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.

robo45h, thanks - you are right, it seems like it is actually a lot easier than it sounded. The bit about a USB hotsync working from the cradle while a network hotsync works from the i500 is great (since it sounds like once you set it up you won't have to reconfigure again in between!). I'll try it. I'm lucky in that my office PC has a static IP; I just have to hope that the right ports are open. If this works, then my last needs to be connected on the go are answered! Like SpineDoc said before, I don't know why Sprint doesn't make a big deal out of advertising this feature!

P.S. By the way, can you enable separate conduits for USB vs network hotsyncs? - it might be faster to keep the network sync limited just to basics...

I am still pulling out my hair over this wireless hotsync. For some odd reason, if I use a dial-up connection and enter the current "temporary" IP address, it works everytime. But if I do the exact same thing with my regular DSL connection, it doesn't work. If I go through no-ip.com and use a DNS name, I still don't have any luck. I have repeatedly gone over the instructions in other posts but to no avail. What could I be doing wrong? I think I've tried most everything.

Sandman, with the recent upsurge in worms, some DSL providers have now blocked ports used for network file sharing - I wonder if that could be it? Anyone more knowledgeable have more info or a better suggestion?

Do you have a home router (DLink, Linksys)? Are you running any personal firewall software (ZoneAlarm, Sygate Personal Firewall, Microsoft Windows XP Internet Firewall option turned on, etc.)?

Any of these could be blocking the required ports.

I'm running Windows 2000 and have a firewall too. But if I "exit" from the firewall and the icon by the clock disappears, would the firewall still be a problem? With or without the firewall activated, I still can't do a wireless hotsync. Thanks!!

In theory, if the firewall has really exited, that should not be the problem. Unless you're just exiting the "SystrayGUI". You could try setting the firewall softwre to "allow all traffic" (most have this feature). But I suspect the problem is elsewhere. Perhaps your ISP is filtering some ports, though I would have thought that unlikely.

Since I've been a big cheerleader for the network sync option, I decided to take the opportunity to highlight something that's already been mentioned, but bears repeating.

AFAIK, Palm does not encrypt your data during a network HotSync. Thus, all your personal Palm data travels back and forth to your PC unencrypted. If your Palm and computer are on your local area network at home, that's fine. If your Palm and computer are on a LAN at work, that's slightly less fine. If your computer is on one network, and your Palm is on another contacting it across the Internet, that's not so fine.

Now, what's happening is that your personal data is flying across the Vision network and then the Internet and then your local LAN unencrypted. You may or may not care about that. Someone would have to be monitoring the traffic to find that. So it would either be: someone (employee, contractor, hacker) on the Vision network, someone randomly on the Internet, or someone on "your" network (such as your corporate security types).

Now that PalmOne is a separate software company, we'll see if they address this. Even if they do, it probably won't help us Samsuing SPH-i500 users. They'll probably only support it on OS 5.x and later which has OS-supplied SSL technology. Careful, PalmOne: if you do what's easy, things like Micro$oft or OpenSource Linux will eat your lunch.

So, we'll just wait and see of Palm ever fixes this and encrypts Network Sync traffic, and fixes the DNS name overwrite error. And does it on OS 4.1.

If I really had to bet money, I'd say the future looks like this:
PalmOne Product Marketing is too disconnected from what users want, does not fix either of these, and eventually, say 5 years from now, I'll be running something other than Palm. Hopefully Linux/Java on my phone, with a well supported PDA set of apps and commuinty of third party apps. And they'll be using Linux or Java APIs that I can already program to without learning a new environment! But I fear that 5 years is too soon for that unless Motorola really does something -- but their product marketing types seem more hopelessly lost than Palm's. There's the challenge for Palm and Moto: keep me from ending up on a M$ phone in 5 years.

Most of my really personal info such as passwords, credit card numbers and bank account info is in a couple of password protected apps. How vulnerable, if at all, is this data during a wireless hotsync?

If the data's not encrypted, it can be easily stolen.

Several things to take into account:

• If the application does not encrypt the data, but just prevents access without entering a password, then the data is going to traverse the Internet in plain text. I would hope that a password storage app would encrypt it's data.
• It's unlikely someone could directly "target" you easily to find your data. I.e., they specifically wanted your data, they'd have to be able to monitor specifically your traffic. This would mean having access to the Vision network or to your personal LAN in order to monitor for your IP address (either the phone address or the PC address). They could also be at most "1 or 2 networks" away, such at the connection between Vision and the Internet, or between your LAN and the Internet (such as at the ISP where your company's firewall connects, etc.). But see "Your Neighbors" below.
• However, a malicious Sprint employee or contractor with a monitor on the Vision network, or a malicious Internet backbone contractor (say at MCI/Uunet or Sprint or ATT or BBN or AlterNet, etc.) with a monitor, or a malicious employee or contractor at your ISP might randomly capture and find your data. Perhaps by logging lots of traffic and searching for some keywords. Perhaps even searching for strings that indicate a Network HotSync if they're that sophisticated and think there are enough people doing it (the last two don't seem likely).
• Your neighbors -- if you use a "shared media" ISP such as Cablemodem. This is the worst case -- but it doesn't apply to DSL. With cablemodems, everyone in your neighborhood is sharing the media, just like non-switched ethernet in the office or on your home LAN. So they could specifically target you by monitoring your IP address and traffic. And they can do so from the comfort of their living room. Sattelite "dish" ISPs are similar. Also, i fyou use wireless on your Home LAN, especially if you don't even have the weak WEP security enabled. But if this is the case, then you have bigger problems than Network HotSync.