SP2 and Wireless ActiveSync

[iPaqDude]

I have an XP Home PC connected to the Internet via a LinkSys Gateway to a DSL Broadband modem. I have been syncing wirelessly with my h2215 w/Socket card for the last couple of months with zero problems.

Yesterday I applied the SP2 upgrade to my PC. Everything worked fine other than I could not do a wireless sync to my PPC. Using USB worked fine, just not 802.11b.

I disabled the SP2 firewall but no luck. I setup a host file (using Pocket Hosts) that mapped to my PC's IP address, no change. Played around with the firewall (after reading some posts here and on Brighthand) disabling items, enabling items, adding things to the exception list - still no luck.

The error on the PPC when attempting to connect says ""unable to connect. Verify your dialup or proxy setting are correct, and try again."

I can ActiveSync via USB and my PPC can surf the web when using wireless, just can't seem to get the right combination of things that will allow me to sync wirelessly.

I can also ping my PC and connect to shared folders from other PCs on my home network.

Anyone else having this same issue? Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to fix it?

Thanks.

[Darius Wey]

Try this:

Head to Control Panel and open Network Connections. Right-click your Wireless Network Connection and select Properties. Go to the Wireless Networks tab, and select Add and enter a network name (SSID).

Ignore WEP for now to ensure it works fine without encryption and ensure that the Ad-hoc network box is ticked. Then click OK, and head back to the General tab. From there, select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and then press Properties.

Select the Use The Following IP Address radio button, and enter an IP address: e.g. 192.168.0.6, and leave the subnet mask as 255.255.255.0. Click OK and exit all the open windows, and ensure that your Wireless Network Connection is enabled.

Now the next few steps are to be conducted on the Pocket PC. The first thing is to ensure that Wi-Fi is enabled, and configure your IP addresses on your Pocket PC. Use an IP address like 192.168.0.7, and make sure the subnet mask is at 255.255.255.0.

Now configre the settings for it to communicate to the server, by entering the following WINS address: 192.168.0.6 (or whatever IP you allocated your desktop). Then make sure that you apply all the new settings and add a new network with the same network name as your PC and ensure that it is ad-hoc enabled. For now, leave security disabled until you are sure it all works. If it does, you can configure security settings at a later date.

Now open up ActiveSync on the Pocket PC and click on Tools, then Options and make sure the name of your desktop PC is selected in the drop-down box. Then press OK.

Now try synchronising. Hopefully that works. I just posted this guide so that you can start from scratch rather than messing around with pre-existing settings.