a) creating a two-way communication link from a personal digital assistant with a host computer system using one transport mechanism of a plurality of possible transport mechanisms;

b) said host computer system recognizing said one transport mechanism used in step a) by adaptation software executing on said host computer system;

c) said host computer system determining a communication protocol from a plurality of possible communication protocols based on recognition of said one transport mechanism, wherein said determining comprises indexing a table with said one transport mechanism recognized in step b) to determine at least one parameter in the communication protocol, and wherein said table comprises parameters that are designed to improve communication based on the transport mechanism wherein said communication protocol determined at step c) selects a particular user authentication protocol performed to establish data communication between said personal digital assistant and said host computer system and said communication protocol determined at step c) selects a particular data encryption protocol performed to establish data communication between said personal digital assistant and host computer system; and

d) said host computer system communicating information to said personal digital assistant based on said communication protocol determined at step c).