Two Bluetooth Modems Configured at the same time?

[lencaplan]

I have what appears to be an unworkable situation.

I have two iPAQs .... an H5550 and an H4150, that I use on a regular basis, and travel with them very often internationally.

I will talk about the situation as if it only concerned one unit since the problem is the same with both.

When traveling I use the ATT Global eMail client to access my eMail on my ISPs POP3 server. Both iPAQs are configured to use the Socket Bluetooth Modem. This has been working well with both units, and I have been able to access my eMail easily with both units. With the H5550 I also have the Compaq PC casd modem which I can use in the auxillary sleeve if need be.

I recently upgraded my mobile phone to a Motorola Razr V3, which is capable of being used as a bluetooth modem. It was quite easy to set up both units so that the iPAQ was able to pair with the phone, and dial out as a modem. This is where the problem starts.

Both units are set up as a Modem in the iPAQ settings. If I go into the advanved settings, and try to connect manually, regardless of which modem I try to connect with, the unit will always try to connect with the last "bluetooth modem" that I used. I have set up two different profiles, but the iPAQ trys to connect with the last device used. In order to use the other "modem" I must manually go into the Bluetooth manager, and manuall search for the "modem" I want to use, and manually connect. At that time that modem will be the only one that I can use until I repeat the proceedure. All of this does work except for the fact that it is a royal pain in the butt.

The real problem is that when trying to use the ATT client, even if I switch profiles to access either modem, it will only try to connect to the last one used.

When paring the modems, the Socket modem is set up as a modem with dial up networking. The Razr is set up as "Dialing through a bluetooth phone". This is correct, and there is no way of changing this anyway since this is the way the drivers are set up.

Is it possible that the Mobile 2003 operating system can only be configured for one bluetooth "modem" at a time?

Any Suggestions?

TIA

Len

[Menneisyys]

Welcome to the board :)

First, there indeed can be only one active Dial-Up Networking (DUN for short) bluetooth service, attached to one of the mobile phones, at a time. For example, in the following screenshot, you see a configuration where there're two paired mobile phones (a t68i and a t610) with their DUN service discovered:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/kuvat/TwoDialupConnectionsDefined.gif.png

(Note that I've also displayed the context menu with Connect - this will be disussed later.)

However, only one of them can be the default a time because if you define a Connection (in Settings/Connections/Connection) that uses the "Bluetooth modem" and try to connect with it, it will always use the one that was last used.

As you've pointed out, this isn't that big a problem because you can always switch between the two connections by just going to the BT Manager, tap-and-holding the icon of the mobile phone you'd like to switch to as the default modem and choose "Connect" as can be seen on the screenshot above.

It's not very hard to switch between the two (or, for that matter, any number of) devices without needing for going to the BT Manager, tap-and-holding the given phone's DUN service icon and choosing Connect. All you have to do is the following:

1, make the DUN of one of the phones active (BT Manager, tap, Connect)
2, with a export/import-capable registry editor (http://pocketpcmag.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16508), go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\Widcomm\ BtConfig\AutoConnect\0011
3, export the contents of this key under a name that reflects the name of the modem
4, do the same (go to bullet one), but with the other modem

Now, every time you want to switch the configuration to using the other modem, just import one of the registry file you've just exported. This can be very quickly done if you, for example, put these two registry files on the Today screen (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=42900) for quick access. You can even use registry toggling-capable applications like nScriptm for this; please read the second installment in my article series here (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=356534) on this. With nScriptm, switching between the two modems becomes even easier.

For help, the registry files should look like this (this one exported from Resco Reg. Editor):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Widcomm\BtConfig\AutoConnect\0011]
"ClassID"=hex:03,11,00,00,00,00,00,10,80,00,00,80,5F,9B,34,FB
"SecurityLevel"=dword:00000000
"SecurityID"=dword:00000003
"UUID"=dword:00001103
"BDName"=hex:54,36,31,30,00
"BDDevClass"=hex:52,02,04
"BDAddress"=hex:00,0F,DE,21,41,88
"ServiceName"=hex:44,69,61,6C,2D,75,70,20,4E,65,74,77,6F,72,6B,69,6E,67,00

Second, the problem of ATT client. Do you say you can't make it switch to the other modem at all after having used with either of them, even if you actually dial in with the "new" modem to the Net?

I think the client stores the physical (!) BT data somewhere (in a registry key, in a file or in a WinCE database) and this is why it's unable to switch, even if the operating system already uses the new modem.

Unfortunately, as I have never played with this client, I can't say anything for sure.

Is the client downloadable from anywhere so that I try to find a "hack" (like the above, as far as DUN modem swapping is concerned) for it myself? If not, have you tried using a Pocket PC mailer that has no restriction/bug like this? (Even the built-in Pocket Inbox is better in this respect.) If you really want to stick to this client, could you e-mail a registry snapshot of its registry entries and/or a file snapshot, after removing all the personal/confidential information?

Feel free to ask further questions :)

[Menneisyys]

Discussion continued at http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=120223