WiFi disabled when PDA is connected to PC?

[David Hearn]

I'm trying to develop a WM5 PDA application (using .NET CF2 and
OpenNETCF 2.1) which makes use of WiFi, however I've noticed that a lot
of the time, when the PDA is cradled and connected to the PC (Vista
using WMDC) the WiFi gets disabled. I fetch the list of current network
adaptors and I only get "USB Cable:" as the name. When I undock the PDA
I then get "SWLD23N1", which is a WiFi adaptor.

Sometimes this doesn't happen, occasionally I can cradle the PDA and
still get the WiFi adaptor - but the usual thing is that once cradled
the WiFi gets disabled. This happens both on a HP iPAW hx2490b running
WM5 and a MDA Vario (HTC Wizard) running WM6.

The particular problem is that I'm unable to use the Visual Studio 2005
debugger to investigate any problems when I'm using the WiFi as I need
to be docked to debug, but docking pulls down the WiFi connection.

Any advice?

Thanks

David

 

[ink]

Hi dave
Debugging on CE5.0 device without Activesync
This information ONLY applies to the Visual Studio 2005.

Without the help of ActiveSync, VS 2005 does not automatically copy the
connectivity binaries down to the device and hence debugging becomes
problematic.

In order to use debugger on Windows CE 5.0 devices without active sync, you
need to:

Step 1:
Manually copy the following files down to the device.

Clientshutdown.exe

ConmanClient2.exe

CMaccept.exe

eDbgTL.dll

TcpConnectionA.dll

Files are located in the "C: \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft
Shared\CoreCon\1.0\Target\wce400\<CPU>" (I used arm4i), to a folder on the
device, I sugest createing a new folder in "\windows\VS2005_Debug".

Step 2:
Set the correct IP address in Visual Studio 2005.

Open VS 2005

Tools >> Options >> Device Tools >> Devices

Choose Windows CE 5.0 device, click on "properties".

On the "Windows CE 5.0 device properties" dialog, click on "Configure".

On the "Configure TCP/IP" Transport dialog, choose "Use Specific IP Address"
and type in the IP address of your Windows CE 5.0 device.

Click OK.

Step 3:
Manually launch the conmanclient2.exe

Browse to the conmanclient2.exe on the device and run it. You may also use
the command prompt if you have one.

Step 4:
Enable the connection by running cMaccept.exe

Browse to the cMaccept.exe on the device and run it. You may also use the
command prompt if you have one.

Connect to the device (i.e. start debugging you application) within 3
minutes after you run cMaccept.exe. (The 3 minutes window is for the first
connection. As long as you establish the first connection within 3 minutes,
the following deployment/debugging sessions using the same VS instance is
not limited by this 3 minutes window)

You need to perform Step 4 again when you try to connect from another
instance of VS2005. (You can skip this step if the security is already
disabled on the CE device by setting "HKLM\CoreConOverrideSecurity = 1". But
disabling security may expose your device to malicious attack)


Hope this helps.


ink

 

[Paul G. Tobey [eMVP]]

Yep, ActiveSync turns off other network connections, I think, to avoid
accidentally bridging from your local computer which trusts the ActiveSync
connection, to, say, the Starbucks across the street. Supposedly, WM6 has
a registry entry that you can set that will tell AS to allow the other
network connection to persist, but WM5 should always be dropping it.

As ink indicated, debug over the network, not via ActiveSync, to debug
programs that are doing something with WiFi directly.

Paul T.

 

[David Hearn]

Thanks for the advice - I'll give that a go.

D

 

[David Hearn]

Yep, ActiveSync turns off other network connections, I think, to avoid
accidentally bridging from your local computer which trusts the ActiveSync
connection, to, say, the Starbucks across the street. Supposedly, WM6 has
a registry entry that you can set that will tell AS to allow the other
network connection to persist, but WM5 should always be dropping it.

As ink indicated, debug over the network, not via ActiveSync, to debug
programs that are doing something with WiFi directly.

Paul T.

Ahh, that explains why then. Hadn't considered that. I'll give ink's
advice a go.

D