3G on Jornada 728?

After getting a WiFI card for my HPC, I still can't get online - which I understand, the device doesn't support WPA2. Still would like to get online though, and for a while I've been thinking of mobile Internet card for it, a GPRS or 3G one. After doing a bit of looking around I see the GPRS networks are (apparently) being taken down now most people are on 3G/4G, and I've found a 3G card (Merlin U530 on my carrier) that looks like it might do the job.

So... does anyone have experience of this? Any ideas if it might work, if I might need to try and locate drivers for it or whatever? Not only that, but would it be a silly thing to do anyway, or a valid alternative to setting up an unsecured WiFi network in my house?

I never tried cellular on a Jornada.

But anyways depending what you want to do online, it might be silly like you suggested. If you wanted the surf the web, maybe a very small percentage of it works. Hack even a modern smartphone struggles on any commercial site nowadays if it has less than a GB of RAM.

I would suggest setting up a separate WiFi router or access point. You can still get WEP or WPA1 working on a Jornada, so it doesn't have to be unsecured.

I was thinking of email and maybe one or two small chat applets* actually. Maybe FTP, see if I can set up a server on another box at home so I can keep backups of work (I'm a writer). I wouldn't dream of trying to surf on the thing.

*I've heard about IRC clients on Windows CE, and I've heard tell of MSN Messenger clients too. MSN would be cool, especially if they can be patched to use the Escargot server at some point.

I can get my jornada 728 on line via two ways--an ad hoc connection w/ wifi card in 728 and ad hoc capabilities in my Nokia E7, using wep security.

The other way, less portable, but it does work in the house is ethernet card in 728, running cable into ethernet port of wifi extender which plugs into any outlet. Portable, as long as you're near outlet.

Jake

The important part is that it is PCMCIA and not Cardbus, and that is has Windows CE drivers. Recalling from when I did this years ago, some of the Sierra Aircards will work and also the Sony Ericsson cards (GC??). I personally used a Sierra Wireless Aircard 750 and Sony Ericsson GC83, but those are GPRS/EDGE. Try looking for later models in those series.

At various times, I also tried tethering to a cell phone via both infrared and Socket Bluetooth CF card. Access via wifi hotspot could also be a reasonable option these days.

I used nPopUk for email and Quackenchat (IRC client) to connect to IRC as well as to a Bitlbee server (IRC gateway) for MSN, AIM, etc.

Happy hunting!

Look for other posts in this forum. It is possible to get the 3g Sierra Air card working on the Jornada with some tricks and the help of redgear . But it is very instable.

Edited by rgisondi 2017-10-29 8:53 AM

Isn't portable WiFi Hotspot set to WEP and connecting it from Jornada 720 not enough?
If you can set the maximum connection of the WEP portable WiFi hotspot to 1, it might be suffice.
I know of the security issues that come with WEP, but hey there must be a bunch of security holes anyway on the Windows CE...

Just my thoughts...

Edited by stingraze 2017-11-02 12:16 AM

I use a WEP secondary WiFi network at home, an old Apple Airport Express (v2, I think) with an Ethernet cable linking it to the cable modem. I can turn the WEP network on or off via the electrical outlet the Express is plugged into. My J720 connects to the WEP via an Aironet 350 WiFi PCMCIA card. If you find one of these Airport Expresses, do not update the firmware when prompted as it will lose the WEP option.

An infrared connection to an old GPRS mobile phone might work. I had this working with a Nokia 8210 and a Psion 5 about 6 years ago but, yeah, GPRS seems to be fading out in the UK (if it is the only signal available on an iPhone, I can’t get email).

Do any of those MiFi style hotspot devices still do WEP?

What will work for file transfers is a WiFi enabled SD card. I use a Toshiba FlashAir 16MB card inside a SD-to-CF adapter. The card creates its own WPA2 WiFi network that your phone logs onto. An iPhone app lets you copy any file type stored on the card over to the phone where you can then email it somewhere, upload to Dropbox etc. Not sure about Android but you can also access files on the card via any web browser by logging onto to the card’s WiFi network. No need for any drivers or software installation on the handheld PC!

PS - sadly, it does not work in my Psion5 (not enough voltage to the CF slot maybe)

Edited by nicmalone 2017-11-02 8:52 AM

I had never heard of wifi-enabled sd cards. That is fascinating. Too bad I'm still using Symbian Belle...

Well, next phone,
Jake

Hi Jake - yes a WiFi-enabled SD storage card puts a new spin on our old devices. There are several brands out there but I’ve heard some only work in cameras for photos (and only on certain cameras). The Toshiba FlashAir is the only one I have tried.

Toshiba FlashAir can run Lua (programming language).

There's quite a lot of YouTube video in Japanese.
Perhaps you'd like to visit it here: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=flashAir+Lua

Note that I've never tried FlashAir myself, but it would seem very neat to be able to use it on H/PC!

My phone can't do that, I have to set a key. I've thought about getting setting up a secondary router with WEP though.

You might not need a second router. My NetGear router has something called a "guest network" which allows it to run a WEP hotspot at the same time as the normal WPA2 one. It works fine to get old devices connected.

Did you ever get it wokrking? Might pick one of those cards up