A Cry for Help

[RobertS]

Dear PocketPCThinkers,

I need advice.

In a couple weeks time I will be putting down cash for my second PDA, a PPC to work side-by-side with my beloved Palm OS Tungsten E (no flaming please, I swing both ways).

I am planning on getting one which has BOTH BT and Wifi onboard. Either the iPaq h4150, the iPaq h4350 or the Axim X30 (the one kitted out with that k-a-raaazy processor).

That being said, my question is this...I will be getting a Wireless dongle for my desktop PC (W2K Pro) to connect to this new PPC.

Should I get a BlueTooth dongle or a 802.11 dongle? Where I live they are about the same 50 Dollars US but I don't see the sense in getting both.

Opinions?

Regards,
RobertS

[manywhere]

A WiFi dongle can be used to establish an ad hoc WiFi connection with your Pocket PC, which is hard to do and succeed with (especially if there is WiFi networks in your neighbourhood). Bluetooth is also hard to set-up, but somewhat easier than ad hoc WiFi... IF the Bluetooth device comes with Widcomm's Bluetooth stack/software.

If you're not technical minded, consider getting a WiFi or Bluetooth access point. But do your research beforehand, as certain WiFi APs are unbeliavably hard to set up! :roll:

[Pony99CA]

I will be getting a Wireless dongle for my desktop PC (W2K Pro) to connect to this new PPC.

Should I get a BlueTooth dongle or a 802.11 dongle? Where I live they are about the same 50 Dollars US but I don't see the sense in getting both.
WiFi is really designed for networking; Bluetooth, while it can be used to network, is more of a cable-replacement protocol.

Bluetooth is also much slower than WiFi. While that won't matter for Internet access unless you have a 768 kbps or faster connection, it will matter if you want to transfer files between your PC and Pocket PC.

Also, I would recommend getting a true WiFi router. They aren't very expensive, and you'll get much better security with a NAT router sitting between your computers and the Internet. If you keep the router near your PC (and the PC has an Ethernet jack), you can use Ethernet cable to connect to the router, so you won't need the wireless dongle for the PC (and you'll have a free USB port).

Even if you use dial-up, having a router can be a good thing (I used my SMC 7004AWBR to connect via dial-up to the Internet for a few months). Worms can affect people on dial-up, too.

As an added benefit, you won't need to keep your PC on to access the Internet with your Pocket PC.

Steve

[Kowalski]

wifi uses much more power than BT and as the others stated very hard to set up.
BT uses very little power compared to wifi but has a shorter range, and smaller bandwidth. also BT setup is very easy

[RobertS]

Thanks to all for the help.

I am definetly thinking BT is my best option, either via a dongle or an AP depending on the prices I find.

BTW: I am now leaning more towards a 2210 since I am souring somewhat on WiFi in favor of BT AND the additional CF slot lets me add WiFi at a later point (and the recently announced USB adaptor only fits CF slots....and THAT looks to me incredibly useful).

RobertS

[Pony99CA]

wifi uses much more power than BT and as the others stated very hard to set up.
I didn't have many problems setting up a WiFi network. With browser-based administration, I would hardly call it "very hard to set up". I have set up WiFi connections on two laptops with PC Cards, an iPAQ 3870 with a PC Card and an iPAQ 5550 with internal WiFi.

BT uses very little power compared to wifi but has a shorter range, and smaller bandwidth. also BT setup is very easy
As I've mentioned before, there are Class 1 Bluetooth devices with 100-meter range. The iPAQ 2210 is a Class 2 device, though, so I'm not sure what range you'd get pairing it with a Class 1 dongle. I have heard you get a range better than 10 meters, though.

Also, I have heard plenty of problems with settting up Bluetooth. Jason has criticized Bluetooth for its difficulty, as has manywhere right in this thread.

My experiences haven't been good with a Belkin Bluetooth dongle -- the software gives me license errors, stack errors and it constantly seems to disappear and reappear on my Windows XP Home laptop.

Steve

[Pony99CA]

I am definetly thinking BT is my best option, either via a dongle or an AP depending on the prices I find.
That might make sense for you, given that the iPAQ 2210 has Bluetooth built-in, but no WiFi. However, if you want to connect to a network away from your home, WiFi will give you many more options. I haven't heard of many Bluetooth hotspots, but WiFi hotspots are all over.

BTW: I am now leaning more towards a 2210 since I am souring somewhat on WiFi in favor of BT AND the additional CF slot lets me add WiFi at a later point (and the recently announced USB adaptor only fits CF slots....and THAT looks to me incredibly useful).
Yes, the Twin Paradox USB card looks interesting, but you might be able to connect a USB WiFi dongle to it (assuming drivers exist). :-D

Steve

[tanalasta]

I would recommend wi-fi. If you have a wi-fi dongle on your desktop, you can use it for home networking or connection to a wireless access point/adsl modem. It gives more flexibility. And if your ppc has wi-fi, then you might as well use the same protocol.

Wi-fi also has better range compared to bluetooth. I know bluetooth has gotton a recommendation here, but bluetooth is probably more useful if you intend to connect wirelessly to a mobile phone rather than your desktop.

[RobertS]

Thank you for all the excellent advice.

I feel that for several reasons (price and the dual slots specifically, plus I like the form better) I am going to go with the 2210. My logic is that thanks to the CF slot I can always upgrade with a WiFi card later on should I so choose. Also WiFi scares me just a little and I think my first wireless experiences should be in the shallow end of Bluetooth rather than the wifi rapids. If I could get wireless water wings I would.

Another big factor is that I am more and more impressed with the simple elegance of the Bluetooth protocols. God how I love good code. If anyone here has not read Bluetooth Revealed by Brent Miller and Chatschik Bisdikian I advice you to do so, it is an excellent beginning primer on the protocol. In the interests of being an informed consumer (I have a true geek's disdain for the people who buy a device then call the vendor in order to have techsupport explain to them why they bought it) I am reading it now and I am really looking forward to tinkering with the tech.

However, my question is this...if due to cost I go with a TrendNet BT dongle rather then a dedicated Access Point, will the Dongle serve as the AP for a Piconet? I am not sure it matters due to the fluidity of the Master/Slave relationship but I want to be certain that should I add more BT devices to my desk that they will be able to interoperate properly.

Also, as I understand it the Dongle will allow the 2210 to access the internet via the PC's LAN connection. Will I also be able to browse the PC's harddrives or the LAN itself via BT or would that involve additional software or configuration?

Thanks for the help once again.

RobertS

[Pony99CA]

Also, as I understand it the Dongle will allow the 2210 to access the internet via the PC's LAN connection. Will I also be able to browse the PC's harddrives or the LAN itself via BT or would that involve additional software or configuration?
It all depends on what profiles the Bluetooth dongle supports. For example, I've heard that Microsoft's only supports enough to get their keyboard and mouse running.

While I've had major problems with Bluetooth, on the rare occasions that it did work on my laptop, I was able to browse the files on my laptop from my iPAQ.

I don't recall if I could see other machines on the network, though. The software included with the Belkin dongle required you to specify a Bluetooth directory, so I set that to my C: drive so I could browse the files there. I didn't try setting it to My Computer.

Steve

[RobertS]

I am using a W2K Pro OS so I am counting on third-party drivers. I am buying the TrendNet dongle specifically because it comes with Widcomm v1.4 drivers and stack.

To be honest the main goal I have for the BT connection to the PC is to get LAN net access...all the rest will be gravy.

I know in some ways wifi is better suited to that goal but not only does Wifi scares me, it scares my IT department too.

[Pony99CA]

I know in some ways wifi is better suited to that goal but not only does Wifi scares me, it scares my IT department too.
For LAN access, WiFi is much better suited to the application -- it's just wireless Ethernet. Besides, WiFi is much faster than Bluetooth -- 11 mbps vs. 723 kbps. Do you really want to wait a while to view a large directory?

As you mentioned your IT department, are you going to install this on a PC where you work? Have you discussed the plan with them? Many IT departments rightly don't want users installing wireless devices on their own due to the security risks.

Other than security, I don't understand why WiFi "scares" you. I bought my WiFi gear back in 2001, and had never set up a network before (although I had used networks at work). In spite of that, I was able to get mine up and running without too many problems. I suspect things are even easier to install and configure now.

Steve