I just found your site today, and I've been looking through it for advice on connecting my Pocket PC to the internet. It looks like you have some good articles on sharing internet access with bluetooth enabled devices, but unfortunately, your solutions did not work for me. I was never able to successfully configure sharing on my LAN card (An error occured when Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) was being enabled).

I found an alternate method that might intertest you, and it does not involve spending $$ on additional software. Hopefully this is not a topic that's already been run into the ground.

***

For the record, I have the HP iPAQ 2200 series, with built-in Bluetooth. I am running Windows 2000 on my laptop, and am using an AmbiCom USB Bluetooth adapter Model BT2000C-USB. This solution is adapted from the LAN access solution found in the AmbiCom users manual (www.ambicom.com), and further details can be found there if anyone wants to write an article/dig deeper.

Put simply, this method involves creating an incoming LAN commection on the laptop that uses the local LAN access COM port supplied by the Bluetooth device. I'll list the steps I took(for my HW/SW combo), which may or may not be optimal, but are effective :)

1) Create a new modem. From the Phone and Modems Option located on the control panel, select the modems tab and click on Add. Don't detect the modem, select it from a list. Making sure that you have selected (Standard Modem Types), choose "Communications cable between two computers:" for the Model, and click next. Select the port that allows LAN access for your bluetooth device (you can find this in the device manager under the ports tree entry). Click next, and finish.

2) Go to the Network and Dialup connections window and Make a new connection. Choose the Connect directly to another computer option and click on next. Choose your role - in this case, since the laptop is supplying network access, choose "Host". On the Connection Device window, choose the same COM port you chose to create the modem. Pick a user, click next, and then finish.

3) On the iPAQ, open the Bluetooth Manager. Select "New" and "Connect!". Click on Connect to the Internet, and follow the wizard to choose the PC you just configured. Sign in if necessary, and voila! You can access the internet.

Some notes for follow-up: I created the direct connect modem because I was attempting to follow the AmbiCom instructions (which focuses on connecting a PC to a Bluetooth gateway for PC internet/LAN access, not the Pocket PC access I was trying for), but I'm not sure if it's a necessary step or not. Also, I'm not sure if this method creates any security holes or not, so caveat geek.

Hopefully someone will find this helpful. Also thanks to the AmbiCom pdf for giving me 99.9% of this approach.

Mike