I have now tried all the possible setting changes on both my PC and in Garnet and Sync keeps failing. I think part of the problem is the lack of settable options in the Hotsync dialogue box in GVM. One option might be to use a wireless router since both my N800 and lap top can connect to that although maybe this would set up a security problem for my lap top. Anyway, I found a good web page that covers a lot of these procedures here : http://www.palmzone.net/content.php?pid=20

That page explains both the ad hock direct link and the WIFI based link.
BTW, I also tried just linking my N800 to mylap top in connection manager but that didn't work either.

Neil