How would you like to surf the ‘net at broadband speeds on your Pocket PC through just a small cable attached to your cell phone? Think about the convenience of checking movie listings while on a date without having to buy a newspaper. You might even want to order your tickets online while waiting for your table at the restaurant! I tried doing both from a cell phone browser without much success. It either took far too long for the desired Web page to load, or the pages were not viewable on my cell phone’s limited Web browser. I decided to try it with my Pocket PC and went looking for a cable that would let me connect it to my cell phone. I found one, along with setup instructions, on the Gomadic Web site (http://www.gomadic.com).
Ordering cables
I visited Gomadic’s site and ordered a version of their Wireless Internet Cable that matched my LG5350 cell phone to my HP iPAQ 5555 Pocket PC. It cost me $39.95 and I spent another $9.95 for an Add-on Laptop Adapter cable that let me connect my LG phone to my laptop PC, too. Gomadic not only offers a lifetime warranty on their products, they offer a cable exchange program. If you get a new cell phone or Pocket PC and need a different cable, simply ship back the old one and Gomadic will send you a new one free of charge.
I ordered my cables late Thursday afternoon and the package was sitting on my doorstep when I got home from work Friday afternoon. The Wireless Internet Cable is made up of three components: a cable that connects to your cell phone, a separate cable that connects to your Pocket PC, and the patented “ComQube” adapter that connects the two cables. Instead of creating one cable for each possible Pocket PC/cell phone combination, Gomadic uses the ComQube technology to create an interchangeable cable system. This helps keep costs down and allows Gomadic to offer a wide variety of PDA/phone connectivity solutions.
The Gomadic ComQube adapter connects the two cables.
Configuring the Pocket PC and cell phone connections
Another benefit to using Gomadic solutions versus some of the other cell phone cables on the market is that the Gomadic cables do not require the installation of additional software drivers to work. I tested these cables on an HP iPAQ h5555 Pocket PC running Windows Mobile 2003, an iPAQ h5455 running Pocket PC 2002, a Sony PCG-SRX77P laptop PC running Windows XP Professional, and a Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop running Windows 2000 Professional. The Gomadic solution worked well with all.
You do have to make sure both devices are configured properly. The support FAQ on the Gomadic Web site (http://www.gomadic.com/support.html) gives comprehensive instructions for how to configure Pocket PC 2000, 2002, and Windows Mobile 2003 devices, as well as Palms and Windows-based laptop PCs.
Configuring a Pocket PC
To configure a connection on a Windows Mobile 2003 Pocket PC, follow these steps:
- To begin configuring your Pocket PC, go to Start > Settings > Connections > Connections.
- Tap the “Add a new modem connection” link under My ISP (Fig.1).
Fig. 1: Click “Add a new modem connection from the Start > Settings > Connections > Connections screen.
- When the Make New Connection screen comes up, name the connection you are creating (I left it as the default “My Connection”), and be sure to select “Hayes Compatible on COM1” from the modem drop-down list (Fig. 2). Then tap Next.
Fig. 2: Under “My Connection,” make sure that “Hayes Compatible on COM1” is the selected modem.
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