[Gllug] Using a mobile phone as a modem

[John Hearns]

Paul Brazier wrote:

> [I'm re-posting this as I think the first one got lost - apologies if
> anyone gets this twice]
>
> I'm looking for something to enable me to use a mobile phone as a
> "modem".
> In particular, to be able to dial up, etc from a script.
>
> Would this be possible from a PDA? (Though I'm not sure how easy it is
> to get Linux on PDAs)
> Other options might be to a 9-pin serial port on a desktop or a PCMCIA
> card or infra-red port on a laptop.
>

All of these will work - but will vary in cost!

You can use a phone with a build-in modem via a serial cable.
Or you can use a laptop which has an Iinfrared port with a phone which
also has an Infrared port.

A PCMCIA card phone will work - but these are expensive.



I'm sure you will get lots of advice on the list.

My particular combination is a Siemens S35i phone, which has built-in data
modem and
an Irda port.
I use this with an HP laptop, which also has an Irda port.

Setting up wan't too difficult - I just had to work out that the Irda port
needed switching
on in the laptop's BIOS.

then you need to make suere the relevant IR modules are being loaded.
In the SuSE distribution, there is a convenient script to start irda
comunications at boot time.

I use the Kde desktop on my laptop, and the Kde internet connect tool -
kppp I think -
was quite easy to set up.
The phone just appears as a modem.

I also can use the phone via my iPaq handheld's Irda - which is neat.


>
> Do you generally need to dial up manually (i.e. pressing the keys) or
> can a script control the mobile as it would a normal modem?

As above - use the internet connect utilities which come with Gnome or
KDE.
Having said that, I did have to edit the ppp config files to work with our
incoming
modem server - but that's a case of reading the HOWTOs. Doing this
research
will teach you a lot anyway.






>
> Would Linux need a separate driver for each type of mobile phone or is
> there a standard interface?
> Could I dial through a mobile phone in minicom using "atdt 0208 ..."?
> Would I use minicom/seyon or are there other dialers for mobiles?

Yes - minicom/seyon are good for debug.

Also, another good debug tool is 'irdadump'.
Running irdadump gives you a running log ir infrared port traffic
on the laptop - so you can see when the phoe (PDA etc.) is in range,
and what capabilities it has.
Another tip is to begin with the debug flag in the conf file,
and to  tail -f /var/log/messages in a window.
That will give you a readout of what's happening in the ppp session.


If you have a suitable phone, why not bring it to LONIX tonight?
(Me, I probably won't be there. Sorry)


-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at linux.co.uk
http://list.ftech.net/mailman/listinfo/gllug