Connecting to the Internet through ActiveSync

[Martin I Pettinger]

I'm on ActiveSync 3.5 Build 1176 and have an iPAQ 3850 connecting to a laptop via a serial connection - laptop is NT4 so no speedy connection via USB or iR either.

Question is can I sync my iPAQ then browse the web using my laptop like a server. I am connecting to the Internet using an Xircon 56k card. No Broadband for me - I'm in the Scottish Country.

[Jorj Bauer]

Question is can I sync my iPAQ then browse the web using my laptop like a server. I am connecting to the Internet using an Xircon 56k card. No Broadband for me - I'm in the Scottish Country.

I think the answer is yes, but you'll find it painful. While the iPaq is in the cradle, and ActiveSync has the "enable passthrough" checked in its settings (or some such name, I'm not looking at it right now), you'll be able to use the iPaq just as if it were on the 'net. It will be dog-slow, not to mention awkward, since the iPaq will be in its cradle or otherwise tethered to your laptop. You'll find that the novelty wears off quickly, and it's just easier to use your laptop. :wink:

[JonnoB]

As jorj said, it is awkward... but it can be useful if you need to quickly download a cab file or otherwise get access to something via the internet.

I am actually finding a problem with my cradled PPC. When I have a WiFi CF card installed, I get complaints about two devices with the same name on the network... undoubtedly because there is both a WiFi and an ActiveSync connection. I know I can disable one or the other... but I prefer not to take out my WiFi card too often and I usually like the shared access from the cradle so it is cumbersome to manually make one change or the other.

[Martin I Pettinger]

I am on my lunchbreak - the iPAQ is in the cradle and my Dell laptop is connected to the company Intranet. We have a 512k connection to the web and I am browsing the web on two machines at once - really weird.

The speed is okay - not ground breaking but reasonable never the less. As a test I am going to time how long it takes to download the homepage of www.pocketpcthoughts.com

Well I would other than the iPAQ has locked up - will try turning on and off to clear connection was trying www.flashenabled.com. Okay I have had to take the iPAQ out its cradle. Think I tried to download a movie by mistake.

I think I may have had stuff running in the background such as DivX. Done a soft reset and will try again. Okay back in cradle - time for www.pocketpcthoughts.com Its loading. Should have turned pictures off!

Total time to load page about 90 seconds. Lot of images on the page - not sure how big page is - so cannot work out speed. Suspect that speed restricted by serial connection however.

Anyway just thought I'd share this experience as I didn't have to do anything other than plug the iPAQ in, launch IE and type in url. Didn't need the http bit either just started www.

Makes me wonder how fast this would work with USB connection or whether the browsing could be done via an IR connection. I'll try this with a colleagues Jornada next time he is in the office.

[Jason Dunn]

The speed is okay - not ground breaking but reasonable never the less. As a test I am going to time how long it takes to download the homepage of www.pocketpcthoughts.com

Our site is a BAD test page - our raw page size is HUGE compared to most other sites! :roll:

[Busdriver]

BTW, the current ActiveSynch version is 12007. It might help to update.