95LX Connectivity Pack From Hewlett-Packard

 The first connectivity package on the market for the 95LX was the made by Hewlett-Packard. And, while HP included some clever and unique features in their package, it quickly became obvious that users were having difficulty setting up and getting started with the program.

 On the other hand, the HP Connectivity Pack is quite good and offers features and options no other package has yet matched.

The two biggest advantages of the HP Connectivity Kit is that it comes with everything you need and it doesn't absolutely require additional disk space on your HP 95LX. The HP Kit even includes a 9-pin to 25-pin adapter just in case you need it when connecting the cable to your PC.

 If you use the HP Connectivity Pack for straight file transfer you won't need any additional disk space. However, if you want to take advantage of one of the more advanced features you will need about 50K of disk space on your HP 95LX. We'll come back to that later on. You'll need approximately 700K of disk space on your desktop PC for the HP Connectivity Pack.

The HP 95LX Connectivity Pack comes with a 50-page User's Guide. While it is set up in a step-by-step format, too many assumptions are made about what the user knows and understands. Many HP 95LX users are NOT power users. In addition, some commands just aren't intuitive or that easy to remember.

Once you do get things set up and installed -- which isn't that hard if you have a little common sense and some computer experience -- there is much to be happy about with this package.

 The screen above shows Filer running on the PC. This figure shows how you can split the screen to show the directory on the 95LX (the left side of the screen) and the directory on the PC. The figure shows the Phone Book file "_1.PBK" highlighted.

Once the connection is made between the PC and HP 95LX, it's easy to transfer files. You use the arrow keys to highlight the file you want to move and then press F2 to copy the file. You'll receive a message at the top of the screen indicating the file you want to copy and the location you want to copy it to. Press <ENTER> (unless you want to change something) and the file is copied from the 95LX to your PC. You can go the opposite direction, too, moving any files from your PC to the 95LX.

If you run into any problems using FILER, press F1 for help. This on-line help is a welcome feature, not offered on any of the other packages we review here.

The HP Connectivity Pack is System-Manager compliant. You can open up Filer on the 95LX, without shutting down other applications, something you can't do with the other packages.

 The biggest bonus of all with the HP Connectivity Kit is that you can run just about all of the HP 95LX's built-in applications and utilities on your desktop PC. Here's a list of them:

Setup Appointment Book

Filer HP Calculator

Memo Phone Book

 Merge Translate

However, there are some limitations. For instance, you must purchase 1-2-3 and a communications program separately. The Appointment Book's alarms and timer won't work on your PC, and HP CALC on a PC has no links into 1-2-3.

 The ability to run APPT and PHONE on your PC means that you can take changes and additions to your PC version and then transfer those changes to your HP 95LX, and vice versa. Also, while you're traveling, you as well as someone in your office can continue to work with PHONE and APPT. When you return the files can be merged, keeping things up to date without the need to re-enter and cross check data.

Merge works with either PHONE or APPT. Translate will work with Lotus Metro, Borland Sidekick Plus, Central Point PC Tools and ASCII file formats, translating data to and from HP 95LX file formats. Merge and Translate are easy to use, working with simple menu formats that minimize typing.

The HP Connectivity Pack also offers you DOS Connect. This feature lets you set things up so that your PC will treat Drive A and C on your HP 95LX as additional disk drives. So if you have Lotus 1-2-3 on your desktop PC, you can open a spreadsheet file from your 95LX, work on it, and then save it back to your 95LX. This works with MEMO files, too, as well as any other ASCII text file.

DOS Connect requires that you transfer DCS95.EXE to your HP 95LX. This 47K file is included with the HP Connectivity Pack, along with DC95.EXE, which must simultaneously be run on the PC from the DOS prompt. (See "Backing up your files using the HP Connectivity..." sidebar, this page, for examples of how DOS Connect can be used.)

 You can also use DOS Connect to link your HP 95LX into a network like Novell or OS/2 LAN Manager. DOS Connect also works with Windows.