CF : Error: Cannot establish a connection ...

Irritating error: "Error: Cannot establish a connection. Be sure the device is physically connected to the development computer."

This may help:

You need to download and install Microsoft Windows CE Utilities for Visual Studio .NET 2003 Add-on Pack 1.1 on your development PC running Visual Studio. Get it from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7ec99ca6-2095-4086-b0cc-7c6c39b28762&displaylang=en

Then read through the solutions listed in the Readme.htm file in the:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\CompactFrameworkSDK\WinCE Utilities folder.

You may need to run C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\CompactFrameworkSDK\WinCE Utilities\WinCE Proxy Ports Reg\ProxyPorts.reg.

Also: In Visual Studio under "Device Options", ensure that the "Transport" is "TCP Connect Transport" and that you "Obtain an IP address automatically".

Then start ActiveSynch, inside your project go to Tools\Select Windows CE Device CPU and select ARMV4T or whatever your CPU is. Then deploy to the device and you should be able to debug on the device.

Enjoy!

(Compact Framework)