I was at a coffeehouse yesterday and I observed the waiters with those PDA's. Once they switched them on, they could take an order, which implies that their PDA's wi-fi connection was enabled even when the device was in standby mode. A bit dissapointed that both my HTC Touch and my Mio P560 would turn off their wi-fi connection upon entering standby, I decided to get to the bottom of this. And I did!

The solution to have "always on" wi-fi, is applying three registry hacks. Please note that you must apply all three registry edits and soft reset your device before this takes effect. If you're looking for a free and reliable registry editor for your Windows Mobile device, you can take a look at the PHM Registry Editor.

The necessary registry edits are:

1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControlPowerStateSuspend{98C5250D-C29A-4985-AE5F-AFE5367E5006} - change to 1
2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetContro lPowerStateResuming{98C5250D-C29A-4985-AE5F-AFE5367E5006} change to 1
3. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetContro lPowerStateUnattended{98C5250D-C29A-4985-AE5F-AFE5367E5006} change to 1

 Now the wi-fi connection will stay on even while your device is suspended. Remember that you'll have to re-enable the wi-fi connection if you soft-reset your device, though.