Recently I've had to do a spot of Windows Mobile dev, part of which requires the mobile app to call a webservice, simple enough you may think. Well it is once you can figure out how to get the emulator to use the host network connection.

So here's how I got the emulator to use the host's network:

1. Firstly, deploy your smart device project to the emulator as normal
2. Once deployed, open the Device Emulator Manager in VS (Tools > Device Emulator Manager)
3. You should see next to one of the types of emulator you can run, a little green arrow indicating this is the emulator currently running
4. Right click on that emulator, and select 'Cradle'
5. A bunch of ActiveSync (by the way you need ActiveSync) messages will pop up, just dismiss them. A guest partnership is all you need.
6. ActiveSync will now treat the emulator as a real physical mobile device and give it access to the host's network access via a DMA channel.
7. The Emulator should pop up with a notification to indicate it has network access
8. Ensure if you're using a proxy, to set that information in the emulator's network settings
9. You're done!