the O2 load. I didn't try due to the concern that it not work with USA T-Mobile network.
Is it possible for any of the current 3G phones with WiFi to act as a WiFi Access Point for other devices?
I currently have a Jasjar with Vodafone IE's unlimited data plan for €40 per month and would love to have the Jasjar acting as a WiFi access point at home, in car etc.
Also with HSPDA now available I don't mind changing to another WM5 device that supports the higher speed and could act as an WiFi access point
I'd like to know the answer to this also as when I get my Vario 2 with unlimited data i thought it would be cool to use this to play on the Nintendo DS WiFi service... wishful thinking maybe.
Currently, it's very hard to do what you ask for as the OS doesn't support connection sharing; it must be done with third-party apps like the commercial version of Toonel or my HTTP proxy.
Please read my latest AKU3-related article (posted a few days ago to the General forum here); in there, I've elaborated on this question a lot.
I'm guessing the AKU3 article is the same one as you posted recently on your Smartphone and PocketPCMag blog.
The link to the proxy is prtty cool and may come in handy in the future when I get the Vario 2 (TyTn) and unlimited data. For now I've installed it all on my Wizard to get an idea of how it all works. Unfortunately theres no PAN support on the wizard but there is on my stand alone PDA.
Anyway thanks for your help, I'm still gonna keep a look out for anything that could possibly make the Pocket PC identify itself as a WiFi Access Point (As the Nintendo DS does not support Ad Hoc and only Ap's) and will continue to read your blog.
Hi all,
I am thinking of 'upgrading' to this phone (as the T-Mobile G2 version) but would like to ask if anybody has tried this handset with a tomtom go device, and if the data services work. On my old HTC Touch Diamond the bluetooth would not allow a data connection to be made (aparantly it was 'not included in the build' by the operators), I managed to obtain some files from this site that allowed it to work sometimes but was never reliable. I since obtained a Sony Ericsson C905 handset and that works fine with the tomtom, but its now time for my personal phone account to be upgraded and its a toss up between the G2 and the SE W995. If the G2 will not support bluetooth dial-up connections it may be a deal breaker.
Thanks for any information
MI5
No it won't.
I tried my 720 the other day and it won't even see the Hero has a wireless data service.
Surprisingly its not TomTom's fault here... the Bluetooth profiles in the Hero don't have this feature or even file transfer between devices (though this can be added by rooting and using some software I believe).
TomTom's support for handsets is a bit light TBH and I feel they will never improve this now they have their LIVE product range with a built in SIM.
As are most of you, I am considering purchasing the HD2. And I have a question regarding tethering - I use TomTom services to get live traffic updates on my TomTom Go 720, and this requires bluetooth tethering. I couldn't make this work with an HTC Touch Dual I had previously, and it has just (last week) broken with my Nokia E71.
Does anyone know whether it will work with the HD2? I am not sure how to check this out before purchase ...
(BTW I know there are software solutions (e.g. Tomtom/ Copilot) but I currently think that a seprate device works best ...)
Hope this hasn't been asked before - I have looked?
Hi Jon,
I don't have an snswer for your question, but I'm interested in the scenario. I am a little confused about exactly what you're asking though.
What exactly are you tethering via bluetooth, an external GPS unit? Are you saying that TomTom does't function using the internal GPS unit?
Thanks for the reply.
The tethering is for data purposes - the tomtom has intetrnal GPS (obviously ) but uses a data connection to get additional services such as traffic updates and speed camera locations - so the questions is one about data tethering rather than GP.
Does this clarify things?
JOn
Ahhh, right - yep, understand, but can't help you unfortunately. :-\
Best of luck.
Edit: Hang on, isn't there an "Internet Sharing" app installed to most WM phones that's supposed to do that sort of internet routing?
tomtom devices don't support Internet Connection Sharing, but I can confirm that I use my HD2 with my tomtom go 930 and have had it working fine for traffic, weather etc - wm 6.5 seems to support bluetooth DUN as standard. The tomtom even offered to transfer my contacts from my phone, though I haven't bothered as I don't use the handsfree function.
I've been having some minor problems with the device crashing since flashing a new "cooked" rom, but that's another story...
richlean said:
I've been having some minor problems with the device crashing since flashing a new "cooked" rom, but that's another story...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there have been reports of some roms setting the bluetooth mac address incorrectly.
that's all I know, though so you'll have to search.
Hi there this is my first post in this forum.
Someone here thought it is a good idea to get some X2 as business phone. Unfortunately this one also decided that i am the one that has to take care of them.
My first task is to get Videocall working by using the Wireless Lan over here.
I tried to find some software that can do so but wasn't that successfull. Everything i found used a server that you had to subscribe to get this functionality. Thats exactly what i don't want.
Nice would be the following:
You can use your phone for Videocall within this buildung using the wireless lan so you can call every computer or phone connected to the local area network.
Is there any software that can do so, or which of those features are totally not supported so i have to throw them away?
Is there a software at all that supports at least parts of my ideas?
Greetings from germany
Marcel