.KEYWORD network
.FLYINGHEAD NETWORKING STEP-BY-STEP
.TITLE How to use Ethernet with Windows CE
.FEATURE
.SUMMARY Have you ever thought of using your Windows CE device as an FTP server? How about as a news reader? Have you gone truly geeky and dreamt of turning your handheld computer into a terminal on a UNIX box? Craig Peacock has. In fact, Craig has used his Windows CE device in lots of new and exciting ways now that he’s connected via Ethernet. In this important and timely article, Craig give you step-by-step instructions on how you too can connect your Windows CE device to an Ethernet network. If you want to learn how to pump data at nearly 200 times the speed of a 56K modem (not to mention all the other cool uses of Ethernet), you should read this article right now.
.AUTHOR Craig Peacock
With the introduction of Windows CE Handheld PC Professional Edition, network card support is a standard feature. The things you can do with an Ethernet connection to your H/PC device are quite amazing — and not just if you’re a techie! It’s possible to connect to shared volumes on desktop Windows machines, exchange files, print to network printers access the Internet and much more.
.H1 Windows CE Ethernet options
I’m using a Socket Communications LPE (Low Power) Ethernet card in my Windows CE device and it works just great, In fact, in my Sharp Mobilon 5000 machine I’ve got over five hours connected to the LAN on batteries, no low battery sign in sight. Be careful: if you already have a PCMCIA network card, it may draw a great deal more power than the Socket Communications unit or another card designed specifically for use with a Windows CE device.
For a list of Windows CE-friendly Ethernet cards, check out fellow Windows CE Enthusiast, Chris De Herrera’s web site (at http://www.cewindows.net) for his Ethernet FAQ. It’s got the names and models of cards that work and in which machines. Some familiar vendors’ products work great in some Windows CE devices but not in others.
With the prices of hubs and network cards at an all time low, a lot of people I know are putting networks in at home. As compared to a serial connection from your desktop PC to your Windows CE device (with a maximum speed of 115k), a 10MB/sec Ethernet network connection is very fast.
When you first get connected to your desktop, try installing a new piece of software to your Windows CE device. Because of the high transfer speed, installation of new software is so fast you have to check to make sure it’s actually been installed! A backup of a nearly full 16MB Windows CE device takes about one and a half minutes over Ethernet.
Connecting to Ethernet via a cable isn’t your only option. Companies such as Proxim produce wireless LAN (Local Area Network) products that allow your Windows CE device to participate on the network wirelessly. Microsoft has included these drivers in the H/PC Pro operating system as well. Other cards should have Windows CE drivers available.
Microsoft has made the steps required to get up and running on a LAN quite simple. They’ve also included some nice subtle touches as well. For instance, when you’re connected and want to synchronize with your desktop machine, Windows CE only gives you names of machines you’ve previously synchronized with over a serial cable. This is great, because you don’t want to have to scroll through long lists of networked machine names to find yours.
.H1 Setting up a connection
Here’s how to setup a connection. Before you begin you’ll need to be armed with the following information:
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET Whether or not you use a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server on your network;
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET The IP Address of a WINS or DNS server on your network;
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET Your login name and password if you are going to access any Windows NT servers;
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET And, most importantly, do you have a good connection to your network? (For example, if your card is a 10MB/sec Ethernet card, it won’t work if you plug it into a 100MB/sec port).
.END_LIST
Your first step will be to go to your Windows CE Control Panel and access the Network applet. Select Network Configuration and choose the correct driver, as shown in Figure A.
.FIGPAIR A Choose your network adapter and driver from the Network Control Panel.
.H1 Understanding IP addresses
If you have a DHCP Server on your LAN it means you won’t have to come up with a valid fixed network address for your device; the DHCP server looks after all that. If you don’t have a DHCP server, ask your network administrator to assign you a valid, fixed IP address.
If you’re not sure what an IP address is, think of it this way. Each computer on the Internet has a specific, numerical address (kind of like each phone has a phone number). When you connect to the network, your computer needs to have that address assigned. Sometimes, like if you dial into an ISP, your IP address is assigned dynamically and remains assigned to your computer just long enough for that session on the net. Other times, in particular if you’re part of a corporate network, an IP address is permanently assigned to your machine. This is called a fixed IP address. For the purposes of this article, you’ll need a fixed IP address from your network administrator.
When you assign a fixed IP address, as shown in Figure B, you’ll also need a few other pieces of information from your network administrator. You’ll need the Subnet Mask (this tells your network how much of the IP address sequence is controlled by your router) and the Gateway address (this is the address of your router itself).
.FIGPAIR B Don’t forget to get all the important IP configuration information before trying to set up your connection.
.H1 A quick tour of DNS and WINS
While IP addresses are critical to the infrastructure of the network, we as humans tend to use real names. For example, we think of Microsoft as microsoft.com and Windows CE Power as windowscepower.com. The translation between the text string "windowscepower.com" and the numerical IP address is done by two types of servers: a DNS (Domain Name Server) and a WINS (Windows Internet Name System) server.
A DNS is typically used to map Internet names to IP addresses across the Internet. A WINS server is typically used to map internal Windows NT server names and volumes to a physical IP address.
The WINS server is at work when you type in \\servername to connect to a shared device or NT server. Your machine needs to know how to find \\servername and the WINS server tells your machine the network address of it. DNS works in a very similar way. Again if you have DHCP this is taken care of. DHCP works by dynamically assigning the IP addresses throughout the internal network. It’s pretty cool, but requires additional server-side configuration.
.H1 Hooking up and logging on
Your login name and password will be required to actually let you browse network resources and some IT departments don’t let you log in more than once.
With my Socket LPE card I didn’t need to install any new drivers. I just plugged it in and up popped a dialog box on the screen asking how I’d like to configure the card. I had to enter my IP address manually (my home network doesn’t have a WINS server) and then I tapped on the Identification tab, and entered my username, password, and domain name to get connected.
If connecting at home (and assuming you don’t have an NT server at home), you can fool Windows CE into believing you have a WINS server. Just enter the IP address of the Ethernet card in your desktop PC as the WINS server, as shown in Figure C. It’s not really a WINS server, but now you can connect and synchronize with your desktop PC.
.FIGPAIR C Spoof your Windows CE device into believing you have a real WINS server.
.H1 Get ready to sync
When you go to synchronize with your device over the Ethernet, first disconnect the serial cable if connected. Then tap the Start menu, select communications, and select ActiveSync, as shown in Figure D.
.FIGPAIR D Look for ActiveSync in your Windows CE Communication menu.
The network option and the name of the desktop machine you last synchronized with should be shown in the ActiveSync dialog box, as shown in Figure E. Select Connect and you’re ready to get started.
.FIGPAIR E Tell ActiveSync you’ve got a network connection.
Now when you connect you can synchronize data, install files and backup just as if you were connected over a serial link.
.H1 Fun with Ethernet
Here are a few of weird and wonderful things you can do when connected over Ethernet with a Windows CE device. During my "day job", I provide IT support for a bank, so please excuse some of the more obscure applications mentioned below.
You can access Unix servers and run applications on them using Telnet, as shown in Figure F.
.FIGPAIR F Telnet into your favorite UNIX machine from your handheld.
At one point, I was able to use my CE machine to act as a TFTP server to perform upgrades to hubs and routers, as shown in Figure G. I also used it as an FTP client to download files and Update our Web site.
.FIGPAIR G It’s kind of cool when your handheld can be an FTP server.
You can access the corporate Intranet and browse the Web. Be forewarned: If you’re in a corporate environment, you may need to get your Windows CE device’s IP address into the firewall access list;
You can also access newsgroups on your Windows CE device. Figure H shows BSQUARE bMOBILE News being used to access the Microsoft public Windows CE newsgroup from a handheld.
.FIGPAIR H You can download your favorite newsgroups to your Windows CE device.
Once you’re on the network, printing is fun and easy, as shown in Figure I. You can easily print documents to network printers anywhere in your organization.
.FIGPAIR I You have your choice of network printers when you print across your company’s Ethernet network.
Here are some other ways you can use your Ethernet connection:
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET Access shared drives on the company network to copy files to my device;
.BULLET Access email servers;
.BULLET You and your colleagues can access SQL servers and perform queries of corporate databases;
.BULLET Backup your device!
.END_LIST
Having an Ethernet card in your device makes synchronization and others tasks quicker. As the number of tasks you perform with a Windows CE device increases, so does your productivity.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
The Socket Communications LPE Ethernet card is available from http://www.socketcom.com.
You can get wireless LAN products from Proxim at http://www.proxim.com.
You can get the Ruksun TFTP server (and other fine Windows CE products) from http://www.ruksun.com.
bMOBILE News is available from http://www.bsquare.com.
Chris De Herrera’s Ethernet FAQ is at http://www.cewindows.net.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO Craig Peacock is a freelance writer who is based in London. Craig has just completed writing his first book, Windows CE Made Simple, which is due to be published later this year by Butterworth Heinemann (at http://www.bh.com). He has been using Windows CE since November 1997. You can visit Craig’s Web sites at http://www.craigtech.co.uk and http://www.palmpc.org.uk are.
