First Look: ActiveSync 4.0

I have been concerned since learning that AS 4.0 will not allow a wifi sybc thru my wifi router into my pc. This is very discouraging as the the USB cradle device is limiting! I have an IPAQ 5555 and have great success with as 3.7.

What recourse do I have if I decide migrate to OS 5.0? Not that I plan to upgrade the OS as yet. HP hasn't noted that the Ipaq 5500 series will get new 5.0 yet.

At this moment in time WiFi sync requires either Microsoft Exchange server or Mobile Information Server.
We are holding out on the hope that the current release - billed as a Developer version - is going to be scaled back and that the consumer release will be a little more robust. We will have to wait for the first WM5.0 devices to arrive before we see the consumer release.

However MSDN documents (see the home page of this site) are not encouraging.

Yet the end user on the home front will not purchase the ms x-chg server or the mobile info server.

I have read all the suggested articles referenced and agree that it appears MS is going a new route leaving out a very large sector of HPC users that don't / won't have wlan sync. That means going back to the clunky USB cradle (wired use) way of sync'g.

Just have to wait and see. I'm staying with my CE 4x and AS 3.7.1!

Are they completely nuts at Microsoft? Throwing out the Ethernet Support in ActiveSync 4.0? This must be a mistake... Please let it be some kind of premature bad decision, that they will correct very soon, because this is complete gibberish.
USB connectivity is soooooo slow (really, I'm not spoilt or anything... just try to debug a program on the PocketPC over USB for example... you will give up after 15 minutes... which is about the time needed to step from one line of source-code to the next. It seems that the development team of ActiveSync is losing it.. they are certainly not getting smarter, rather the opposite. Microsoft has a typical policy to support users long time after buying software and hardware... and now they are doing exactly the opposite. The official reason to throw Ethernet Support out of ActiveSync 4 is 'security issues', so bad luck for us or what? What a joke!!! Very vague reason too, by the way. Is it because of thye inability to make the thing work, maybe? Why not throw away the complete computer, then there's no security issue left at all, problem solved. Instead of making existing options and hardware work better and faster, they simply throw it out when it is too difficult to implement, and then say 'oh, we did it for your security'... yeah right, pull the f%^ng other one! Keep on doing this, Microsoft, and the world will completely switch to Linux and Mac, and sane developers will provide their own solutions... not because we really want to, but because we simply have to.... and all this is just a matter of decisions and effort.... 'security issues'... yeah right.

IT is annoying. The best we can hope is that in the time between the RTM (Developer release) and the RTW (Consumer release) they backtrack.

The cynic would actually not call this one an abandonment of users (though Microsoft is legendary for doing this with Windows CE anyway); the cynic in me would rather see this as an effort to sell MS Exchange Server and related licenses, and force it onto the Enterprise - with Exchange 2003 SP1 you can LAN sync ActiveSync again.

I shant be moving to Linux or MacOS; as they have no sync support what-so-ever.

Linux has no LAN/WiFi sync support, however, sometimes FOSS get's better than the original M$FT products, just by giving it some time (*cough* samba *cough*). Maybe someday SynCe will catch on... for the momento you can only sync via IrDA, Serial, USB, and Bluetooth.

Hope they do, as HPC sync it's the only thing (besides gaming) that's keeping me using windows and (shame to admit ) outlook

Maybe we should raise a petition for M$FT not to abandon LAN Sync??

Sorry for double posting. the stupid WiFi network at my gf's school disconnects me at random. so i thought my message hasn't been already posted. The good side of it is that i'm D/L a file at 135 KB/s

Edited by matrixcore 2005-06-15 2:35 PM

ActiveSync 4.0? I've not done any ActiveSync since ... 4~5 months ago. ... I survive with a weekly backup. Besides, most of my data is on the CF, and CE app install cabs are in the CF too. The only thing is the contacts info, which does not change much anyway!

oh well, no problem for me. Only time I almost needed AS was with CE-Star and TextMaker. I got around the install for CE-Star 2.2 Std by pausing at the final install step, and copying out the temp install files. Then moving them to the CF and copy manually to my HPC. Did the same for TextMaker and both works. But, TM just keep slowing down the whole HPC to a crawl that I had to soft-reset in order to kill it.

I'm back to PocketWord for the time being.

(I am a registered user for both software! )

Oh I hate being the bad guy all the time...

Truth be told, what percentage of ActiveSync users actually sync over the network? And of those, how many would critically need it? You get the point.

As for the security issue... I think I can understand it. Currently the sync does not require any authentication (correct me if I'm wrong). The CE device just asks and your computer says "no problemo!" and syncs with it. And we all know that any 3rd party sync add-on can possibly create arbitrary files... This becomes a pretty big security risk

I agree that taking away the ability to sync over a network is ludicrous! We have WiFI at my hospital - so now anyone who gets a new device will have less functionality than a user with an older device and no way to use the older version of ActiveSync (i.e. WM 5.0 requires ASync 4.0!).

It's obvious to me this was done to FORCE companies into buying Mobile Information Server. Granted, it is a free part of Exchange 2003, but for anyone with Ex 5.5 or 2000 they have to buy an expensive add on or upgrade to 2003...no to mention change how users work now, and eliminating the ability to sync Documents or anything else that isn't supported by MIS (which is restricted to calendar, contacts, email and Tasks in the new version).

And for the user who ask how many realistically sync over WiFI? As from the posts on this thread, enough that it's hardly a non issue, end - even using MS's cococted "Security" premise - enough to warrant this change to "protect" us all. If no one is doing it, then I doubt they'd bother...IMO, it signifies a LOT of people are doing it and MS realized they are passing up some considerable revenue by letting everyone do this for free! How freakin' annoying is that?

My only hope is that they were lazy and left the code in - and that someone will figure out how to re-enable it with a simple reg hack or some such. I'd truly love that. And MS - if it's really security, then come on, what's the password option for then? Anyone worried about security can enable this - and no one can synchronize the device - even if stolen - without knowing this password (and to the peron who asked about it not challenging the synch attempt - the device MUST have a created partnership - created by a direct cabled connection only - in order to sync via any wireless method after that. This combined with the password - which must be entered on the PC/device if enabled (thus Term Services come sin handy for the truly paranoid and mobile) is pretty secure. Perhaps they are instead worried about someone sniffing packets from the sync stream?

Whatever Microsoft. No one is fooled, or amused. Put this essential and powerful tool BACK in, or at the ver least, release it as a PowerToy listing all those security worries that you supposedly removed it for, and make it clear that it is "Unsupported". 'Bout time we got some new PowerToys anyway for the PPC platform - I cant think of any better one than this....

Finally, If it really is that BIG of a risk, then tell us why and how - SURELY the users still on ASyn 3.8 and older devices that plan to stick with them for some time to come DESERVE to know what risk they are taking when synching their data in such a manner. This is only logical MS, so put your "concern" out on the table...

Hmm...I wonder if oany of the 3rd party sync solutions could totally replace ASync instead of ork thru it, and offer this capapbility AND more synching options???

"Thou giveth for free, and when users get dependent on it, thou taketh away - but only if it can then be sold back to them for $$."

sorry but you're wrong.. i don't say you're the bad guy, why would you be?
but i can't really understand why you agree with MS. what good does it do for you?

i need wifi sync (ok, more like file transfer)! it's so much better than using cables.
so it's very annoying... MS taking this option away... oh and it has never been a security risk.. i see others already went into details about that.

well ... I for one do sync over network ... hmmm ... oh, wait a min, I've not done sync for a long time anyway, serial or network! ...

Does WM5 force a user to place a password on the device? Or is it optional?

If no password is required on the device this whole removal of wifi syncing is bogus.
Thanks but no thanks, 3.8 works fine for me and gives me a solid reason not to buy a WM5 device.
Ptooey on you MS.

I'm in the LAN syncer's camp too.
Useful for watching movies instead of copying them to CF.

Hi
Itried out the AS 4.0 beta
and it was kinda good, I liked the new colors, grab time is faster but.............

NO CE 2.0 SUPPORT for my compaq 2010c AND NO LAN SYNC although i have not used it yet but plan to access the net with my h/pc soon