Wednesday, August 21, 2002
Random XDA musings, part 4
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 11:15 AM
Now that I have a wireless device, the possibilities suddenly become vast - until I run into the limitations of software designed for a disconnected paradigm. #1 on my hit list is ActiveSync. For the past two years, my fellow MVPs and I have been begging, pleading, and practically whining to the ActiveSync team at Microsoft to give us ActiveSync that listens on an IP and a port instead of a USB or serial connection. Nothing yet, but hope springs eternal right?
Think about it like this: broadband connections are flourishing (not as fast as some had hoped, but they're becoming very common), and even in the case of "non-static IPs" like my cable modem provider, an IP address remains the same for quite some time (I've had the same IP for eight months). There are also dynamic DNS services that will give you a domain address and client software to keep the IP up to date. Bottom line: today, your PC connected to the Internet can be found and accessed easily.
Now what if ActiveSync listed on a specific port? Any requests coming into that port and IP address would require authentication (perhaps checked against known partnerships), and if they pass security checks, a remote ActiveSync would occur. Any new email, new appointments, or new contacts from your desktop PC or Pocket PC would be synched to both devices. You'd always be up to date! If your Pocket PC suffered a hard reset on the road, perhaps there would be a way to initiate a new partnership to get your data back onto your device.
I know that you can do some of the same things with RAS and an Exchange server running MIS, but I'm talking about a relatively simple tweak to ActiveSync that would open up a lot of possibilities to those of us who don't have Exchange servers in our office. Microsoft is so focused on the Enterprise audience that they get a little myopic when it comes to creating solutions that work outside the Enterprise.
Perhaps this is also an opportunity for a clever developer to create an application that would act as an intermediary and trick ActiveSync into thinking that the remote Pocket PC was really local?
Think about it like this: broadband connections are flourishing (not as fast as some had hoped, but they're becoming very common), and even in the case of "non-static IPs" like my cable modem provider, an IP address remains the same for quite some time (I've had the same IP for eight months). There are also dynamic DNS services that will give you a domain address and client software to keep the IP up to date. Bottom line: today, your PC connected to the Internet can be found and accessed easily.
Now what if ActiveSync listed on a specific port? Any requests coming into that port and IP address would require authentication (perhaps checked against known partnerships), and if they pass security checks, a remote ActiveSync would occur. Any new email, new appointments, or new contacts from your desktop PC or Pocket PC would be synched to both devices. You'd always be up to date! If your Pocket PC suffered a hard reset on the road, perhaps there would be a way to initiate a new partnership to get your data back onto your device.
I know that you can do some of the same things with RAS and an Exchange server running MIS, but I'm talking about a relatively simple tweak to ActiveSync that would open up a lot of possibilities to those of us who don't have Exchange servers in our office. Microsoft is so focused on the Enterprise audience that they get a little myopic when it comes to creating solutions that work outside the Enterprise.
Perhaps this is also an opportunity for a clever developer to create an application that would act as an intermediary and trick ActiveSync into thinking that the remote Pocket PC was really local?
