Personal Technology

Palm and wireless - II

In the second part of the series on Palm and wireless, Ashish Gupta offers a guide to wireless Internet connectivity on your Palm handheld

Now that you’ve understood the different ways in which you can go wireless with your Palm handheld computer, I’ll give you a guide to connect to the Internet wirelessly.

First, we have to decide the method we’re going to use to connect. There are many options. We’ll begin with the most accessible and cheapest option.

What you need: A Palm handheld computer and a cellular phone.

The cellular phone must have an Infrared port and an in-built modem, e.g. Nokia 6210. The Palm will connect via Infrared to your cellular phone. Your cellular phone will then dial-up to your ISP and you will be connected to the Internet. In order for your phone to make a data call to your ISP you need the data line service enabled from your cellular service provider. Orange in Mumbai, for instance, offers the data line service at Rs 300 a month, with an airtime of Rs 8 per minute. They take about 3-7 days to activate your data line. Check with your local cellular service provider for details.

Once you have the data line service enabled, you need to get a dial-up Internet account from your local ISP. The regular dial-up account, e.g. VSNL, will work on your Palm handheld computer.

You need to enable some settings on your Palm handheld computer before beginning. Go to System / Prefs / Network and enter your ISP details and Phone number. In the Modem settings, select IR Connect. Next, enable the Infrared port on your cellular phone from the phone’s menu. Now line up your cellular phone’s Infrared port with your Palm handheld computer’s Infrared port. Remember that Infrared is a line of sight communication method. Click Connect on your Palm handheld computer from the System / Prefs/ Network menu. Your Palm will now attempt to dial out to your ISP through your cellular phone. If you’re using VSNL in Bombay, the number you want to dial would be 022172226. Replace 022 with your city code as necessary. Once the handshake is complete, you are connected to the Internet, wirelessly, through your Palm handheld computer and cellular phone. You may now browse the Internet, chat over MSN, Yahoo or ICQ (Yes, Palm OS versions of these messengers do exist), check or send e-mail, access your company’s LAN wirelessly, update databases from anywhere, and basically do anything that you would do with a PC. You can even wirelessly HotSync your Palm handheld computer with your office PC without being anywhere near the office.

Some excellent Internet software for the Palm OS includes Eudora Internet Suite for browsing and e-mail, AvantGo for browsing, downloading e-newspapers, etc, and ICQ for messaging.

Other ways to connect to the Internet wirelessly using your Palm handheld computer include Bluetooth enabling your Palm handheld computer and connecting via a Bluetooth enabled cellular phone. Here you will have to additionally configure your Bluetooth settings both on your Palm as well as on your cellular phone. Additionally, you can use the company’s Wireless LAN to connect to the Internet through the company’s high speed Internet connection. Again, Wireless LAN settings will have to be configured both on the Palm handheld computer and on the wireless routers or wireless access points.

WiFi—802.11b

802.11b wireless is also known as Wireless Fidelity or WiFi and is the standard for Wireless Ethernet. It works using Radio Frequency over the 2.4 GHz band and can transmit data up to 11 Mbps using direct sequence spread spectrum modulation. Today, all organisations, whether small or big, rely heavily on electronic communication and data transfer. However, until recently, LANs were limited to the physical, hard-wired infrastructure of the office building. With Wireless LANs, many network users, especially mobile users in businesses, the medical profession, factories, and universities, to name a few, benefit tremendously from the added capabilities. Wireless LANs offer all the benefits of wired LANs, without the high costs of wiring entire buildings. Wireless LANs can have a range of up to 500 metres, further extendable using boosters. It is also possible to break away from physical boundaries by integrating different wireless technologies to gain wireless access to the company LAN from anywhere—in the car, in the train, in another city or across the globe. Physical boundaries are evaporated by the wireless versatility of Palm handheld computers. Mobile Wireless LAN users can access information and network resources as they attend meetings, collaborate with other users, or move between corporate offices. But the benefits of Wireless LANs extend beyond user mobility and productivity to enable portable LANs. With Wireless LANs, the network itself is movable.

A Palm handheld computer can be WiFi-enabled by adding a WiFi card. The incredible Tungsten C is Palm’s first device with in-built WiFi.

Although this article is intended to be a guide to enable you to understand wireless technologies using a Palm handheld computer in both personal and business environments, detailed configurations, settings, and security precautions are beyond the scope of this article, simply because of the endless combinations and specific settings required for these combinations. However, if you’re trying out any of the methods explained above, or are interested in trying out any of the technologies explained here, feel free to
e-mail the author.

Ashish Gupta is the founder and president of The Indian Palm User Group. He can be reached at ash@notcomguys.com or http://palm.notcomguys.com