Mark, I read your remarks with great interest. It's good to know I'm not the only one beating my head against the wall doing network programming on the Palm.
Do you have the latest firmware for the Xircom Springport module? I believe it is v1.13. With this firmware rev I am able to successfully ping the Springport module and receive UDP broadcasts. Sending UDP broadcasts is not supported at the Palm OS API (this is documented in the API). I couldn't agree more with you on Xircom's support. i think they have a decent product, but, like you, I have several open issues with them. One is the inability to make any TCP connections on the Internet through an ICS host. DNS works great, and probably UDP does as well. I just can't make any TCP connecttions, so no web browsing and e-mail. I would love to have a fifteen minute conversation with one of the project engineers!! Have you beeen able to find (or write) a ping application that runs on the Palm? -- Bruce Vander Werf [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Fri, 23 Nov 2001 20:54:24 -0800, "Mark Palatucci" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >Hi Brian, > >Unfortunately, the PalmOS network stack is very limited and doesn't really >support broadcasts. We've done a lot of work with network programming and >can offer up some useful info. First of all, realize there are three layers >of difficulty. 1) The network hardware (such as the Xircom 802.11) 2) The >PalmOS stack (which wasn't written by Palm. Palm licensed the stack from >another company. The stack was written in the 1980s) 3) The Netlib API. So >while netlib might appear to support broadcasts and other features, the >stack does not. The hardware also imposes limitations. > >As far as we can tell, the PalmOS stack cannot send any broadcast packets. >It can, however, receive broadcasts that are destined for 255.255.255.255. >It will not pick up subnet broadcasts, i.e. 192.168.1.255. Unfortunately, >the 802.11 Xircom sleds that we've used do not seem to send either broadcast >type up to the stack, so when using the Xircom hardware, you can't do either >broadcast (full or subnet). According to Xircom, their hardware supports >broadcast ethernet packets so my theory is that the packets are received but >not passed up to the stack - rather they are lost somewhere in the ppp link >between the Xircom and the Palm serial (not completely unreasonable since >broadcast doesn't really make sense over ppp). > >Another example of hardware limitations is that the Xircom 802.11 sleds for >Palm respond to pings fine, but the Springbroad 802.11 module for >Handsprings does not respond to any pings. This can be a pain when trying to >test your network setup. > >Xircom support stinks. I have two open/unresolved cases with them (and in >both I was awaiting responses from high level techs/engineers) and have >received no response. Since merging their support with Intel things have >gotten even worse. I can't manage to talk with anyone that knows anything >about these problems. > >Things aren't looking very good for multicast either. This is definitely a >pain in the butt, especially if you are trying to do any service discovery >type application. > >As for your emulator, things will definitely be different especially if you >use map TCP/IP to host (avoid this during development). We have managed to >quasi get around this broadcast limitation. We use a program called tcptty >(that we wrote and is available in source at: >http://www.coopcomp.com/download.html ) to create a virtual LAN for all our >emulator sessions. We then have a small network app running on a linux box >to act as a repeater, when it receives a packet, it just manually >"broadcasts" a UDP to every other POSE on the LAN. > >Hopefully with the faster ARM processors, Palm can build (or contract us to >make ..:) ) a real network stack. The stack is the biggest problem right >now preventing Palm from having really awesome network devices. > >-Mark > >PS - my company offers training in advanced PalmOS network programming. >Please take a look at www.coopcomp.com for more info. > >******* >Mark Palatucci >President >Cooperative Computers, Inc. >PalmOS specialists >******* > > > >"Brian Smith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message >news:68555@palm-dev-forum... >> >> I'm working on a project that would be best done with UDP socket >> communications, as well as UDP broadcast during initialization. Palm OS >> supports this, I know, since POSE can do it just fine. What I haven't >> found yet is a device that supports that. Does anyone know of one? >> >> I tried first using Portsmith's ethernet cradle, but that doesn't support >> TCP server sockets either. I got a Xircom 802.11b module (this is a Visor >> Platinum) and tried with that. It supports TCP server sockets but still >> doesn't support UDP broadcast. >> >> If it's not that widely supported then I can figure out an alternate >> method. If it is and I'm just finding devices that don't support it, I'd >> like to know. >> >> Thanks. >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> Brian Smith // [EMAIL PROTECTED] // http://www.arthurian.nu/ >> Software Developer // Gamer // Webmaster // System Administrator >> "An intelligent guard? Didn't see that one coming." - Preed, Titan A.E. >> >> >> > > > > Bruce Vander Werf mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] -- For information on using the Palm Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see http://www.palmos.com/dev/tech/support/forums/
