PalmPilot: The Ultimate Guide, Second Edition

Network HotSyncs

This chapter so far has covered HotSyncing to your computer directly, either by physically connecting your PalmPilot (via HotSync) or by directly dialing home.

3Com’s Network HotSync software ($70, or free with recent models such as the Palm IIIx and V) makes several intriguing new approaches possible—for people whose PCs are part of a corporate, TCP/IP-based, local-area or wide-area network, where many computers are hooked together.

Network HotSync offers two new features: LAN/WAN HotSyncing and remote-access HotSyncing. The software kit consists of a new .prc program to install onto your PalmPilot; a new version of the HotSync Manager software; and several DLL files that get installed into Windows.

Warning

Don’t attempt network HotSyncing unless all PalmPilots involved are PalmPilot Professional, or later, models. The desktop computers must be running Windows 95 or NT (4.0 or later), they must have TCP/IP installed, and the server must be running the Pilot/Palm Desktop software, version 2.1 or later. If you hope to dial into the network, the server must have a full-time Internet link, and you must have been assigned a PPP account.

LAN/WAN HotSyncs

Network HotSync lets you HotSync with your computer while seated at any other computer on your company’s (or campus’s) local-area network or wide-area network. That is, you can put your PalmPilot into any HotSync cradle, even if it’s attached to somebody else’s computer. When you press the HotSync button, your PalmPilot ...