Preparing the Network Card and Terminal Server Client - Page 2

Installing Network Card Drivers

Unfortunately, the network support built in to the Jornada 680 is limited to a few select PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) network cards. Therefore, you'll have to install drivers for your wireless network card. I recommend using the 3Com Air Connect network cards. These cards fit into a standard PCMCIA socket and provide a wireless 11 Mbps connection to your network. More importantly, unlike many other brands, these cards include Windows CE drivers on the CD that comes with the card. You can see an example of the card in Figure 2. In the figure, the black portion of the card is the card's antenna.

Figure 2: The 3Com Air Connect network card provides a Windows CE-compatible 11 Mbps wireless network link.

To install the network card's drivers, connect your handheld PC to your desktop PC and insert the CD that came with the network card into your CD-ROM drive. When the CD initializes, you'll see a menu containing several options. One of those options pertains to installing Windows CE drivers. When you select this option, the Setup program will install several files to your hard drive before using the existing serial communications link to copy the files to the handheld PC. This process can take some time to complete because serial links are so slow. It's important to point out that for this process to work correctly, the network card shouldn't be in the handheld PC yet, and the communications link between the two devices must be active before you insert the CD.

Once you've installed the network card's drivers, you'll be prompted for the Wireless LAN Service area. This setting is a number that you would have configured your wireless hub and all wireless network cards to share. The default setting is 101.

Downloading the Terminal Server Client

While your handheld PC is still connected to your desktop PC, you must download and install the terminal server client. You can download the client at the following URL: www.microsoft.com/mobile/downloads/default.asp.

Simply download the terminal server client to your desktop PC. Once the download is complete, use your desktop PC to run the file you've just downloaded. When you do, the Setup program will install the terminal server client onto your handheld PC.

CrossLinks

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Conclusion

Now that the necessary components are in place, it's time to begin configuring them. I'll explain the configuration process in Part 4 ( Configuring the Terminal Server Client ). //

Brien M. Posey is an MCSE who works as a freelance writer. His past experience includes working as the director of information systems for a national chain of health care facilities and as a network engineer for the Department of Defense. Because of the extremely high volume of e-mail that Brien receives, it's impossible for him to respond to every message, although he does read them all.