Wireless Internet Access For Your PC with PdaNet and Your Treo 600
Software Reviews
By: pdaBlast! Staff
November 01, 2005 | |
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Most road warriors have had the experience of sitting on an airplane waiting to push back from the gate only to realize they forgot to send an important email. I've had that experience many times. There have been several occassions when my flight was delayed but we were not allowed to get off the plane. I've always wanted to use the wait time to do some work, but my work usually requires me to get online. I had considered purchasing one of Sprint's aircards, but that would require purchasing a separate monthly plan for the card which would increase my monthly Sprint PCS bill by a whopping $79.95.
I recently came across a program called PDANetfor the Treo 600 that solved my problem. PDANet, by June Fabrics, is a piece of software that turns your Treo 600 into a modem allowing instant wirless Internet access. You simply connect your Treo 600 to your laptop with a USB cable, and you can get online with PDANet and your Treo 600. No matter where you are, if you have phone service you can get online. Originally written to work with the Treo 270 and 300 series devices, PDANet now works with the Treo 600. I used PDANet with my Treo 600 running on the Sprint PCS network.
In order to use PDANet you must have a USB cable to connect your Treo 600 to your laptop. I used a cable I found from a company named JavoEdge. I like JavoEdge's cables because they are small and retractable. It is easy to toss the cable in my travel bag because of its size. The best part is it does not get tangled because it is retractable.
Setup of the PDANet software could not be easier. In fact, I think it is the easiest installation of a piece of software I've ever experienced. I simply downloaded the program from the pdaBlast! Software Store, double clicked the icon on my desktop, followed the installation instructions and I was up and running. I did not have to change a single setting. Using the default settings I was given, PDANet worked the first time and has worked every time since then.
During the installation process PDANet puts a desktop application on your laptop that runs in the background. When you are ready to get online you simply run the PDANet application on your Treo. Because the desktop version of PDANet is already running on your laptop, the two applications talk to each other making it possible for your Treo to act as your modem.
I found the connection speed to be quite acceptable. After reading a few FAQs on the PDANet web site I was worried that I would only get a dialup connection speed, but I was surprised to get a little more. In my experience PDANet allows connections that are a little faster than a normal dialup connection which is perfectly acceptable for sending email. Browsing the web was slow, but acceptable. I was able to load up My Yahoo page without much trouble at all.
After playing with PDANet for a few days I wondered if it would be possible to make it work via the IR port. Using the IR port would allow me to get rid of my sync cable altogether. Although it is possible to implement that feature into PDANet the folks at June Fabrics decided against it. Here is a clip from their web site explaining their decision.
"The latest version of PdaNet does not support IR (Infrared), but it is not difficult for us to add the support in a future upgrade. We are just not sure if IR will really be useful due to the following reasons:
- IR is slow compared with USB. From our users testing result PdaNet could run two times faster on USB than on IR. Most IR port on Laptops today support Fast Infrared (FIR) that has a 4 Mbps speed, unfortunately the IR port of Treo only support Serial Infrared (SIR) that runs not much faster than a 56K modem.
- Infrared consumes battery much faster than USB (to send light signal over the air), this is very bad for PDAs.
- Although Infrared could save you the wire when connecting, but having to put the PDA and laptop strictly together side by side on the same surface could be very awkward. Plus, we figure a USB cable is not difficult to carry around for most people. And you can even do charging at the same time if you own a charge USB cable.
- Every machine has USB port. Most desktops don't have IR port. "
One suggestion I would make for the folks at PDANet is to make it possible to change settings on the Treo as well as on the desktop. In its current version it is not possible to enter registration info on the Treo 600. It's easy to enter it on the desktop version of PDANet, but it would be helpful to allow the changing of settings on the Treo since it doesn't require any boot time.
Overall I am very pleased with PDANet and I recommend it to anyone who does not want to pay a separate fee for an aircard. The connection speed is acceptable and the setup is extremely simple. For this reason I am giving PDANet the pdaBlast! Top Pick Award.
PDANet sells for $34.95 and can be purchased from the pdaBlast! Software Store. Check it out. You won't be sorry!
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