Laptop<-->Cellphone<-->Internet

Factual Questions
1

[pre question mini-rant]Are cellphone sales staff recruited from among the stupidest people alive? [/pre queston mini-rant]

OK, my employer has a firewall and, for reasons I can’t comprehend, hasn’t implemented a means of connecting except via incoming modem call. To work from home, I connect TCP via PPP through my modem. There are times when it would be nice to be able to connect from places where I don’t have access to a telephone wall jack. (All of this being by way of explaining why I don’t go with a Merlin for Ricochet CardBus card and do wireless TCP/IP that way. I might still do that, but I first wanted to explore my options as far as connecting wirelessly to the employer’s PPP Server).

So I go to about…oh, maybe 12 different little cell-phone vendor shops, whenever I happen to be passing by, and I ask them, “Hi, I’ve never owned a cell phone and I don’t know a lot about them, but if I were to get one it would be in order to connect my computer. Does it have a connector and a little cable, perhaps, that goes to my laptop’s modem?”

Approximately half of the twelve promptly dragged out a cable that hooked to an obvious place on the cellphone and to God knows what on one’s computer. Looked like a VGA connector on the computer end. Conversations tended to go more or less like this:

I ask, “Uh, exactly WHAT does this connect to?”

“Oh that goes to your computer”

(yeah no shit). “Where?”

::cellphone person goes to a desktop PC and points to the VGA port::

::I leave thinking there ain’t no way::

Of the rest, a few described a different means of connecting that involves a USB port. I don’t have a USB port on my laptop, sadly…I’d ask:

“What is it that the computer ‘sees’ attached to its USB port? There do exist USB modems…does the laptop see the cellphone as a modem?”

“No, one end goes into your USB and the other end is infrared”

“Well I don’t have USB but I have infrared built into my laptop, will that work?”

“No, you have to hook this cable into your USB, that’s how it works.”

::I leave thinking I wish I could talk to someone who knows how the stuff they sell actually works::

OK, my laptop is a Macintosh Powerbook, for those of you who don’t already know that. It does not have a PC style serial port (if that is, possibly what those weird cables were that looked like VGA cables?), but it has a Mac serial port and adapters do exist. It also has IrDA Infrared built in. And it has its own built-in internal modem, if that’s relevant.

How the bloody hell does a laptop access the internet via cellphone? What speed do you get out of it? Do I need drivers or do I just set my TCP connection to IrDA and hold the cellphone in front of the IrDA port? If I do need drivers, do most cellphones have Mac drivers available?

2

The cell phones I have worked on have a cable that connects to the rs232 port and look like a modem.

The cell phone chips I have worked on allow USB connection to the laptop and will look like either a modem or an ethernet card. I have not personally seen these phones in stores though.

All sales staff for cheap consumer goods are among the stupidest people alive. TV and stero sales guys look good only because there ain’t much you can do with a TV and every body does the same thing.

Take your laptop into the store not the shack in the mall and say you will get a phone with a nice contract if they can show you how to connect to work and demonstrate it working.

How old is your laptop? I haven’t seen laptops out for about 3 years without USB. I thought Apple was big into USB.

3

this may interest you http://www.sentman.com/mac_pcs.html

4

At the risk of sounding awfully ignorant here, what is an “rs232” port?

My laptop, a “WallStreet” PowerBook, was purchased around June of 1999, just before the first USB-equipped (“Lombard”) PowerBooks became available. Apple had by that time put USB on all their desktop Macs, the iMac being the first and the blue-and-white G3 towers next. The PowerBooks were the last Macs to get USB. Mine still has SCSI and ADB and a Macintosh serial port instead. Sooner or later I’m sure I’ll end up springing for a USB CardBus card, but I haven’t really needed it yet.

5

rs232 is the com port some times called the serial port. I am not really familiar with Macs so I don’t know if they have a cute apple name for this port.

6

RS232, AKA IE something or other, is the standard serial port used to connect modems, mice, and other serial devices. The standard connector is either DB25 or DB9. maybe that is what the guy in the store was talking about. makes sense to me.

7

Apples, at least at one time, used an odd connector for the serial port. I used to have a Kensington trackball that I used on a PC and I needed to replace the cord for it. The end that went into the trackball had this wierd socket with an offset post surrounded by pins. Turned out to be an Apple serial connector, and, sure enough, in the Apple part of a store I found an “Apple to PC” serial adapter that fit it.

8

AHunter3, Here’s what you’re really looking for.

All you need is a cellphone that has an infra-red modem inbuilt. Place this cellphone in line of sight of the IR Port of you’re Laptop. A li’l software installation and a Dataline service from your Cellular Service Provider and you’re good to go.

This will allow you to connect TCP/IP over PPP the way any normal dial-up works. You can even connect to your local ISP.

The cellphone needs to have an IR modem inbuilt ( e.g. Nokia 7110 ), not just IR support ( e.g. Nokia 6110 ).

No cables required. I use a nokia 7110 wirelessly with my PC, Laptop and Palm and it works great. Haven’t worked it with a mac though, but i doubt that should be a problem.

If you need further clarifications feel free to post or email.

-xash.

9

Thanks, y’all!

OK, so a laptop speaks to a cellphone either:

a) via serial port + cable, or
b) via IrDA, no cable necesssary

FYI:

A serial port on a Mac is a DIN-8. Little round port (slightly flattened on one end to aid in alignment), same size as a Mac ADB port (which is a DIN-4). Our serial ports don’t look like SCSI ports (DB 25) or VGA ports (DB 15). Not that it intrinsically any BETTER for one’s serial port to resemble one’s ADB port instead of one’s SCSI or VGA port, but holding out a cable in front of me and saying “this goes to your computer” and not being able to give me an answer when I ask “It goes to WHAT on the computer” is very irritating.

OK, so (hypothetically speaking) I’ve got a Mac DIN-8 to PC DB-25 or DB-15 adapter, and a cable from that to the cellphone. I tell my computer I’m using an external modem on the serial port and I’m off and running? Do I tell MacOS that the modem is a Hayes-compatible v.90 or a SupraXPress 56K or do I need a modem script for the cellphone?

Or (equally hypothetically) I place my infrared-modem-inclusive cellphone in front of my IrDA port, which I have yet to use…now what? I don’t have a setting under PPP or TCP/IP for using IrDA as the hardware backbone of the protocol. This REALLY sounds like a driver would be necessary!

10

:o

I do know that a VGA connector is not a DB-15, really I do! A Macintosh monitor port is a DB-15, a VGA connector is taller and more slender and has three rows of 5 pins each.

Also, I guess the PC serial port doesn’t look like a DB-15 anyhow…it would be a DB-9? Either way, Macs don’t have serial ports with the DB connector shape.

11

I did this wireless cellphone internet thing before it was cool; back when a 486 laptop was a real screamer. I used the ericsson setup, which had their $300 PCMCIA modem (a combo 14.4 fax/data/cellular) which conveinently hooked up to their $50 cable which connected wonderfully to their $200 phone.

All of this, and I think maybe once I got 14.4kbps. Usually it was 9.6kbps. It was excrutiatingly slow, and the wireless minutes can really rack up on you. In addition, you are using a laptop on batteries and a cell phone on batteries – the entire setup would probably only work for an hour at a time, which at 9.6kbps, would let you download about 2 threads of the SDMB.

12

???

13

I’ve had it forever. Manhattan’s is general questions moderator, and who doesn’t love manny?

14

I thought maybe you were stating that “sethdallob” was a nom de plume for manhattan when we was not acting in his role as GQ Moderator and, if so, I’d obviously missed some announcements…

15

In regards to the OP:

Regardless of regular phone or cellphone you still need a MODEM! I don’t know if Macs are the same but with a PC laptop you must use a PCMCIA modem that is specifically compatible with your cell phone. Also your cellphone has to be compatible with it by way of a PCMCIA to cellphone cable again specifically for that model phone.

If your laptop has a built-in modem, everything I said still applies. It must be cellular compatible, and you must get a cable that will connect it to a (compatible) cellphone.

BTW, if your cellphone service is analog this is all kind of a waste of time. You’ll be lucky if you ever connect faster than 4800bps!!

Even if your cellular service is digital, you’re still not home free. Once again, your modem must be compatible with your digital cellular service and cellphone.

Consider a carrier pigeon instead…

16

Do Americans still use analog cell phones, or are you just using the word “modem” in a broad context? A MODEM by definition is a device for sending and receiving analog signals. Most cell phones these days are digital, so what you need is a digital interface to connect your cell phone to your computer.

This interface can connect to your serial port, your USB port, or your PC card slot (PCMCIA slot). I can see why some people might call it a modem, but it’s not.

Or the cell phone can have a built-in computer interface with an infrared port, like the Nokia. I have one of them and it’s extremely useful. Cables are annoying, especially when you forget to pack it for a business trip.

17

AH3, sethdallob gives you some good points…

Hail Ants, cellphone’s these days come with an inbuilt modem ( e.g. Nokia 7110 ) . so your “Regardless of regular phone or cellphone you still need a MODEM!” point is misinformation.

AH3, you are correct in assuming that you need drivers and stuff, 'coz we can’t expect you to just hold your phone in front of the laptop and think you’re connected. The Nokia 7110 comes with a CD that includes these drivers and the neccessary software so your comp understands what it’s supposed to do with your cellphone.

scr4, a MODEM is a MODulator - DEModulator.
In the strictest term, it is a device that converts digital signals into analog signals and vice-versa. Digital modems, like the ones used on an ISDN line, don’t need to convert signals from digital to analog and back.

-xash.

18

Em, just to point something out…

As the signal is digital from a cell phone anyway, it will be translated into analouge by the phone company as they have to, to transfer the signal onto their phone lines.

The IR port acts as the modem in the equation. any phone with IR capabilities can be usede for Wireless communication.
BTW, the connection rate sucks. You’d be lucky to get above 9600bps.