can i get it for free or do i have to have a data plan

There are a few ways to use the internet on ppc. If you have a connection to the net on your pc at home you could just use activesync to connect or perhaps bluetooth. the best way is via wifi. you can sometimes find free hotspots if your out and about. if you connect using gprs on your phone then it will cost you money.

The costs of mobile Internet will be very different depending on where you live. In the Netherlands you can have unlimited mobile Internet for just 10 euro a month, which is a fair price for me considering I also use it permanently on my home computer. I have two MDA's from T-Mobile. I take my Vario (GPRS) with me and mainly use it what it was intended for; phone calls etc and checking mail while on the road. My Vario II (3G) is permanently connected to my PowerBook at home because I have no access to ADSL or Cable in my current living situation. The speed is okay for surfing the web and downloading small stuff like MP3's etc, just don't think of downloading DVD rips or something. In fact, I'm hanging around on PPCWarez right now using my PowerBook, connected to the Vario II.

My Vario II use proves that unlimited access is really unlimited here. It's connected 24/7 and I also use Azureus to download complete CD's or larger stuff when not using the computer. I feel the 10 euro a month is well spend considering the litarally hundreds of megabytes I download each month.

What RedGuy says sounds great, just bear in mind the small print in any data plan. I've read about at least two people who thought that unlimited meant that they could get as much as they wanted. Who wouldn't. But "fair use" clauses often mean that you are limited to as little as 100MB a month. One guy in England got a bill for £26,000 after he downloaded music and video using his 3G connection.

I'm not saying that will always happen, but just be careful if you opt to do that.

Yes, I heard about situations of "Unlimited" being "Fair Use" too, but at least with T-Mobile in the Netherlands it really IS unlimited. Like mentioned before; I use my Vario II as a permanent connection for my PowerBoook which is running P2P software at night, never got any complaint or remark from T-Mobile. So thumbs up for T-Mobile! The only thing that sucks is the forced use of an image proxy. Even if you select no compression (meaning normal full-quality pictures), all images get processed by this proxy, leading to some undesired results sometimes, like CAPTCHA images not always being displayed correctly, which can cause a real pain when trying to register on some badly coded forums.

http://www.mochasoft.dk/freeware/ppp.htm

internet for all palms/Pocketpc's through activesync/hotsync