I FOUND IT - I FOUND IT - I FOUND IT!!!!!

This may help someone, so I am posting as a new thread. I'm not an expert, but I do manage a multi-national IT dept, and this was driving us nuts. Dell Axim x50v is the stock issue, with 3.8 AS. We are working on upgrading our 'team' to WM5 and AS 4.1 to gain some technical advantages, but that won't be discussed here.

After upgrading to WM5 and AS 4/4.1, we had huge problems getting the dumb thing to sync. ActiveSync would say "connecting....." forever and never connect. I thought I was having the same problem as everyone else. Maybe the problems are the same you are having.. who knows.

My problems were related to old software... I would get the "connectinggggggggggg......" message when trying to Sync up. Here's what I did:

1) The suspect program was a 2003 version of Sprite Backup - It always interacted with PPC2003 and Activesync at the time the device was cradled.

2) I un-installed ALL of my PPC/WM apps from the PC. You're probably supposed to do this in the first place, but I'm a guy and didn't read the directions.

3) Once ALL WM/PPC programs were uninstalled, that ensured that NOTHING was trying to "talk" to the PPC via ActiveSync.

4) Then I went to ZoneAlarm and removed ALL programs (not just PPC ones) from the access list so that next time they 'request' service, I will get a prompt to allow or disallow them.

4) Then, a REBOOT with the device OUT of the cradle. Lots of requests for program validation from the firewall, but that is to be expected.

5) Put in the PPC AFTER bootup and all the tray programs were loaded (formerly TSR's for those of us old enough to remember that term!). As soon as the Axim went into the cradle - questions from the firewall requesting access... and...

It worked!~

DON'T FORGET: If you have Zone Alarm or Windows Firewall or any other Internet Security or Firewall software - you MUST put in 169.254.0.0 subnet as a TRUSTED network. This is the network the PPC uses. And I could be way off on this - it may even use a different subnet on different PC's - I just noticed I'm getting random addresses in the 169.254.0.0 range on MY configuration. Yours may be different. Look in "View Network Connections" in windows to See what IP address yours is getting.

I sure hope that helps some more of you guys & gals struggling with AS 4.1 and WM5.