Plan A: Make Sure it Works Before Leaving the House [Archive]

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Andy Sjostrom

10-18-2002, 05:57 PM

David Berlind, ZDNet, plugs and prays that his HP iPAQ Pocket PC connects to the Internet. In the article <a href="http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2894956,00.html">"Plug and pray: a wireless experiment goes awry"</a> he moves from Plan A to Plan F trying to beat the other journalists by getting his story in first. It's a good story to read, many lessons to be learned: First, Microsoft and partners has to make Pocket PC connectivity easier. Second, "Connection Manager" has to go. Third, we professionals (including David Berlind) have to learn our way around our tools and make sure they work before leaving the house!<br /><br />"I went to the connection settings screen. It said something like, "When needed, automatically connect to the Internet using these settings" and it gave me two choices: Internet Settings and Work Settings. Um. Internet? Then, there was another setting that said, "When needed, automatically connect to Work using these settings," and it gave the same choices. Work? Next it asked what my network card connects to, Work or the Internet? Huh? My PC never asks me these confusing questions. I tried every permutation and none of them worked."

WillyG

10-18-2002, 06:42 PM

Amusing story, and its so damn typical. Just as typical as when ur going to demonstrate somthing (especially for your Palm friends) somthing is bond to go belly up. I hope the projectmanagers at Microsoft read this story. But im sure they already are aware of the [......] connection manager (insert appropriate adjective) :wink:

sweetpete

10-18-2002, 07:00 PM

connection manager (insert appropriate adjective) :wink:

How about connection mangler :?: 8)

Jason Dunn

10-18-2002, 07:07 PM

What a great article! It shows, in a very clear fashion, the problems with the Pocket PC today. Microsoft is very "scenario driven", so this article should give them a lot to chew on.

Jason Dunn

10-18-2002, 07:08 PM

How about connection mangler :?: 8)

Funny, that's what the MVPs have been calling it internally since we first saw it. :lol:

DubWireless

10-18-2002, 07:10 PM

sweetpete

10-18-2002, 07:19 PM

yeah connection manager can be very frustrating

connect2internet(c2i) (http://www.2kdevelopment.com/dynamic/main.php?action=productsheet&id=22) makes a great job of cellular connections, they have configs working with 15 operators mainly in europe at the moment

i did some testing for them with the Irish cell phone networks and it turned connecting to GSM, GPRS and HSCSD truely into one tap, really works a treat. last release on their site says they are testing with more operators

Brian Greene
devices.ie

Pocket Presence has had a nice product with the One-Click mobility product. (http://www.runningvoice.com/ocm.asp) When I tested it earlier this year they had 5 or 6 countires with a variety of networks. It was meant more for OEM's and Network Operators with a configuration tool they didn't provide me, but I enjoyed it. The data was in an XML file which I edited to add the 2 Candian GSM operators and their CSD and GPRS settings.

WillyG

10-18-2002, 07:27 PM

Completely off topic but i just noticed Jason Dunn is about to pass 3000 posts. As a humble PPC servant and ponderer i just wish to say: Congrats :!:
What level will that bring u up on? "Pocket Pc King", "Pocket Pc ruminator" or maby "Pocket Pc rocker" :wink:

Jason Dunn

10-18-2002, 07:29 PM

What level will that bring u up on? "Pocket Pc King", "Pocket Pc ruminator" or maby "Pocket Pc rocker" :wink:

Hehe - I'm still just a boring "Site Admin". Although, come to think of it, I think I should come up with something cooler than that. ;-)

WillyG

10-18-2002, 07:32 PM

Say again, i didnt hear you :lol:
(He *had* 2999 here)

David McNamee

10-18-2002, 07:33 PM

Is there anywhere that actually documents what those settings in Connection Manager are supposed to do? I looked in help and couldn't figure it out. My connections work, but I'd love to know why!

Brad Adrian

10-18-2002, 07:36 PM

I noticed the writer never mentioned using IR synch. I use it all the time when I travel so I don't have to carry a cradle. Or, am I missing something?

WillyG

10-18-2002, 07:40 PM

I noticed the writer never mentioned using IR ...

Yea, i thought of that to. I have never tried it, but couldnt he just beam that word document over to his laptop (maby convert it to txt first, and redo the formatting). Long time since i last sat my foot on a IBM Thinkpad, dont they come with IR ports anymore?

dreampages

10-18-2002, 07:55 PM

CDPD? That's old and slow. We've had no problems connecting with the Novatel Wireless Merlin C201 modem to Sprint's 3G high-speed network. Our clients (and us) are getting 80-100kbps on iPAQs. Never had a connection problem. Connects in 2-4 seconds everytime.

Larry

MultiMatt

10-19-2002, 12:44 AM

I really have to think hard to recall a positive review about anything Pocket PC from David Berlind.
Okay, so Connection Manager leaves a lot to be desired - but come on, he's such a drama queen!
Figure something out, there, Dave. It's NOT that hard. Heck, if nothing else, use a PCMCIA-CF adaptor, move the data to your laptop, and shoot the darned article off!

As a last resort when I can't get a high-speed connection, I rely on my trusty serial cable connected to my mobile phone at a whopping 9.6Kbs. It might take longer than usual, but it always works.

Matt

Brad Adrian

10-19-2002, 06:18 AM

Another thing to remember is that the Symposium was held at the Dolphin and Swan hotels at Disney World. The entire Disney area is known for it's horrible wireless connectivity. I've been told that it's by design, but I know that I've always had a very hard time making even a simple wireless phone call while at Disney.

ppcsurfr

10-19-2002, 07:58 AM

Ummm.

I've been doing that snce Windows CE 2.01 with my old Philips Nino...

Setting up connections for the PPC is quite easy... the hard part is how you want it to react.

A single connection can be done in less than 2 minutes... all the configurig and all...

Some people might ask... why have two connection options... well, because the Pocket PC is smart enough to figure most of it out.

Here is what I've found about the connection manager... and it actually works.

It says connect to the internet using... Internet Settings, Work Settings or any other setting you plan to include... You might ask why. Well becase Microsoft supports about any type of connection.

The bad thing here is that they don't explain tings clearly and that you have to figure them out. But once you figure out the capabilities of the Connection Manager, then you may find it more useful than the old connections settings of PPC 2000.

When neded connect to the INternet using these settings... Internet Settings... here you normally do your DUN... but why does it give you an option to do Internet through work settings? Well, maybe you want to dialup to your office server and connect to the internet via that connection?

Well, to make a long explanation shorter...

I configured my Pocket PC to do just what I want it to do.

1. Conect to the Internet - using Internet Settings... I configure it to dial up to my ISP... by a. IR, and by b. CF modem. The PPC knows which one to use.

2. I created another setting called GPRS - this is for plainly surfing...

3. I set it to default with GPRS for internet... but in the advanced settings for my email, I set my Ibox to use Internet settings.

4. I have my Work settings set to dial up to my Windows 98 desktop PC. When I connect using ActiveSync, it uses this connection and I don't have to enter the Connection settings at all.

That is how it works.

You do not have to connect first. Your application does it for you.

I dunno, maybe I'm the only one who likes the connection manager because I've used it to set up my PPC with my PC's settings. And... I because it works for me.

ppcsurfr

Anthony Caruana

10-19-2002, 02:32 PM

Connection mangler is easily the worst part of the PPC2K2 operating system. I've been a network admin in the past and have worked with design of wired and wireless LANs for some time. It took me the best part of today to be able to use my cradle with Activesync or my wireless NIC to Activesync or surf the 'net without having to re-jig settings after each transition. I still don't know how I fixed it but I'm not touching it ever again if I can avoid it.

Please fix this for the next release of the OS

Jason Dunn

10-19-2002, 06:55 PM

Is there anywhere that actually documents what those settings in Connection Manager are supposed to do? I looked in help and couldn't figure it out. My connections work, but I'd love to know why!

Don't ask why, don't experiment - because if you do, they'll stop working. Connection Manager can feel you curiosity and it reacts by breaking things... :lol:

Bob Anderson

10-20-2002, 04:42 PM

The value I see in all this is that the overwhelming disgust with connection manager is displayed for Microsoft (as if they didn't hear about it in the beginning!)

I fought with connection manager to get my CF Modem to work when I'm not in 802.11b range; it seemed to take a long time to get them both to work, and now... I DON'T TOUCH CONNECTION MANAGER :x As Jason pointed out... it's just not wise to mess around with it.

I find it nearly insulting that even though I've used computers for YEARS, I still don't understand what I did. If the connection manager is good (I seriously doubt it) then MSFT is very BAD for not properly explaining how it works. On the surface it looked like it might be a great concept. I'm ready to go back to the PPC 2000 version please and thank-you. Any widely read journalist should CONTINUE ranting and raving... one day MSFT will address the issue!