Sierra Aircard 555, which expansion?

[egoz]

I'm about to purchase a Verizon-enabled Sierra Aircard 555 for my iPaq 3955.

Questions i got:
[] which expansion sleeve do i need to purchase?
[] will the Verizon store i get the Air555 from need to configure anything? ...should i bring my iPaq along with me, or can i do the rest from home?
[] anything else (beyond the ipaq-air555 fix on Sierra's website) that i should know and/or be warned about?

.rob

[Bob Anderson]

OK... I have the Aircard 555 and Verizon service and I believe I can answer most of your questions:

1) You will need one of two sleeves. You can buy the enhanced PC Card sleeve or the dual PC Card sleeve; both from Compaq. The difference is that the PC Card sleeve has a removable battery and one PC Card slot, and the dual PC Card Sleeve has two slots and two, nonremovable batteries. (The dual one is quite big, but gives you outstanding battery life with the PC Card operating.) I have a dual PC Card sleeve for sale on EBay (like new -- I had two and only really need one) and if you are interested, PM me and I'll send you the link.

2) My Verizon store barely knew what to do to set up the card on my laptop, I can't imagine what they'd do if faced with a PPC!! Truthfully, though, I'd bring it and ask for their help. They can call their level 2 support folks to help them (and the phone people were great with helping me get mine running.) You can also PM me, if need be, and I'll offer assistance.

3) I'm not sure what plan you are intending on getting... but don't be fooled by the megabyte pricing models! I use my card extensively, both on the laptop and on my iPaq, and my guess is I go through 6 - 10 MB on an average day! I highly recommend the unlimited plan so you don't have to worry about how much you use it.

Good luck, and enjoy the wireless freedom!

[egoz]

Sounds good. Today i plan on picking up the expansion sleeve and the Sierra AirCard555.

I've been reading on the alt.cellular.verizon newsgroup about issues using a mailserver other than Verizon's on the ExpressNetwork. It seems pretty easy to configure another mailserver; Do you have any experience on this front? I use a mailserver associated with my personal website's provider, so i'm hoping this is as easy at they say to configure.

.rob

[egoz]

Thanks for the advice! I got everything up n running with only a few glitches (that whole 39xx dialup-8bit incompat withn the 555), and config'd my mailserver too. All in one afternoon.

It seems P2002 IE has some limits, especially with some forms, maybe jscript utilizing?, like MS Passsport.NET's registration!?!

Anyway, this anywhere connectivitynis pretty cool, even if a little raw on the edges.

Thanks again.

.rob