Sprint Developers

I have a SprintPCS Treo 600 that I synchronize with a PC at home. Rather than plugging it into a USB cable, I setup my Treo, PC, and router to remotely sync my data over the Vision network. It's kind of slow, but very handy.

To be fair, I must admit that I lifted most this information from other websites, but here's the step by step guide. This should work for any Palm phone such as the i330 or i500.

First, a few words about typical network arrangements. Like a lot of other people, I have broadband at home through a cable modem, but DSL would be similar. I have the modem connected to a WiFi router that serves as a firewall. I use the router to share the connection with a few computers in my house.

Each computer in my house gets an IP address from my router. The router gets one IP address from the modem. When I start a remote sync operation, my phone attempts to connect to one of the computers in my house. To do that, it must go through the router. That means, the router has to know where to send the incoming connection. By default most incoming connections are blocked. That's what firewalls do. For remote sync to work, a couple ports must be opened up on the firewall and the traffic should be specifically routed to the one PC running HotSync. How to exactly do this will vary from one router to the next. You must do some research about your router to figure out how to change these settings.

The next big problem is dynamic IP addresses. The modem probably assigns a new IP address to your router every time the router resets. Furthermore, your PC probably gets a new IP address from your router every time your PC resets. With all these numbers in flux, it's not easy to keep remote sync working. You have to keep an eye on your router's WAN IP address and your PC's LAN IP address. You can find your LAN address by typing ipconfig at a DOS prompt. You can find your WAN IP address by visiting a page like http://www.whatismyip.com

Once you've got those IP numbers figured out, proceed with the following:

Setup Phone

1. Click on the HotSync icon
2. Go to Options -> Modem Sync Preferences and choose Network
3. Go to Options -> LanSync Preferences and choose Local HotSync
4. Go to Options -> Primary PC Address.
   • Set Primary PC Name to !!
   • Set Primary PC Address to your WAN IP address
   • Leave Subnet Mask blank
5. Go to Options -> Connection Setup, highlight Direct Serial and tap Done

Setup Computer

1. Right-click the HotSync icon in the system tray and choose Setup
2. Click the Network tab
3. Make sure the profile you want to sync is checked
4. Click the TCP/IP Settings and make sure that your correct IP address is chosen. If you only have one network adapter (in most cases) this option will be grayed out.
5. Leave Subnet Mask blank and click OK
6. Click OK again to close the Setup dialog window
7. Right-click the HotSync icon in the system tray and make sure Network has a checkmark next to it

Setup Router/Firewall

1. Forward TCP port 14237 to your LAN IP address
2. Forward UDP port 14238 to your LAN IP address
3. Forward TCP port 14238 to your LAN IP address just for good measure although some sites say it's not necessary

Now HotSync

1. Click on HotSync and on the main screen, change from Local to Modem
2. When you change to Modem, it should show you Sprint as who it will dial
3. Press the large HotSync icon on this screen. HotSync will dial out to Sprint and initiate the synchronizing. You will see the HotSync notification box popup on the HotSync computer as the process happens (just as it would if it was a local HotSync.)