The internet?

[Optronic]

Hello, this is my first post here so I aplogise if I have made any mistakes.

I am the owner of an HP Jornada 545, which has done me well over the years and still does so. However, one thing I would truly love is to be able to get on the internet with it on the go.

What I was hoping, is for some way to be able to link a mobile phone or something similar (I'm open to ideas) with it and then be able to use the internet from it. Ideally, I'd also like to be able to use whatever method with my laptop as well.

Is there any way that this could be achieved? (If it makes any difference, I'm in the UK - and open to purchasing a mobile phone, I've never had one before, hence why I'm unsure as to what potential this could/would open)

Thankyou very much in advance, I hope someone can help. I'd ideally prefer not to have to purchase a brand new pocket PC if possible. If it could get on the internet, I would be infinitely pleased.

Thanks,

Optronic.

[Damion Chaplin]

Hey Optronic and welcome!

You cheapest option would be a Compact Flash WiFi card. It wouldn't give you internet access everywhere you are, but in a good many areas (depending on where you are) like Starbucks.

Your other, more expensive, option is to get a CF bluetooth card and a cell phone with bluetooth. Sign up for your carrier's unlimited data access, pair your phone with your Jornada and you'll have internet access anywhere you've got a cell signal. If possible, get a phone that can connect at higher speeds than GPRS (like EDGE UMTS etc.) - that will provide a more enjoyable mobile online experience.

Hope that helps!

:Damion

[Optronic]

Thanks for the kind reply and the welcome :)

This certainly sounds like good news and just what I was looking for! Can I actually use a WIFI and/or Bluetooth CF card with my Jornada 545, however? Will it work with them or would there be anything special I'd need to do? I have a WIFI network at home, so WIFI would be great - but the bluetooth option would be useful too, seeing as WIFI in the UK isn't particularly widespread, particularly in outer areas.

If I could get a WIFI and/or bluetooth card and get it to work with my Jornada, that'd be perfect - my searches for such a solution in regards to the Jornada 54* series however turned up rather lacking :(

Thanks :)

[Damion Chaplin]

Yes, theoretically you should be able to use either a WiFi card or a bluetooth card in your Jornada. You *might* encounter a problem finding a card that works with your older SH3 processor, but the cards we're talking about *should* be backwards-compatible. Take a look at the back of the package and it should tell you which PPCs they work for. And buy it from a brick-and-mortar store so you can easily return it if it doesn't work.

[Optronic]

Thanks again for the reply,

Do you know whether the PocketPC OS 2000 even supports such things - that was my main concern (as it was, afterall, before they brought in bluetooth and wifi and such). Obviously if the OS didn't support it, I'd stand no chance :(

I'll have to do some searching and hope I find something - thanks for a good starting point and a new hope that I may be able to find something :)

[Damion Chaplin]

That's a good point that I hadn't thought of. I guess it has been a long time since I used PPC2000.

So here's what it comes down to: Yes, PPC2000 will support WiFi. Don't know about BT. The catch is that for PPC2000, you will need a driver for the card. The bad news is the old PPC2000 drivers probably won't work with modern CF WiFi cards. You'll have to find an older CF WiFi card (released about the end of PPC2000's life) and the drivers to accompany it. The card you could probably find pretty easily on eBay. The drivers may take some digging on the manufacturer's web site to find. Or you can try a Google search for the driver - someone has probably posted it.

[Optronic]

Thanks again :)

From my searching so far, it seems that WIFI is a lot more possible, or at least more conceivable than Bluetooth seems to be. Therefore, I had an idea - if I were to purchase a WIFI-enabled mobile phone, would it be possible to then get the Pocket PC to connect to the phone via WIFI and thus use the internet on it? Therefore bypassing the bluetooth problem?

Just a thought, and having little knowledge in the area, I had hoped someone more-in-the-know might have an idea

[Damion Chaplin]

Nope, sorry. Two different beasts. Put simply, Bluetooth is for direct device-to-device communication and WiFi is for device-to-server connection (via router, modem etc.). Device-to-device over Wifi is possible only with the router.

More info on WiFi here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wifi
More info on Bluetooth here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth
Be sure to check out the links referring to WLAN and PAN. :)

[Optronic]

Thanks again for the reply and putting up with my questions again,

The main reason I asked was because during my search, it seemed that it was possible in some cases for ad-hoc WIFI (device to device without a router) was possible, and thus I was wondering whether a phone and a pocket PC could act in a similar way.

My lack of knowledge about WIFI on both pocket PCs and mobile phones however hindered what I could find about this in relation to these devices, however and searches on the matter seemed to come up with fairly inconclusive results, however suggesting that both pocket PCs and mobile phones could function in ad-hoc modes under some circumstances, although of which I am unsure. I'll keep looking

Once again, thanks again! It seems the idea is a bit fuzzy or more difficult than I first thought, but I still have hopes that it'll be possible

[Nurhisham Hussein]

You can use ad-hoc connections with Pocket PCs, though I'm not sure if it's possible to dial a number across to a wifi enabled phone.

[Cybrid]

Thanks again for the reply and putting up with my questions again,

The main reason I asked was because during my search, it seemed that it was possible in some cases for ad-hoc WIFI (device to device without a router) was possible, and thus I was wondering whether a phone and a pocket PC could act in a similar way.

My lack of knowledge about WIFI on both pocket PCs and mobile phones however hindered what I could find about this in relation to these devices, however and searches on the matter seemed to come up with fairly inconclusive results, however suggesting that both pocket PCs and mobile phones could function in ad-hoc modes under some circumstances, although of which I am unsure. I'll keep looking

Once again, thanks again! It seems the idea is a bit fuzzy or more difficult than I first thought, but I still have hopes that it'll be possible

For the sake of simplicity? Buy a new device. See about a deal on a new/ish PPC phone.

For the older Jornada SH3, much like my Casio MIPS devices, it is going to be extremely difficult to find and buy WiFi and BT cards, then a compatible BT dialup capable phone. Plus I doubt...cost effective.

How about a simple no fuss/ old school cable solution? Jornada to Phone
www.gomadic.com

and perhaps a wifi card when available?

[GrumpyGrizzly]

While I haven't seen one in a while, there IS a cell phone modem that the 54x's sit in to use cellular services. I'm not sure whether they were analog or digital because it's fairly old technology with the way cellaphones have been improving. I've seen them on E-Bay. I don't know if they'll work on the 56x series or not. If I find one cheap enough, I may have to try it on one of my 568's.