Well, it sounds more complicated than it is, in many respects. Let me address your two main points. First, "switching settings" -- I was worred about this to, reading this thread, until I tried it myself. It turns out that once you set all the "network sync" settings, they do not affect your cradle USB settings at all! They are separate settings. One of the bits of magic is that if you press the button on the cradle it uses the "USB / cradle" settings. If you are not near the cradle, you select the HotSync icon on the Palm, and it will remember that last time you did this, you were in the Network Sync mode -- so when the HotSync application is displayed, you just press the big HotSync icon on the screen. It's so huge you can even just push it with your finger.

OK, your second issue was with "being at home to reconfigure." You don't have to do this unless you're dealing with DHCP addresses on either the Internet or on your home network. You can fix the home network side. So the only problem then is if your ISP uses dynamic addresses (most do these days). In that case, you use my workaround in this thread: you use a Dynamic DNS service like no-ip.org. Unfortunately, due to a bug / design flaw in the Palm HotSync software, you're going to have to re-enter your DNS name in the "PC Name" field and erase the IP address each time you HotSync. But if you pick a short DNS name, that will make things a bit easier. Since you do this from the Palm, there's no reason to have to touch the PC at home.

So there... not perfect, and yes there's some technology to understand, but when you are "actually using it" it's pretty easy.

While you're at it, I'd request that you go over to the PalmOne website and register a bug / enhancment request against Network HotSync complaining that it doesn't support use of DNS names because it overwrites your configuration settings with mistaken crap it yanks from the desktop during the sync.