This may be more of a rant than a question, but I'd appreciate any efforts to enlighten me. I was going to put it in PC-connectivity-manager thread but I think it's more of a general question/observation.

First I'd like to thank all the very capable people here who contribute what must be vast amounts of time and trouble to contribute to open source stuff like Maemo.

I got my n810 a couple of years ago but didn't do much with it because, among other things, it couldn't talk to my network so it was pretty isolated and limited as a useful device. When I bought it, I figured that having a Linux-based OS would make it more adaptable and useful because of the open-source community flogging away at it, even though I'm not into Linux myself.

I've just begun trying to figure out how to get it to talk to my XP PC, to get some more use out what is a nice piece of hardware, if a bit antiquated. My point here is that I'm staggered by the amount of fiddling that accomplishing anything useful with the device seems to require, and I'm wondering if I'm just naive, or what exactly are the reasons why this stuff seems so hard?

My example is PC-Connectivity-Manager. Without an obviously major effort by the developer to package it and write thorough instructions, it would have been literally impossible for any mortal to figure out. As it is, the server install to the PC took 20+ minutes, wrote what looked like hundreds of individual applications to disk, and it STILL needs to be configured and tuned.

Same on the client end. It's changed all kinds of stuff on my n810 and I don't know if I hit all of the 97 steps necessary to get all the required stuff on there in the right order. I will be studying and fiddling with it for the next month, I expect. I'd rate myself as modestly tech-aware but this stuff seems unbelievably complex

Not to speak heresy, but I have an ancient IPAQ that still serves a lot of my mobile needs, if slowly. It syncs, views network shares, and streams media pretty much out of the box (although it sucks at internet, which is what I wanted the n810 for). I'm not comparing Maemo to the Evil Empire, I'm just wondering if all the stuff I had to install today is invisibly under the hood of 10-year-old Pocket PC 2003 or is it just a lot more complicated to make Maemo talk to Windows?

Maybe I'm just coming to appreciate how much wetware it takes to hack stuff, but I'm simply stunned by how complex this is. Or am I missing something? Is there an easier way to just get this thing on a network?

-gryvn

For Windows XP, I have these two installed on my computer:

tightvnc-1.3.10-setup
dfmirage-setup-1.1.68.2 (I love this. It makes the screen on the tablet refresh faster and prevents any screen tearing).

On the tablet, I install VNC Viewer.

Not exactly what you're asking, but it makes a great addition to your other requests, plus it's super easy.

Good luck.

Ooh, also look into installing Knots 2 from your Application Manager.

This will stream your videos and music from your PC to the tablet and can recode your media on the fly.

Hi Addison, I thought you might be watching.

I found a lot of discussions on networking with the 810, but the only one that seemed to be definitive and complete (as opposed to piecemeal solutions) was this:
http://pc-connectivity.garage.maemo....ion/index.html

I'm about halfway through it at this point and groggy.

It's vast in scope, and has an install/tweak curve like nothing I've ever seen. Perhaps it does more than I need and I'm overthinking again. I will check out your suggestions.

"tightvnc-1.3.10-setup
dfmirage-setup-1.1.68.2 (I love this. It makes the screen on the tablet refresh faster and prevents any screen tearing)."

Where did you find these Windows executables on the Maemo site?

Strange as it might seem, I'm not a nerd. *lol*

So yeah, your requests are actually something I've never even heard of before.

Try out my two suggestions though.

Knots 2 has just a little bit of a learning curve but it's well worth it.

"your requests are actually something I've never even heard of before."

Maybe I wasn't clear. I'm not trying to do anything exotic, I just want to be able to use the 810 to access network shares via wifi (or usb) and play media across the wireless connection.

The pc-connectivity thing does seem to be a lot of artillery to swat a fly, but the directions imply that it's necessary.

By the way, the pc connectivity project installs tightVNC, but also Cygwin, FileZilla, and it's own pc-connectivity business.

That would be Knots 2.

http://wiki.maemo.org/Knots2

Don't forget that mirage driver as well, it makes a huge difference.

Also look into port forwarding.

Say you're at a store and just thought of something you would like to see later that night.

With VNC and port forwarding, you can begin downloading the show on your computer and have it waiting for you by the time you get back home.

Your making it way too hard.
If you have your n810 connected to a WIFI AP on your network that your PC is also on, just open from the main menu, choose Utilities, and choose FileManager. Wait for it to complete opening, and scroll down in the left pane, It will list Shared folders and Shared Media, sometimes they take a couple of seconds to appear. You should be able to see any publicly shared folders under the shared folders. The shared media, will work if you are using shared media with Media Player, not sure what version of Windows Media player you need.