In the past I've been playing with IrDA to connect my laptop with a Nokia 6150 phone. Results: IrDA 'sees' that mobile phone (Nokia 6150) in discovery mode, but the phone does not get 'connected'. Description of the IrDA problems at Dell Latitude C640 laptop and Linux (IrDA)
Rebooting into Windows XP does get the phone 'connected' there. It also shows the IrDA device is not SIR (standard infrared) but infact FIR (fast infrared) over an 'SMC' irda controller.
Conclusion: No succes for me, but the cause was in the Linux IrDA driver.