Activesync and MacBook not connecting

Have you read this additional article regarding the Missing Sync for Windows Mobile and Windows Mobile 5 devices?

Explanation of how Windows Mobile 5 devices connect over Bluetooth

There is actually a typographical error in the article title: the document name contains Mobilie and not Mobile, as it should, and as it appears above.

http://www.markspace.com/support/index.php?x=&mod_id=2&id=2694

It details the use of port 990 and the fact that this port choice is hard-wired into such devices by the Windows Mobile OS. If you do not see Active Sync as a choice, it is likely that port 990 is blocked by your Mac OS X firewall.

To enable port 990, launch the System Preferences application and click on the Sharing icon. Press the Firewall tab, then add port 990 to your list of enabled ports by pressing New… and selecting Other from the drop-down menu list. Enter 990 in the TCP Port Number(s): field, and leave the UDP Port Number(s): field blank or empty. Name the service ActiveSync, or some other easy to remember name relating to this process. In summary:

Port Name: Other
TCP Port Number(s): 990
UDP Port Number(s): <leave empty>
Description: ActiveSync

Once confirmed, TCP traffic will now be passed in each direction by your Macintosh, and ActiveSync should be available as a choice. ActiveSync will appear at the bottom of your scrollable list of Firewall services, by default.

As is the case with so many things, Microsoft has chosen to 'hijack' something already reserved [in this case a TCP port already reserved for use by another application or process and registered with the Internet Assigned Names Authority] and give you no option to do things differently.

Incidentally, your Palm 700w is actually manufactured under contact for Palm by HTC—High Tech Computer—in either Taiwan or the People's Republic of China, and like other HTC-manufactured devices, does not include the Bluetooth Manager application. Such HTC devices are set up through a Preference choice, and not by using the Bluetooth Manager. The subtle but important differences in pairing such devices is explained by Mark/Space in their documentation.

You could try two other things:

Edit your ActiveSync entry in the Mac OS X firewall to include UDP port 990 also, instead of just TCP port 990. My cursory reading of the Microsoft documentation led me to believe that only the TCP port was used, but maybe I misunderstood.

If that does not correct the issue, another thing that you can do is turn off your entire firewall to see if this, in fact, the issue. Remember to turn it back on—no matter what the outcome—so that you're not vulnerable to attack, until you are able to determine if other ports must also be turned on.

Mark/Space does not provide technical support for alpha and beta product releases, but they do have a discussion area, accessible by signing up here:

http://lists.markspace.com/mailman/listinfo/missing-sync-winmobile-testing

Surely other users of release 2.5a10 must have encountered this issue or one similar to it…