| 1) Wi Fi (also Wireless LAN, WLAN): The Wi Fi (shortened from Wireless Fidelity) is a technology which permits communication between devices like between your laptop and the home wireless router or in the case of PDA between your device and the hospital hotspot or the ISP hotspot when your are outdoor. It is safe, cheap (usually free) and also fast. Most of modern hospitals provide free access to the internet to wireless enabled devices and laptops so this is the preferred method to access the internet when you are at work (but sometimes you need to get the password from your hospital IT people). You don't need to worry about the different versions like 802.11a or 802.11b they all serve the same purpose. WiFi connections get blurred by obstacles such as walls or other devices and typically in the range of 100 meters so make sure to know where is the closest antenna to the pediatric section! The screenshots on the right demonstrates the steps that you take right after tapping on WLAN in the communication manager + 2 screenshots of the connections setting where you can find all available hotspots. Because wifi hotspots are now everywhere make sure to use the free service like the name of your hospital's network. |
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| On the right side is the control panel for all connections what's called the communications manager which can be accessed from the pop up box that appears when the connection signal icon in the upper tool bar is tapped. Note that this connection manager is not available in devices older than WM5. From up to down these buttons are: 1- Flight Mode: tapping on this will simply switch off all connections and making you ready to flight (I prefer to switch this on while in lectures!) 2- Phone: to switch your phone off/on (please remember that powering off your Windows Mobile device does not switch off your phone signal) 3- Bluetooth: you can switch it on when you need to receive a file from your pediatric colleague or when you want to connect to another device such as a head set or the laptop. 4- WLAN: see below 5- Push email: this is a technology that let us receive emails just like the way we receive SMS, it needs a subscription to Microsoft servers usually provided by the hospital 6- Data: see below 7- Ringer: self explanatory 8- Internet sharing: when your device is connected it can serve as a modem for your laptop! 9- ActiveSync: opens up the ActiveSync manager to synchronize your device to your desktop |
| 3) Through the desktop: When your Windows Mobile is synchronized and connected to your PC (via cable, infrared, or Blue Tooth) and when your PC is connected to the internet then consequently your PDA is connected to the internet. This access is absolutely free (except for the fact that your paying for your desktop access) and is the highest in terms of speed. Nevertheless, such a connection may not be so useful because when your desktop is there it is unlikely that you need your PDA to access the internet. However, there are certain situations when it could be useful for example when you want to download big files such as MP3 podcasts to your PDA for later listening. In such case it's better to use your desktop as a platform to connect your Windows Mobile device saving the wireless or GPRS bills. In case you synchronize your device to a computer that is connected to a network such the hospital network then in that case a window will appear (See screenshot on the right) asking you to input the username and password which you should get from your hospital's IT people and in most cases you can leave the domain field blank unless otherwise specified by the tech support, please do not save the password because you never know your device might be lost tomorrow! |
| 2) Mobile Data Service (GPRS): This is a connection between your mobile GSM SIM card and your mobile service provider allowing internet connection. So in this case you are using your mobile connection and not your wireless connection therefore you can access the internet (provided that your phone signal is good) even when you are in the sea! Unfortunately this is usually expensive and often is charged per kilobyte downloaded so you could end up paying several bucks when log on to a medical website. The speed of connection is much improved with new technologies such as the HSDPA and UMTS what's called the 3.5G i.e the new generation of high speed access to mobile phones. The screenshots on the right demonstrates how to get connected and this usually done automatically by the device when connection is needed such as here when I wanted to log on to Yahoo! Go service. The device detected the 3G network and connected automatically. By default, GPRS connection is disabled when WLAN is active which is good because Wifi is always cheaper and faster. That's why you should always look for WLAN before the device takes you the more expensive GPRS connection. If you want to know how to set up your GPRS connection watch this video tutorial |
| Getting your PDA device connected to the internet is one of the essential skills that a pediatrician may need to utilize his/her device to the maximum potential. In this guide we attempt to give a simplified overview of connection types for a better grasp of the idea. The official Windows Mobile website provides an excellent help page about all the details of Windows Mobile connections, however that could be too lengthy for a busy pediatrician and could be confusing and therefore this guide serves to simplify matters and to get you introduced to the task of getting your device online. |
| There are three means by which you can get your PDA connected to the Internet |
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