it's a cheapo one made in China - called WORLD ADS-188IR IrDA Adapter.
plugged it into the USB, WinXP recoginzed it, installed the WinXP drivers from the CD that came with it, all appears to be fine, it appears in the Device Manager under Infrared devices and (according to Device Manager) appears to be enabled and working properly.
i have now 2 entries in the Control Panel (that i think, but am not sure, are new, i don't recall seeing them before): Wireless link, Wireless Network Setup Wizard.
i tried using it twice but no good.
tried synchronizing a Palm Pilot V with the Palm Desktop software. when activating the HotSynch from the Palm it didn't work, said it didn't manage to connect to the PC.
tried to communicate between my Nokia 6100 cellphone and Nokia PC Suite software, again to no avail. the software says it doesn't detect any phone.
i've absolutely no experience with InfraRed devices etc. so am at a loss. i don't know if the IrDA adapter isn't installed correctly, or is malfunctioning, or maybe i'm not doing something right using the software.
according to the Nokia PC Suite software, when running WinXP, after installing the software you need to install the Nokia mobile phone IrDA modem manually. althogh i admint it's not clear to me if i need to do this only if i want to use the phone as a modem, or for any sort of infrared communication between phone and PC (in some places in the manual it says 'Updating the infrared driver' so it seems it's needed in any case).
however there's something in the installation instructions for the infrared driver for WinXP:
first instruction: Connect your phone to a compatible PC using IrDA. what the fuck does that mean? how?
next: need to go to Control Panel -> Phone and Modem Options -> Modems tab and there to select the Standard Modem over IR link and click its Properties.
however when i go there i don't find an Standard Modem over IR link entry, only my PCI modem! so i can't follow the rest of the instructions.
in another manual (Support Guide for Installing Nokia IrDA Modem INF Manually in WinXP) it says that when going to Control Panel -> Phone and Modem Options i should activate InfraRed on my phone and point it at the IrDA port, and WinXP should show a baloon in the system try indicating that it detects new hardware. well doesn't happen for me.
would like to point out that in Control Panel -> Wireless Link -> Infrared tab i have a check next to the following items:
Display an icon on the taskbar indicating infrated activity
Play sound when Infrared device is nearby
Allow others to send files to your computer using ifrared communications
Notify me when receiveing files
FAQ/troubleshooting sections in guides and on Nokia site were of no help.
to me it seems that IrDA simply isn't working on my computer. but what do i know ???
OK now here's my questions:
how can i tets if the USB-IrDA adapter is indeed installed correctly?
how do i check if it's operating/how do i activate it?
TIA. (and sorry for the long post)
