A warning: Web surfing with a Palm device can be SLOOOOW! Remember, not only are you using a relatively slow modem, but the processor on your Palm unit is much slower than the PC you're used to using for Web surfing. You also have much less memory and a very tiny screen compared to a PC. Web surfing on a Palm device works best with those pages that are specially designed for a small screen. A future article in this series will cover effective Web surfing using a Palm device in detail.

In addition to accessing the Web with a browser, you can use Web Clipping applications, also known as PQAs (Palm Query Applications). That's right, those PQAs designed to work on a wireless Palm VII work just fine with an old-fashioned modem. In fact, they work much faster with a PalmModem connection as opposed to a wireless connection on a Palm VII. That's because the Palm VII communicates wirelessly with Palm.Net at a pokey 9.6 KPBS. So your 33.6 KPBS modem is suddenly hot stuff!

In order to utilize PQAs, you'll need to add the Web clipping software to your Palm device. The easiest way to accomplish this is to buy the Palm Mobile Internet Kit at http://www.palm.com/software/mik/. You can buy it from Palm's Web site for $39.95. It'll work on just about any Palm device the PalmModem will work with, but check the Palm Web site for compatible models just to be safe. You can find a review of the Palm Mobile Internet Kit in the January issue of PalmPower's Enterprise Edition at http://www.palmpowerenterprise.com/issues/issue200101/mik001.html.

Currently there are about 500 PQAs available for the Palm device. You can find most of them on the Palm.Net Web site. In order to give you some idea of the breadth of PQAs available, the categories Palm.Net uses to organize them on their site are as follows:

• Communications;
• Enterprise;
• Financial;
• News;
• Reference and directories;
• Shopping;
• Travel and entertainment.

As I write this, the second most popular PQA download from Palm.Net is the Starbucks Coffee Store Locator!

Finally, you can use your PalmModem to remotely HotSync your Palm device with your PC. There's even a HotSync button on the PalmModem just like the one on your Palm unit's cradle.

Although this sounds like a really nifty function, in reality I've never used it. I guess I'm never away from my PC or laptop for so long that the need for a remote HotSync was all that compelling. Also, for it to work, I would need to leave my PC turned on the whole time I'm traveling. That's something that doesn't sound all that appealing to me.

Documentation
The documentation that comes with the PalmModem is minimal. For example, in the Connection Preferences section, it describes the purpose of the Flow Control and Init Strings, but it doesn't explain the correct settings for these fields. In most cases the default values for any of the configuration fields are the ones you want.

Another thing that's not described in the documentation is how to initiate a call to an ISP. This actually happens automatically. Whatever software you use, whether it's an email package or a Web browser, it will automatically initiate a call when it needs to connect to the Web. For example, if you're using AvantGo, and you try to open a Web page, a call will be made to the number you currently have configured in your PalmModem.