Wednesday, March 31, 2004
A Little Too Much Wireless For My Own Good?
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 11:02 AM
Now that I have an SPV E200, I'm interested in using it as a Bluetooth modem for my iPAQ 4350. I'm in the process of getting that set up (and once again cursing screwy Bluetooth implementations), but I've noticed one thing: the Pocket PC operating system doesn't seem to deal very well with multiple types of connections.
For instance, when I was only using WiFi on my iPAQ 4150, everything worked perfectly. Wireless = WiFi, so I'd turn it on, it would connect, and I'd be able to use Pocket Inbox and Pocket Internet Explorer to get down to business. After I did my first attempt at configuring Bluetooth, all of a sudden I had a "broken" device. I turned on the WiFi radio, and waited for it to connect...and waited...and waited. I went into Connection Manager and it showed the access point as available, but it wouldn't automatically connect to WiFi. Under the Network Management tab, programs that require Internet access were set to use Bluetooth settings. This apparently overrides everything else.
Am I missing something here? Is there no hierarchical method of dealing with connectivity? Why isn't the Pocket PC smart enough to detect that the Bluetooth radio isn't turned on, but the WiFi one is, and it should use that instead? Better yet, why isn't it smart enough to try multiple methods of connecting based on user preference: i.e., I'd prefer to connect via WiFi when possible, but if that's not possible, use GPRS on my phone over Bluetooth. I can't say that I'm surprised this is so broken though - the Pocket PC has never seemed to be designed with future connectivity scenarios in mind. Microsoft seems to fix most things after the fact. :? If I'm wrong about how this works though, and the Pocket PC can do what I want, I'm happy to eat my words. :D
With wireless devices coming this year that have GPRS, WiFi, and Bluetooth in one package, this will be a nightmare unless Microsoft has made this process easier in Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition. How do the rest of you deal with this?
For instance, when I was only using WiFi on my iPAQ 4150, everything worked perfectly. Wireless = WiFi, so I'd turn it on, it would connect, and I'd be able to use Pocket Inbox and Pocket Internet Explorer to get down to business. After I did my first attempt at configuring Bluetooth, all of a sudden I had a "broken" device. I turned on the WiFi radio, and waited for it to connect...and waited...and waited. I went into Connection Manager and it showed the access point as available, but it wouldn't automatically connect to WiFi. Under the Network Management tab, programs that require Internet access were set to use Bluetooth settings. This apparently overrides everything else.
Am I missing something here? Is there no hierarchical method of dealing with connectivity? Why isn't the Pocket PC smart enough to detect that the Bluetooth radio isn't turned on, but the WiFi one is, and it should use that instead? Better yet, why isn't it smart enough to try multiple methods of connecting based on user preference: i.e., I'd prefer to connect via WiFi when possible, but if that's not possible, use GPRS on my phone over Bluetooth. I can't say that I'm surprised this is so broken though - the Pocket PC has never seemed to be designed with future connectivity scenarios in mind. Microsoft seems to fix most things after the fact. :? If I'm wrong about how this works though, and the Pocket PC can do what I want, I'm happy to eat my words. :D
With wireless devices coming this year that have GPRS, WiFi, and Bluetooth in one package, this will be a nightmare unless Microsoft has made this process easier in Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition. How do the rest of you deal with this?
