A few days ago, after three months of bliss, without any warning, I lost wifi internet access. It just stopped. Some of the randomly occuring symptoms:

• Icons and settings indicating I was connected, but I couldn't browse the internet;
• Random switching of network status between 'Connected', 'Available' and 'Unavailable' every couple of minutes;
• Random jumping to neighboring wireless networks, at will, repeatedly dropping my AP and attempting to connect to others even after I manually switched back and connected to my AP (Access Point);
• Would not allow me to refuse, block or remove other access points;
• Once at will connectivity to other networks was established, my network AP became 'unavailable'.
• No internet browsing from ANY network AP, at any location, not even the reliable wifi network at the college, where I frequently browsed the internet without incidence before.
• No amount of settings changes, and resets did anything to affect the results.
• Nor did attempts to remove and re-establish my network, or specify my network as the ONLY AP.

Completely Befuddled. To rule out router, funky comcast, firewall and Norton antivirus problems once and for all, I drove my iPAQ 4150 over to the ever-reliable wifi network at school 12 miles away from my network, and then over to a friend's house 15 miles in the other direction, where I had easily browsed the internet before, all with the same frustrating results.

You're NOT Alone. I instinctively hopped on the web on my desktop PC to seek out help from experts who hang out in tech forums ready to assist with any computer problem known to man! To my surprise, I found at least several dozen pleas for help with the identical problem, posted to forums all over the internet from all over the world! At first it looked like an iPAQ-only problem, but seems to relate to the Windows Mobile 2003 operating system, irregardless of brand.

The Eureka Moment. In any event, I have wifi...at least until the problem happens again. I have no idea how or which of the dozens of solutions I tried actually worked. But, I feel a sense of obligation to other owners of handhelds running the Windows Mobile 2003/WinCE 4.X O/S to document and share my experience so it might smooth the way for others who encounter the same problem. Hope this information helps someone.

One caveat: My personal experience is with the HP iPAQ 4155 only, although I learned from forum posts that the problem extends to any brand and model running Windows Mobile 2003, not just iPAQs. Common sense will surely tell you to check your connection, your network, firewall and antivirus to rule them all out as suspects.

Below is a list of handy network freeware tools that NO wifi-enabled handheld owner should be without:

Rest assured, most seem to eventually solve the problem, thanks to the helpful experts who hang out in the mobile forums. But the fix seems to happen randomly at some unidentifiable point in the process. Compounding the problem, after multiple fixes are tried, it's hard to know which one actually worked! My particular case was extreme – a trip to hell and back!

After three painful days and countless hours in every handheld and mobile forum, newsgroup and mailing list on the planet for fixes to try, mostly without success, performing multiple hard resets and reinstalls, and two uninstall/reinstalls of ActiveSync to solve profile problems caused by all the code remnants left behind after an earlier attempt (Activesync? oh boy, don't get me started!), I finally got wifi back. Unfortunately, to my dismay, days later, it happened again. In fact, the problem continues to this day.

While researching the second round of fixes after none of first ones worked on my iPAQ, I stumbled on a bulletin from HP, quite by accident, which seems shed some light on a potential suspect at the root of the problem. Microsoft's 'Wireless Zero Configuration' network tool, a feature KNOWN to cause persistent dropped wireless connection problems on desktop computers running the WinXP operating system is the likely troublemaker in Windows Mobile 2003 as well.

An extensive article from Wired Magazine also addresses this pervasive problem. It's unfortunate that the simple fixes for the desktop version don't work on the mobile one. Plain and simple: NO ZERO CONFIG MEANS ZERO CONNECTION!!!

Expecting to find a quick, handy solution at the Microsoft support site, I was disappointed that there wasn't a single word acknowledging a problem with the 'Zero Configuration' wifi network tool, not even the XP desktop versions, which was causing intermittent problems as well. I searched the entire Microsoft site. Nothing. When I googled the term, it seems that everyone EXCEPT Microsoft has something to say about this unsavory little troublemaker. I emphasize again that when I am away from home, I have no problem connecting to open wifi networks in any given location. It is only my OWN network Zero Config won't detect for connectivity. Go figure!

The thing that enraged me most about unearthing this discovery at the HP site is that HP posted a 'NOT OUR PROBLEM' announcement in big bold letters in the bulletin to absolve themselves of any for the misbehaving network tool to justify the lack of customer support.

From the customer's perspective, the flawed component inside of their product causes that product not to function properly. How is this any different than holding a car manufacturer responsible for a malfunctioning engine made by another company that has been installed in their product? Likewise, there's a small but critical flaw in an operating system HP made a conscious decision to install on every one of their handheld products. As I see it, that MAKES it an HP problem.

SIDE NOTE: Apparently, Dell must have been dissatisfied with the Zero Configuration wifi network tool because they build-in their own proprietary tool as the default instead, which at least gave customers an alternative choice. While Dell users indicate some performance slowdowns with the Dell tool, at least they can maintain steady internet browsing without getting disconnected at unpredictable intervals, without rhyme or reason! iPAQ users don't even have the option to disable Zero Config and use a better third-party application like PocketWinc. Not even a single link to some patch or workaround file at Microsoft's support site! Heck, not even a basic link to www.microsoft.com!!!

I am no less disappointed in the lack of support by Microsoft to resolve the problem. It is my observation the problem is widespread and ongoing. My iPAQ worked so flawlessly for more three blissful months without even a single hint of future trouble. What pivotal event in my monotonous daily routine on that particular day triggered a malfunction that can't be fixed until there is an alternative to Zero Configuration? I've given up on the idea of ever having wifi access again...at least not until every single one of my neighbors with a home network within range of mine leaves the area, taking their networks with them.

As stated above, I am still clueless as to which of the fixes I tried were the one(s) that made the problem go away. Also be advised that I can only speak to fixes that relate to the HP iPAQ 41XX. For other HP iPAQs, Dells, Toshibas and other brands running Win Mobile 2003 o/s, I can only suggest making sure your device has the most current drivers, patches and fixes relative to your brand before resorting to ActiveSync uninstall/reinstalls.

For HP iPAQ Users
Following a suggestion at the XXXXXXXXX forum site, I did locate an unrelated bulletin at the HP site regarding updated drivers that fixed or improved a bevy of problems all related to wireless connectivity. So, before tearing your hair out or torching your handheld in a blaze of fire out of frustration, install the latest updates specific to your model from the HP support site below, which may eliminate your wifi connectivity problems altogether, as it has done for many:

http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/support.html

HP iPAQ 4100-specific ROM and driver upgrades: http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/HandheldiPAQ/us/locate/105_5918.html

Your problems may well have ended here and your wifi may be completely restored at this point. Mine was not because I own a secondary machine, on which I created a second profile, in my newbie ignorance, completely oblivious to the havoc I would wreak three months later.

If you are still "wifi-less" after the above upgrades, I want to emphasize: DON'T TAKE SHORTCUTS!! The tiniest of remnants of previous ActiveSync files or entries will lead to a failed install. The inner workings of ActiveSync are like profile-seeking missiles whose job is to 'seek and attach' to the old profile, corrupt it, tell you the earlier profile name has already been used when you try to install using a former profile. It then forces you to create a new one, which it can't seem to find, rendering the new ActiveSync install completely useless as it tries to run under the old profile, now corrupted.

So, if you have multiple profiles, and the existence of multiples is documented in some way on the host machine during an ActiveSync session because you were a blundering newbie like me who didn't know what the hell she was doing at the time, you, too may have to resort to a complete uninstall and total removal of all traces of earlier ActiveSync install and use in order to reinstall a clean copy of ActiveSync so you can restore wifi.

Executing the Hail Mary Pass. To implement the Hail Mary wifi internet restoration technique I used, complete the following process. Hopefully you will only have to do it once.

Exhausted? Well, you better rest up because, as I found out 2 days ago, you're about to begin another chapter in this (mis) adventure. Just when you thought it was safe...[Fade in, Jaws movie soundtrack].

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