Using the Microsoft Network with a Windows CE H/PC

On a Desktop or an H/PC, Windows CE support is available.

By Todd Ogasawara
Forum Manager
Microsoft Network Windows CE Forum

I have the great pleasure of being the founding forum manager of the Windows CE Forum on the Microsoft Network. The Microsoft Network (MSN) provides content (e.g., the various computing support areas like the Windows CE Forum) as well as Internet access. The forum consists of a set of web pages, an on-line chat room, news groups, and a file library. You can use Microsoft Chat (free) or some other IRC (Internet Relay Chat) client to participate in the real-time online chats. You need to use Microsoft’s newsreader (also free) to read the various newsgroups. The forum is a virtual gathering place for Windows CE enthusiasts and developers to come together.

The Windows CE Forum can be accessed at: 
http://msncomput ing.msn.com/forums/windowsce/. However, that URL will change a few months after the launch. When the final URL home for the forum is established you will be redirected to the new page when you access the old URL.

Table 1 below lists the newsgroups available to Windows CE users and developers on the MSN Windows CE Forum, along with a brief description of each newsgroup.

Accessing the Microsoft Network from the Handheld PC

Of course, you can access the Microsoft Network via your desktop PC, visit newsgroups, post and receive messages, and download shareware and freeware. Indeed, that may be a more convenient way to do it when you have access to a desktop PC. But one of the major reasons for the development of Windows CE was to give handheld PC users that capability. The rest of this article explains how to use your Windows CE 1.0 Handheld PC (H/PC) to connect to, and access the features of MSN. Table 2 below briefly summarizes the steps involved:

Table 1: Newsgroups available to Windows CE users and developers on the MSN Windows CE Forum

Connecting to MSN

The first step is connecting to your ISP (Internet Service Provider). You can find a description of this process on page 59 of the Fall 1997 issue of Handheld PC Magazine. I used MSN as my ISP (Internet Service Provider) by establishing a PPP (Point to Point Protocol) session as you would with any other ISP. The instructions below are for that approach and the one possible difference is the way the User name/Login-name is designated. My username, for example, is Todd_MSN. The name I specify in the Username box is MSN/ Todd_MSN. Notice the “MSN/” prefix to my username. This is needed because MSN uses a wholesale Internet access provider (UUNET) that provides access for many ISPs. The “MSN/” prefix identifies you to the network and lets you login to MSN from any MSN/UUNET node around the world. There are no additional access charges when you “roam.”

After connecting to a phone line, I tapped on Start, Programs, Communication, Remote Networking, and New Connection. I configured the New Connection as follows:

1. I specified a Dial-Up Connection-“Connect to MSN.”
2. I selected my modem.
3. I entered my entire telephone number.
4. I set the following preferences in Configure: Baud rate: 115200; Data Bits: 8; Parity: None; Stop Bits: 1; Flow Control: Hardware.
5. I set TCP/IP Settings as follows: Check Server-assigned IP address; Check Log on to network; Check Use software compression; Check Use IP header compression; Check Server-assigned name server addresses.
6. I created a desktop shortcut of the “Connect to MSN” dialup connection.
7. I used “MSN/Todd_MSN” as my user name.

Table 2: Steps involved in connecting to and accessing the MSN.

Web Browsing

Pocket Internet Explorer is a subset of Internet Explorer. It has a similar interface as IE, it functions the same and has many, but not all, of the features of Internet Explorer. The version available for Windows CE 1.0 is more like Internet Explorer 2.0 than the current Internet Explorer 4.0. Pocket Explorer for Windows CE 1.0 lacks support for frames, styles sheets, JavaScript, Visual Basic Script, Java, and ActiveX. It is still a serviceable web browser for many of the sites I visit for news and other information. I have not found its lack of modern features to be a severe problem. Unfortunately, Pocket Internet Explorer for Windows CE 1.0 cannot access web pages behind the Microsoft Network subscription wall. This is because the browser does not support MSN’s secure authentication protocol. Pocket Internet Explorer for Windows CE 2.0 will remove many of these limitations.

E-mail

The Windows CE 1.0 e-mail client Inbox supports the POP3 and SMTP e-mail standards. POP3 is an acronym for Post Office Protocol 3. It is mail server protocol that holds e-mail until a POP3-compatible mail client asks for the messages and attachments to be downloaded. SMTP is an acronym for Simple Mail Transport Protocol. It is a protocol that defines the message format and the message transfer agent (MTA), that stores and forwards e-mail.

The new MSN e-mail servers are POP3/SMTP compliant and found at: pop3.email.msn.com and smtp. email.msn.com. These are the addresses that are entered in the Windows CE Inbox/Properties text box entries. Pop3.email.msn.com is entered in the “Required Mail Host” text box and smtp.email.msn.com is entered in the “Optional Host for sending messages if different from the Mail Host” text box.

You can send e-mail via MSN’s SMTP server. However, you cannot receive mail via the POP3 server because the Windows CE mail client does not support MSN’s secure authentication protocol. I have heard rumors that the Windows CE 2.0 e-mail client may support secure authentication.

There is an indirect-workaround that may be helpful to those of you who receive a great deal of e-mail correspondence. You can receive your e-mail via a Windows 95 PC. Then you can synchronize your Inbox with your Windows CE Inbox. You can take your Windows CE H/PC offline at that point and respond to each message at your leisure (in a train, plane, sitting outside, etc.). Then, you can send your e-mail via MSN since SMTP for sending e-mail is accessible.

Newsreading

Windows CE does not provide a NNTP newsreader client. However, anyone who reads or contributes regularly to USENET-style newsgroups will definitely want to look at the bSQUARE Mobile News client. BSQUARE purchased the code from AdageUS. You may have seen an earlier version named mobileNews. The client works remarkably well. I found it quite comfortable to read news on the public msnews.microsoft.com public news server. Unfortunately, I could not read news on the MSN msnnews.msn.com news server that uses MSN’s secure authentication protocol.

Chat

Windows CE does not provide a chat client either. However, bSQUARE’s Mobile IRC fills that void admirably. Unfortunately, as we learned in the paragraphs above, the MSN secure authentication protocol does not allow us to participate in chats behind the MSN subscription wall.

File Library Access

The current MSN file libraries are in a non-web format. By the time you read this, the libraries should be accessible via the web. I assume file access will be via ftp (file transfer protocol). However, at this time, this feature could not be tested.
Windows CE 2.0 and MSN 2.5

This set of hints and tips for using your Windows CE H/PC with the Microsoft Network was written before the availability of Windows CE 2.0 systems and the official launch of MSN 2.5. Reports from various news sources indicate that Windows CE 2.0 adds many features that will make it more useful for web and e-mail access. There are also reports that speculate that the Microsoft Network will move some of its areas out of the subscription area. This would effectively remove the access problems caused by the lack of secure authentication support in Windows CE 1.0.

Todd Ogasawara currently lives in Hawaii where he is a senior engineer at one of the largest telephone companies in the U.S. during the day. He has worked as a contractor to the Microsoft Network since May 1995. He is the Forum Manager for the MSN Telephony Forum as well as the new MSN Windows CE Forum. His interest in handheld PCs started when he first bought a Sharp PC-1500 calculator over a decade ago. Since then, he has used an HP95LX, an Apple MessagePad 130, and a HP320LX (all still functioning).

WindowsCE Webring