t 'n t luoma

Let me reiterate that I'm not saying that there aren't good calendar/PIM options on the Mac. There are. Two of the best seem to be Daylite and Now Up to Date.

However, ACT has one advantage over all of these: a full Palm version.

Syncing from any PIM to Palm is fraught with potential problems, most notably duplication. Having a full Palm version of ACT is a "killer feature" for me, so I am going to keep using it until Daylite gets a Palm version (which I hope they someday do).

My first thought was to use VirtualPC.

Problems with using Virtual PC with ACT:

1. It's slow (Powerbook G4 1.5 Ghz with 1GB of RAM)


2. It's slow to launch


3. It's slow to use


4. It makes everything else slower


5. Oh yeah, and I can't get HotSync to work

Other than being slow, making everything else slow, and not working, it's the perfect solution.

Apparently some have gotten this to work but problems with VirtualPC HotSyncing seem to be the norm.

So scratch that. A little higher... ahh..

Ok, back to work.

What are my other alternatives?

Well, I tried to setup a Network Sync (PDF, new window). Except that I couldn't get it to work.

Oh, PalmOne doesn't support network sync for Mac. Nice. And yet PalmOne claims to care about Mac customers. Interesting. If they aren't lying, they'd better be talking to Mark/Space makers of MissingSync.

MissingSync will let you do a Network Sync on the Mac, along with a ton of other features. I seriously considered buying MissingSync, because a) they make a fabulous product, and b) they are really good at supporting it. They maintain a very active mailing list and I've never heard anything but rave reviews (Review at EverythingTreo, Macworld Review (4.5 mice), Review at TreoCentral). Still, I had made the mistake of dropping over $100 on DayLite in a fit of "I am going to make this work" only to find out that I couldn't leave ACT. So MissingSync will have to wait.

Even if Network Sync worked, there was another problem.

My Windows machine is non-mobile. What do I do when I'm away?

Enter Remote Desktop Connection Client (RDC) for Mac which will let you connect to a Windows XP Pro (not XP Home!) machine from a Mac. (Note: don't confuse this with a similar sounding Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) which is how you connect from one Mac to another.)

That was the easy part. Even over a dialup connection, I can view and change my calendar using RDC to connect to my Windows machine.

But what about those times that I'm (*GASP*) away from my laptop? Say, like the other night when I was out with friends, and at the end of the night we all pulled out our cell phones to update contact information? I'm actually going to be away from my Windows machine for a week (which is rare, I admit, but still). I do use BackupBuddyVFS to backup my Treo to a SD card, but to me that's the modern day equivalent to backing up to floppy: perilous, very perilous.

By complete accident, I stumbled across a way to HotSync that I was completely unfamiliar with: Modem Sync. At first I was going to try to setup my laptop to accept incoming calls. That sounded like a very secure way of handling it, but I couldn't get it to work. Only then did I realize that I could use my SprintPCS connection to wirelessly sync my Treo.

Have you ever read a book or seen a movie and come away thinking: "Wow, that was great, why doesn't anyone know about this?" only to find out that apparently everyone else knew about it? Well that's how I felt about this. I've had a wireless Treo for almost 2 years and never knew I could sync it wirelessly.

Others have listed these steps, but for the sake of completeness (and so I can find it later if I need it) here's what I did:

On the PC:

1. HotSync (under "Setup")
   
   
   
   1. General -> Choose "always available" (put in startup folder)
   
   
   2. Network -> Check box next to my HotSync ID
   
   
   
   


2. Sign up for DynDNS and install DynDNS Updater v2.2.0.76 to keep my hostname automatically updated
   

On the router:

1. Forward HotSync ports 14237 and 14238 (TCP and UDP) to my Windows PC [this may be slightly more than needed, but it worked for me]


2. Forward Remote Desktop port 3389 (TCP) to my Windows PC

On the Treo:

1. Modem Sync -> Choose Network (not "Direct to Modem")


2. LANSync -> Local HotSync (not LANSync)


3. Conduit Setup -> Select ACT (unselect all others for fastest sync)


4. Primary PC Setup -> enter DynDNS.org hostname under Primary PC Name (leave others blank) [SEE NOTE BELOW]


5. On main HotSync screen, choose Modem (not local) and PCSVision should appear where Cradle/Cable usually appears

Most of the instructions I saw online suggested that the "Primary PC Name" should be "!!" which apparently forces the Treo to use the IP address, but that means that I have to manually update the IP address, which is exactly the problem that the DynDNS was supposed to solve in the first place.

So I tried just putting in the hostname and leaving everything else blank, and it worked, BUT there was one important note: After the sync was completed, the Treo had automatically filled in the current IP address. If the IP changes before I HotSync again, I will have to go in and remove the IP under the "Primary PC Address"

That said, I can now automatically

3:17:15pm pressed HotSync
3:17:33pm recognized, handshake begins
3:17:58pm begin sync ACT
3:18:43pm begin backing up/sync of other apps (no changes, but HotSync checks anyway)
3:20:46pm HotSync Complete

Note that after I completed this, I tried to do it again and it failed. The hostname had been reset to an old value, and I had to re-enter the DynDNS hostname.

I wanted to see how long it would take with absolutely no changes, so I immediately did another HotSync. It took almost exactly 3 minutes AND reset my Primary PC Setup information again. When I get back I will probably do a hard reset and a clean installation of my apps and see if I can't rid the Treo of the memory of those old settings.

What is annoying is that I can't seem to turn off the backup of all the other apps when doing a modem sync. This seems like a problem I ought to be able to solve. What PalmOne ought to offer is another window like Conduit Setup that offers to backup only apps that I specify when doing a modem sync, but they want a 100% backup every time.

Update (2005/03/20): I just realized that I had a copy of this hanging around too and apparently never bothering reading it. Oh well. It may be useful to others: “ACT! Real Time Data Solutions: Configuring Network Synchronization” (PDF) (I have a local copy (PDF) in case the other one disappears).

Also, I have discovered that by using the Internet Sharing of Missing Sync I can do a full sync of ACT! much faster than using my Sprint PCS connection. I think I'll be buying it.