The True Mobile™ 1180 802.11b Wireless Compact Flash Card and the Socket Bluetooth Connection Kit

[dynomike27]

The True Mobile™ 1180 802.11b Wireless Compact Flash Card is on dell.com/axim website. What does that actually do? Also, the Socket Bluetooth Connection Kit is on thier website too. What does that also do?
If the True Mobile™ 1180 802.11b Wireless Compact Flash Card is for the internet, how far does it go, and what internet isp do you need, and how is it different from a blue tooth? I have MSN Explorer 7.2.
Thanks

[blueshirt80]

The truemobile compact flash card will let you share your internet connection wirelessly but you need to have a wireless access point attched to your cable modem or internet connection to share it. The card by itself does you no good without an access point. The bluetooth compact flash I know very little about. I think you can share internet but you need bluetooth on your internet connected PC. But don't quote me on that. I never used bluetooth. The range on bluetooth is only about 30ft. The range on wifi can be very far in open areas. I find it large enough to profide coverage to your entire house. That is as long as you don't live in a mansion. I personally use a Linksys wireless router and DLink CF card to connect my Dell Axim. I don't use the truemodile, mainly because it wasn't available when I needed one. It is not very hard to set up. I knew nothing about networking and managed to get mine working in a hour or so. With the router and CF card I browse the web, send and receive email and sync with my laptop over the network. I like the WiFi option only because I have never used bluetooth.

[mattcavin]

Would a product like the Netgear 2.4GHz Wireless CompactFlash Card (see http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=11180033&m=488&cat=540&scat=1576 ) be comparable to the Dell TrueMoblie 1180?

There is a $20 difference between the two products and I wonder if that's just the Dell-brand price step.

My concern is that the Netgear product appears to only run on Windows CE. Axims run PocketPC -- is that the same as CE for PPCs?

Thanks!

[PetiteFlower]

It seems to me, after a bunch of searching, that the only way to use a cell phone as a modem for a PDA(which I should in theory be able to do with Sprint Vision) is via Bluetooth. I can get a BT CF card for the Axim and a BT adapter for my phone(probably the one that comes with the Jabra headset if I can confirm that it will allow me to connect to things besides just the headset) then I should be home free. WiFi won't allow me to do that though, seems to me that WiFi only allows you to hook into an existing wireless network which I don't have, plus I want to be able to get the PDA online when not at home.

If any of my conclusions are wrong here please correct me!

[LazyDonkey]

Not sure if this helps - but you can use 90% off all mobiles that have infra-red ports as a modem on PPC.

I've sucessfuilly used a Samsung A300 and a SonyEricsson T68i on my Jordana 568 with no problems at all.

.....and I'm now using the latter via Bluetooth.

[WindWalker]

It seems to me, after a bunch of searching, that the only way to use a cell phone as a modem for a PDA(which I should in theory be able to do with Sprint Vision) is via Bluetooth. I can get a BT CF card for the Axim and a BT adapter for my phone(probably the one that comes with the Jabra headset if I can confirm that it will allow me to connect to things besides just the headset) then I should be home free. WiFi won't allow me to do that though, seems to me that WiFi only allows you to hook into an existing wireless network which I don't have, plus I want to be able to get the PDA online when not at home.

If any of my conclusions are wrong here please correct me!

There are actually a couple of ways to do it...

As stated by Lazy, you can use the IR ports to do it. The Axim IR is notoriously finicky, so keep that in mind.

You can check out the Socket Digital Phone Card (http://www.socketcom.com/product/dpc.asp), which Socket makes for each phone model. They plug into your phone from the CF slot.

There is also The Supply Net (http://www.thesupplynet.com). They make custom cables for each PDA/phone combintation that connectvia the port on the bottom of the PDA.

Then there is Bluetooth, which you use with phones that support it and the Socket BT Connection kit. Sprint users are out of luck on the Bluetooth front until this phone (http://mobile.burn.com/news.jsp?Id=187) comes out, supposedly the end of this quarter. I believe Verizon, t-Mobile, and Cingular already offer Bluetooth enabled phones.

[PetiteFlower]

I do not believe that socket makes a cable that fits both my phone and PDA. My phone's not bluetooth enabled but I think the muilti-adapters that come with the Jabra BT headsets will also connect it to other BT things, like a CF card in the Axim :) I have to write to Jabra to double check before I buy one.

I also do not believe my phone has an IR port.

I would be happy to do it via cables but I haven't found one that's compatible yet. Supply Net makes cables for my phone(LG 5350) but not for the Axim, the only PPC they make for is the IPAQ. Socket doesn't make a card that works with my phone either. None of the other sites I've looked at have a solution that will work with both the 5350 and the Axim.

That new phone is cute, but I JUST got this one and I'm not getting another new phone, plus it will probably be about twice the price I paid for this one :)

So, so far this is the ONLY thing I've been able to come up with that will accomplish my goal of Ultimate Connectivity...

[meadowsd123]

The Netgear card works great and even has decent drivers that allow you to scan for SSID's. I use this exact card in my Axim. The only thing I don't like about the card is that it sticks out of the Axim a little ways. The curved top of the Axim makes this more noticeable too. Functionally though, the card works great and doesn't seem to run down my battery much quicker than without the card inserted.

[ledpocket]

If you buy the Socket bluetooth card, AND you might eventually want to use it in your laptop, pay the extra $10 for the "laptop" version that comes with the pc card adapter.

The drivers to use the socket card on an O/S other than the PocketPC are not available to download. The only way to get them is to buy an "Upgrade Kit" for $33 plus shipping. It includes the pc card adapter and a CD with drivers for xp/2000/etc.

The "pocketPC" version of the card only comes with the PPC drivers, and they are available on the website.

I have learned this the hard way ($$$).