PDA, WiFi, Bluetooth and Coffee Shops

pie691

Hi

Im about to buy a PDA, I have a preference for a pocket pc on account of wanting to use GPS more easily. I also want to pick up my POP3 emails from Eclipse "on the fly."

Couple of questions though please board:

1) If I get something like the expensive compaq with WiFi functionality built in where and how do I use it? I know airports/Starbucks and places have enabled it but do I need special passwords to access it, will they charge me, and how secure is it for downloading mail? In fact will I be able to access my Eclipse mail at all this way?

2) If I choose to interface with my Orange phone, not currently Bluetooth but about to upgrade, am I right in thinking I need their GPRS package to pick up mail on a pocket pc using Bluetooth? Again they dont seem to support Eclipse on this, I imagine I can set up a free Freeserve etc account with them who they do support and use this to pick up POP3 from Eclipse cant I?

Thanks a bunch in advance.

Im not massively techie.

Dave

1) I've never done WiFi on the Pocket PC, but usually you have to type in a WEP key if they are using encryption, or an SSID field, most places like StarBucks I would preusme would give you this info, or there are ways for scanning for it.

2) You don't need GPRS, but it depends what speed you want. When I'm staying in hotels I tend to use an old Nokia 7110 with InfraRed and connect this way to pick up POP3 email. If you don't go for a GPRS package then you are limited to 9600 baud, eg 9k as opposed to 56k desktop modems. I think some GPRS will go up to around 40k depending on the mobile network. The best solution would be a Bluetooth mobile, bluetooth in an iPAQ like 3870 or 3970. If you spend a lot of time in WiFi connected areas that are accessible for free or at a small fee, eg coffee+£1 for surfing an hour or something, then I'd go for the 5450. If not, the 3870 or 3970 would suffice.

GPS wise, if you're after street routing there's a whole host of systems that would work, it really depends on what maps you like the look of out of TomTom Navigator, Navman SmartST Pro, TravRoute CoPilot or PowerLOC Destinator, and also from a hardware perspective whether you want GPS tied to the car, or to be able to go out walking with GPS.

pie691

Dave

Thanks very much for the info.

I'm impressed with the site you have running here.

May I just ask a little more of you

?

If I do find a coffee shop or airport etc that will let me access its wireless net, then do I pay them a quid for a specific amount of data (eg a Meg/Gig or whatever) which they meter or does it work on a time allocation? I'd just be curious to know.

Im attracted to the WiFi with something extravagant like the 5450 but I'm not sure how much use it would be outside my house.

Cheers - and one other question, where can I find a site with forums such as this but geared to pocket pc's rather than GPS?

I have tried but I can only really find ones tied to retailers.

p

MikeB

I have a 5450 with built in WiFi. What will happen is that as you go from accesspoint to accesspoint you will need a userid and password. This is how they make it pay.

I havent currently used the Starbucks or Airport systems yet, but have found that it is easy to use on unencrypted networks, or networks using WEP security.

On these networks most will have a gateway to the internet. You dont need to worry about this as it automatically configures for it. This will allow you to do almost anything on the network, and certainly pick up your emails.

If you use GSM or GPRS then again you have similar features, with lack of speed. This works by giving you a wireless gateway connection to the internet through your phone. Again you should be able to access POP3 mail using this. I do using a 5450 and a Nokia 6310i over the O2 network.

In response to your query re the ammount of data, I dont think that this is restricted, it is just a limit on the time.

You will also be surprised how much you can use it even about the home. I have a cheap Netgear Wireless access point and can surf the web and browse the home network from my next door neighbors house. You will also find it much faster and easier to synch using WiFi.
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Mike Barrett

Dave

Tariffs really do depend on the company providing the network. Some may give it away free, some might be giving it away free and not know they're doing it, others may charge.

For forums like this but mainly for Pocket PC check out Pocket PC Thoughts.

alanparrott

I use an old iPAQ 3960 with a Bluetooth CF card and an Ericsson T39m on Orange GPRS and it was fairly easy to set up with Orange website instructions. I also have a USB Blutooth on my IBM Notebook and that also works fine with ActiveSync, you can easily surf thru it. The only thing I have not managed is web access without Activesync by bridging my WIFI card on my notebook through to my main desktop with BTOpenworld Braodband.

Sorry but have not heard of Eclipse.

LocktightT · Regular Visitor Joined: 26/12/2002 20:35:10 Posts: 118

Hi

I have a 5450 and a wireless network at home, it wors great even out in the garden!

I recently visited the US and subscribed to the T Mobile Hotspot service so that I could pick up email whilst away (And look at his site in case I ran into trouble with Mapopolis!).

It was free to join and the cost in the US was I think 10c (6p) a minute, there was a minimum connection charge of $6 (£3.75) so you would need to use it for a while to get your mony's worth.

I subscribed to a Pay as you go package which is why there was a minimum connection charge, as things expand over here I for one might consider going onto a monthly plan or a data useage plan in order to keep the cost down. BT have some news here that gives a brief look at what they a re planning for the UK, who knows, maybe one day they will have a wifi spot in every telephone box?

As Mike said above, there are many many people (large companies too) that leave their wifi network open and unprotected, I recently visited a large college in Nottingham (on business) I was about to connect to my GPRS connection to check email when I noticed that I had left on my wifi connection, it was connected at 85% and the router/serve had assinged me an IP address, I used their network to get my email.

If anyone has information of locations that are coming online I would be interested to see them.

Regards.

Locktight

LocktightT · Regular Visitor Joined: 26/12/2002 20:35:10 Posts: 118

HI all

It appears that TMobile are moving things forward, there are now around 50 locations in the UK (mainly in Starbucks) that are enabled for wifi connections, have a look at the T-Mobilesite to see if there is one in your area.

Locktight

LocktightT · Regular Visitor Joined: 26/12/2002 20:35:10 Posts: 118

Hi all

I visited a starbucks in Nottingham on Sunday, only to find that my pay as you go subscription that I set up for the USA does not work in the UK, you have to reregister in the UK to be able to use it there, just like everything else in this overpriced country its £5 for an hour rather than the £3.60 in the USA.

I must say though that by driving around its suprising how many WIFI networks are left open to pop on and get your emial for free!

Locktight

DavidW

I was at London Gateway services yesterday where there is now a BT Openzone hot spot.

I got out my 3970 and inserted my Wireless LAN card, then tried to browse to a web page. My browser was intercepted and sent to the home page of the hot spot, as I expected it would be.

Charges were £6 per hour, or £15 for 24 hours. At that price, they can keep it! Considering that my Vodafone GPRS tariff would allow me to download 2.5MBytes for that price, I'm not likely to pay that much to use the hot spot. I'd struggle to download 2.5MBytes in an hour on my iPAQ!

There was an article recently (on BBC News Online, I think) about the next dot bomb probably being the public Wi-Fi companies. I suspect they are right, as quite apart from the charging, the range is not great and Wi-Fi chipsets are, relatively speaking, power hogs and not well suited to heavy use whilst on battery.

David

gracar

I agree that it's expensive but if you want to use BT Openzone on a regular basis (assuming you can find enough hot spots is what that really means) then you can take out a subscription which will reduce the cost. There's a website that details the costs -http://www.bt.com/openzone/buying.htm

The BBC article was right in that all these systems will disappear if the usage volume does not grow, and it will only grow with sensible pricing. I was recently in the US and used my mobile & PDA to access my e-mail for 10 minutes - never again it was mega expensive and all for what should have been a local call.

It's great to have the technology but the incentive to use it is not there. Why, for example can't we have unmetered GPRS access instead of the silly Mb costs?

GPS thankfully is free!

_________________
Graham

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