Thread: What would I need to use my home PC to serve internet to my wireless phone?

well, you'd still need some type of modem to connect your phone to your computer. And then you'd need to pay for airtime when your phone dials in.

hrmm...
well in the way that you are thinking... no,
what you would end up doing is having a laptop, using your phone as a modem, calling home, haveing home call out to the internet...., where you could have just called the isp with the cellphone/laptop combo. The reason for this is the way that the phone gets its internet... the type of call that the phone makes is different from a voice call, but also you will only get speeds of ~14.4kbps.

on the turning on and off stuff tho yes you can, they sell dtmf control kits in lots of places
This is a single relay one
http://www.mpja.com/product.asp?product=7155+RB
Thats the only one I can find ATM, however I seem to rember that same company makeing an 8 relay one

At $75, thats too rich for my blood. Screw it then, how can I manage it with just another computer instead of a cell phone?

Ok, im pretty shure this could be done
use this relay board
http://www.mpja.com/product.asp?product=6074+KT
and write a program on your comp that will answer the modem, and listen for dtmf tones, then turn on or off the approprate relay.

hehe.. big job said in a few sentences.
or you could use some of the stuff that one of my coworkers uses
www.homeseer.com
I think thats the correct address....
just search for some home automation stuff..

Hi,

Well, I suppose you have DSL or some other broadband connection..

If you setup a terminal server (like Citrix) at home with the broadband connection, and a normal modem on a telephone line you could have really fast internet in your car.
It´s true.. line-speeds are the same when you call to a ISP or your own home..
the difference is that the terminal environment only streams the display, mouse and keystrokes, I´ve seen pretty seamless connection over a cellphone and 640x480@16bit

You also could extend this..
when downloading new music from the internet you save the data to a drive at home.. now.. with a wireless nic, you could scan folders for new files when then car pc comes in range off the house and copy the new files.

Greetz,

You also could extend this..

That's actually what I'm trying to develop now, although just with WiFi.

I've had a similar idea for a while, just haven't implemented it. I may be traveling quite a bit in the future, so my plan was to set up a dial up server that utilizes my cable connection. I'd get an 800 number on it so that I could call it for free (no hotel connection costs) from anywhere in the states and it'd cost a flat fee (somewhere between .05 and .10 per minute). It's been two years since I looked at prices for an 800 number, so if anyone has updated figures, I'd like to hear them.

My only concern was security. I'd like to be able to SSH into my linux box and perhaps have the ability to sftp files to and from my dev box. My thoughts on keeping war dialers from finding and exploiting the box was to have the dial up server pick up the line, wait for some sort of access code, then commence connecting. Then there would be a nice complex username and password.

...I'm sorry, what was the question again??

Shouldn't be too hard. You should be able to plug a modem in the pc and dial into it from the cell phone. Use intenet connection sharing or some other sort of proxy to allow that dial in to connect to your broadband. I'm thought about doing similar with my car pc already. Use it to dial the internet with a cell phone and have one of those speedup/caching programs on the car pc.

heh.. I knew working for a wireless carrier would pay off..

Essentially, there's two ways to connect to the web via a cell phone..

Circuit-switched data.. your cellphone acts like the phone line.. you dial in to a pc, isp, whatever. You pay for minutes your phone is connected, like a voice call.. so if it's on the weekend and you get free weekends, then it doesn't cost you a dime

Packet-switched data.. your cell phone acts as the access point to the cell phone company's "isp" (think kinda like a cable modem.. you can only access one particular isp).. most cell companies support this, and if they do, it's not cheap.. you can only access THEIR service, and while you usually have access to all the web has to offer, plans to allow this are expensive.. very lucrative for the carrier.. You pay per k/b, not airtume. Ouch

Let's just put it this way.. we've had one guy rack up a $10k bill one month because of his data useage.. we routinely hear of people racking up $2-3k bills during the course of a month because they didn't realize how expensive it really is..

Just to give you an idea.. where I work, an 80meg data plan, one that allows you to transfer 80 megs (total up AND down) before you get hit with the per k/b cost, costs $145/mo ON TOP of your bill.. you still need to pay for the voice portion too..

But heh.. I get unlimited data on my phone Perks o' the job