Corridor 9

Whew…. after a lot of headaches and suffering, I finally got Dial-Up networking to work correctly with my Palm Treo 650 and Dell Inspiron 8500. This may not mean much to some of you, but it is a big milestone for me. With this working, I can connect to the internet anywhere inside a Sprint service area, for FREE! This means if I go on vacation and forget to get detailed directions, or even worse forget to pay a bill, all I have to do is get out my trusty Palm, my faithful laptop, and connect.

Some of you browsing around may be wondering how I did this. The trick is all in the “pairing” of the Palm with the Dell. If things aren’t done just right, it won’t work correctly.

Please note: I am using a Dell Truemobile 300 internal Bluetooth card, so directions may be different with an external USB Bluetooth adapter.

Here are the steps I found that work best.

1. Make sure both the laptop and the Treo are Discoverable.
2. Set DUN on the Treo to OFF.
3. Click the Setup Devices button on the Treo.
4. Then Click Trusted Devices on the Treo.
5. DELETE your trusted device. This is necessary so the devices can be paired correctly.
6. Add your trusted device again. Make sure you don’t try to hotsync or transfer files now as this will mess up the pairing.
7. Click Done{s} on your Treo.
8. Now set DUN on the Treo to ON.
9. Click OK.
10. Input Password or press Dial.

This is how the pairing works every time. For some reason, the DUN works without having to pair this way sometimes. However, as soon as it is used once you must repair the device with the laptop. Check your Bluetooth documentation on how to setup DUN on your laptop. For me it was as simple as right-clicking the bluetooth icon in the systray, choosing advanced configuration, clicking on the “client applications”, and double clicking the Dial-Up networking Application Name. In addition, you will probably have to pair the Treo and the Laptop again to get Hotsync working.

Also, I suggest you save these directions as a Memo on your Treo. It really bites when you’re out somewhere and you have to troubleshoot the connection again simply cause you forgot how it was done.

After a bunch of phone calls, and numerous discussions with people who had no clue what they were talking about, I finally received my Palm Treo 650 Monday afternoon. I called UPS to Monday morning to verify that it was on the delivery truck and was informed that the delivery guy probably wouldn’t leave it sitting on my doorstep due to the high cost of the item. Knowing this, and willing to suffer the wrath of my wife, I asked her to sacrifice her lunch break to go home and check for me.

Sure enough, it was sitting there. The UPS man left it right on my doorstep. The irony of it was that he tried to cover a shoebox size package with a little doormat. Seems to me that this would just alert thieves that someone is trying to conceal something valuable. Kristie said she saw it while she was driving up and just laughed.

Anyway, she was so kind and understanding when I asked her to bring it to the fire station so I could program it that night instead of having to wait till the next day. Thank you SO MUCH DEAR!

Yea… maybe a month or so down the line!

My phone broke Tuesday. I have the insurance, so I called the company, Lockline, to get another phone. I was told that the phone I have isn’t made anymore and that they would have to give me a different phone. That was ok with me since the other phone is a newer model. Then they notified me that the phone wasn’t in stock that they would have to order it. This would take 7 - 10 business days. This is completely unacceptable as my cell phone is the only phone I have.

So, I call Sprint who calls Lockline back. They notify me that the phone order has been filled and that I should receive a phone within 2 days. Being the skeptic that I am, I call Lockline later to confirm this, and am informed that the information is correct, but they don’t have a tracking number for me.

I call Friday to receive a tracking number and am told that they still don’t have one, but the phone has shipped for sure and that I should receive it later Friday. I wait home ALL DAY for the UPS man to show, but for some strange reason he doesn’t show.

So, I call Lockline yet again this morning and am told that I should receive it today, but they still can’t provide me with a tracking number. Now I’m hot! I call UPS to verify this information and am told that the order wouldn’t even ship without a tracking number cause it is on the shipping label that Lockline puts on the box. Now if Lockline doesn’t have a tracking number for me, it becomes evident that this is because they haven’t put the label on the box yet. Once again, I call Lockline, this time speaking to a supervisor.

The kicker…. The supervisor doesn’t have a tracking number because the package hasn’t shipped yet. In addition, apparently the phone is still on order. They have NO IDEA when it will ship. This is COMPLETELY unacceptable!