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Posted by n33470 on October 9, 2006, 2:48 pm
Please log in for more thread options Paul,
Thanks that help a lot.
When you said "it won't be installed on all devices", you are talking
about USB Serial, right?
This makes me think that working with RNDIS might be the correct way to
go. Is it possible that RNDIS support may not be installed by the
OEM? If so, does ActiveSync detect that condition and install the
RNDIS drivers on the device? Assuming I'm right so far (big
assumption here), when do the drivers get installed....when the first
sync to that particular device is made?
This is very helpful information!
--steve
Paul G. Tobey [eMVP] wrote:
> Yes, it basically works the way AS3.8 used to work, as I understand it,
> using the USB serial protocol to establish the connection. It's slow, but
> may work around problems that people have with restrictions on what network
> devices they are allowed to connect to their PCs, etc.
>
> No, it *won't* be installed on all devices. That's up to the OEM to decide.
>
> How do I proceed: make the black box run Windows XP, install ActiveSync on
> it, and use WinSock to talk to a corresponding program on the device. This
> is at least theoretically maintainable.
>
> Paul T.
>
> > Paul,
> >
> > To follow-up on your comment about "allows the device to use USB
> > Serial". Does this mean that the device will use Serial CDC and call
> > the "serialusbfn.dll", or are you talking about a different technique?
> >
> > We've been able to prototype the comm between a pocketPC and our custom
> > hardware using Serial CDC. However, we're concerned that the Serial
> > CDC driver "serialusbfn.dll" will not be installed on all devices when
> > the end-user purchases a device.
> >
> > Here's a little more background on the project. We're designing a
> > "black box" that will connect to a WM5 device (either phone or
> > pocketpc) through the USB. We have complete control over every aspect
> > of the hardware and software development of the black box. We are
> > *not* talking about using true USB host capability on either the WM5
> > device, or the black box. Imagine you are the lead developer of the
> > team designing the comm between the WM5 device and the black box...how
> > do you proceed?
> >
> > --steve
> >
> > Paul G. Tobey [eMVP] wrote:
> >> I think it's a solid protocol, although I'm not sure what you're planning
> >> to
> >> do with it. As far as I can tell, *all* AS 4.x-compatible devices must
> >> use
> >> USB to connect and must support RNDIS. However, it's *not* true that
> >> they
> >> have to stay configured that way. Many of the newer devices have an
> >> Advanced Networking checkbox that allows the device to use USB Serial,
> >> not
> >> RNDIS, for communications with the PC. In that case, I'm not sure what
> >> programs on the device see, but it probably still looks like a network
> >> adapter of some sort (it did that in AS3.x).
> >>
> >> If what you're asking is whether you should base your code on network
> >> I/O,
> >> I'd say, yes, although that has little to do with RNDIS, in fact.
> >>
> >> Yes, I think that RNDIS is how the device will appear to the desktop by
> >> default for the foreseeable future, although, again, fallback to serial
> >> will
> >> probably be supported, too.
> >>
> >> Paul T.
> >>
> >> > We're considering building our comm design around RNDIS. We'll be
> >> > using Windows Mobile 5 devices and a custom hardware device that
> >> > communicates over USB to the mobile device.
> >> >
> >> > Is RNDIS a solid protocol to build around?
> >> > Is it possible that RNDIS will not be installed on a device from an
> >> > OEM?
> >> > If it's not installed on the device, does ActiveSync, 4.0 or higher,
> >> > automatically install it on a WM5 device?
> >> > Will RNDIS continue to be the comm protocol used by ActiveSync?
> >> >
> >> > Any gurus out there care to comment.
> >> >
> >> > Thanks!
> >> >
> >> > --steve
> >> >
> >
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