Wireless questions

[Boom782]

I just bought my first PDA the other day and I have a couple questions. I purchased a Ipaq1915, but am considering upgrading to the 2215.

My main interest in the 2215 is the Bluetooth and wireless internet, but I don't know anything about it at all. If I purchased the 2215 with a wireless card, what else would I need to access the internet? I have no bluetooth or any infared devices at home. Would I need to buy a wireless router? Is a service plan required?

Mainly I would like to be able to check email and do other similiar internet things when away from home. Is this possible?

Sorry for all the questions. Thanks in advance for any help.

[Sven Johannsen]

The 2215 won't do much more for you. BT is a short range technolgy, within your house, and you would need to BT enable something else. That could be your PC or you could get a BT access point. Either would let you access the internet through the same internet connection your PC already has.

The 2215 has no other built in wireless internet capability. To get WiFi access, you would need a WiFi card for the 2215. That is also a short range capability but farther than BT. You would need to set up some WiFi access in your house similar to the BT mentioned. An advantage here is that there are so called Hotspots around at StarBucks, Airports, bookstores, etc, that have WiFi access available, but generally you have to pay to use them.

If you want real freedom away from home you really need to get into the 'cell phone as a modem' concept. This can be just dialing your ISP to the real data-centric services being offerred by the various cell phone providers.

I would say that the 2215 is a better, more capable machine, than your 1915 is, but getting it won't increase your connectivity situation without spending money on some other stuff as well. It will just make it possible for you to spend that money and get something out of it.

[Janak Parekh]

The 2215 won't do much more for you.
Well, except that it would enable you to use a wireless CF/SDIO card. The 1915 can't do either. ;) An alternative, BTW, would be a unit with built-in WiFi, like the 4xxx series iPAQs.

--janak

[Mitchybums]

With bluetooth you can use a bluetooth dongle (USB) on a pc to have wireless internet in the same room.
It works, but range and speed isnt so nice.
I bought a $60 wireless router from wallmart (Blitzz something) and a wifi from ambicom for my 2215, and it works like a charm.
My usb dongle is somewhere in a drawer right now.
I can even play movies over a network share through wifi on my pocket pc.
This solution gives you internet in range of your router (for me now everywhere in my place) but you have to use hotspots for internet on the road.
If you use a cellphone with bluetooth, you can use that for internet on the road on your pocketpc.

[Boom782]

Thank you all for your help.

I guess im just looking for a nice PDA that has the internet capabilities(AIM, email...) that the high end phones do now-a-days, and it seems that I can't get that without spending loads of money in parts and services.

It would have been great to use a 2215 to check email and use Instant messenger on the road, but not worth all it sounds it would cost.

Ill probably end up sticking with my 1915 and just using it for its basic functions. I don't really see the purpose of checking my mail in my living room when I could just walk to my officer to check it off my PC much easier.

Thanks again.

[Takerboy]

Can I use GPRS to access webpages or just wap sites

[PetiteFlower]

Now if you want to be able to access internet while away from home, that's a different story.

With the 2215, you could get a bluetooth enabled cell phone and connect it to your pda and get access that way. Depending what phone/service you got, you'd need to get a data plan for it, which will vary in price. But it's possible :)

[Takerboy]

I have internet access at a friends house could I use a BlueTooth USB Dongle to Access internet a IPAQ 5450