PDA + Cellphone + ISP = Internet Access?

marvinx asks: "I'm wondering what other Slashdotters do to hook up their cell phone (analog or digital) to their PDA (Palm or Handspring) to get wireless Internet access. What combinations of phones, wires, PDAs, and ISPs seem to be working? I've got a Visor Deluxe and a Samsumg 3500 PCS phone, and I just know that there is a way to get wireless e-mail. Any success stories?" The combinations are endless, but the results may vary greatly. What combinations have you tried with what varying degrees of success?

Re:Palm IIIe and Nokia 7110

[edwazere]

And to prove it this is posted from my palm!

irda phones ...

[mbyte]

I got a nokia 8210 with IRDA. With irda phones you normally can use them as modem ...

so far I only did try out some imap client, but that worked very well .. (although somewhat slow, on 9600 kbit/sec ....)


Samba Information HQ

IrDA

[Mike1024]

Hey,

Many of the more expensive phones have built-in infra-red modems; these are 'data enabled' phones. You often have to call the mobile provider to get it activated. In the UK, I'm on an 'Orange' plan with 180 minutes a month and a Motorola L7089 phone. I called the provider, Orange, and got the data features enabled (Details are probably in the manual) and now can point it at my laptop and get on the internet, like a normal modem.

If you have a pre-pay plan, or one of the cheaper ones (or a bastard provider), you might not be able to get the data features enabled on your phone, but if you are on a contract and have a data-enabled phone, you probably can; Phone them and ask about it.

If your PDA has infra-red stuff on it, and has software availiable for web browsing and internet access, it should just be a case of enabling infra-red, pointing the two together and doing some settings. Psion has a nice site at mobile.psion.com [psion.com]; you'd be interested in This page [psion.com] I expect.

Check with your palmtop's manufacturer and phone manufacturer. Actually, don't: I've done it for you. Look here [handspring.com] for handspring-related details:

Q. Can my Visor communicate with IR-equipped phones or other IrDA devices?

A. Yes. Visor Platinum and Visor Prism have built-in support for establishing IR communication with IrDA devices. For Visor and Visor Deluxe, there are two simple steps to take. [snip]

Short story, you need a (free) update, and you need a program. There are links on the page.

The Samsung site seems very unclear. this page [samsungelectronics.com] says

Both SCH-3500 and SCH-850 are internet access available and have no speaker phone.

Aha, manuals online... You can get one for the SCH-3500 on Sprint here [samsungelectronics.com] and for STA here [samsungelectronics.com].

I only have a dial-up connection, so I won't bother downloading either, but I'd have a look if I were you.

Just helpin' things along.

Michael

...another comment from Michael Tandy.

SprintPCS

[maccroz]

Has anyone had any luck with the SprintPCS connection? I have the connection kit for the Palm IIIe to my Samsung 8500, but it only seems to work with AOL. :P

It would be really great to be able to use the SprintPCS wireless web feature on a giant WAP enabled browser for the Palm. Does anyone know if such technology exists?

E-mail by SMS dude.

[dr_zoidberg]

Over here in Australia, we have the highest mobile phone usage in the world. Or at least one of the highest.

There's an incredibly popular service (EVERYONE with a mobile phone is signed up, at least everyone I've ever met) called Blue Sky Frog.

Basically, it gives you different Operator logo's on your phone or can SMS you slashdot headlines etc. But it also has an E-mail -> SMS bridge and an SMS -> E-mail bridge.

So you could just send e-mail back and forth from your mobile phone instead of having a PDA too. Especially if you have a nice phone with an organizer (Nokia Communicator, Motorala Accompli etc), except these phones are all WAP capable anyway. But still... :) ANYWAYS, the downside is, that SMS (short message service, if you haven't already figured that out) is limited to 160 characters per message. So it's probably not good enough for day-to-day usage just yet, but it makes a cool toy.

--dr_zoidberg
"Nov 12 16:15:32 couch /bsd: Bah, this sucks."

I do it, shame it's not packet switched though

[Kris_J]

We have a few dial-up lines at work, simple 28.8 analogue modems, WinNT RAS. I have a Nokia 8810 with an IR port. I also have a TRGpro. I can dial-in and get (and send) my e-mail, sync Avantgo and even use Yanoff to read newsgroups. It works reliably, but it's slow and expensive -- 9600 and A$0.10 for 30 seconds.

I'm looking forward to some faster packet-based stuff and a bluetooth adapter for my new Ericsson T28 and the TRGpro's CF slot will arrive soon, then I don't have to hold the devices next to each other.

It works, but is hardly useful, yet.

[fnurgel]

I have used my Nokia 8210 och Palm Vx to communicate through the IRDA and connect to my normal ISP.
Worked perfectly actually, I was surprised. You only need a fairly new Palm OS where you can select the IRDA stuff.
I used IMAP, telnet, IRC and ICQ, everything worked.
Fun for about 1 minute until the lack of speed (9600 bps) and the lack of a real keyboard (had to "type" the password in telnet about a million times before getting it right) took over.

Nokia 6150 with Dell Latitude

[CvD]

This isn't really a PDA, but I'll get to that. Did you know that it is easier to get a Nokia 6150 (GSM phone) talking to a laptop (running Linux) with an infrared port up and running than under Windows? There's one fantastically useful package under Linux called Gnokii [gnokii.org]. One config file and just run the thing.

However, the phone would not work with my Palm 'cause apparently it as no internal modem. I'm not sure how gnokii did it on the laptop, but if you're looking to get your PDA talking to your phone, make sure it has that internal modem. If you can, try it out at the phone shop before you buy your phone.

Cheers,

Costyn.

Get a Psion

[infiniti99]

Telnet / Email is actually very useful if you have a PDA with a keybaord. I use a Psion Revo, which is the smallest keyboard-based PDA (about the size of a palm VII). It only has one port: Infrared. Works quite happily with my Nokia 8890.

-Justin

Palm Specific Stuff

[bph]

Here is a web page that talks about to do this for a Palm Pilot:

Palm Notes - Free ISPs [geocities.com]

CDMA Digital works pretty well...

[weave]

After blowing US$270 a few years back on a modem and cable to hook to my nokia 2180 phone, the best I could get was 1200 bps and it'd constantly drop. The problem was that the phone had to be put into analog mode to make a call.

I now have a Motorola 7868W Startac with a Digital Phone Card [socketcom.com] with service through Verizon and it works wonderfully. Let me break it down for you....

• The phone: Has a built-in "modem." Actually, since it never goes analog, modem is a bad term. But plug a serial cable into this puppy and you can send Hayes AT commands to it! It also has a phone.com mini-browser in it so you can browse WAP sites or even read/send e-mail if you like pecking on a 10-key pad.
• The PDA: Casio E-115 Pocket PC. Has a Compact Flash interface. Now that means you can get a serial CF card and connect that to a serial cable for the Motorola (that costs $119 at a Verizon store believe it or not, plus a bit for the CF Serial card and cable too.) Which brings us to...
• The Interface: Socket's DPC phone card just combines the two pieces above into one serial CF card with plug on other end to put into specific digital phones. They make different cables for phones so make sure you order the right one. Retails for $120 iirc.
• The Service: Verizon has CDMA Data access in many areas (but not all of its digital areas). It runs at 14.4K and you communicate to the phone at 19.2K. With it you can just dial a normal ISP dial-up number or use Verizon's own dial-up at no extra cost by dialing #777 and using a username/pass of qpc/qpc (er, it says this on their web site so I'm hardly revealing anything here). The point is, #777 is available without having to have your own ISP. Now you have to pay/use minutes just like normal airtime rules. I got an unlimited nights/weekend package to help.
• The Cost: Via Verizon, it's $6.95/month for "web access" plus air time. You get web access through the phone's browser plus data access from another device. Now I never tried not having the 6.95 web charge and just trying to dial #777 and seeing if it worked however. Of course, they know what your phone # is when you dial into it. Their intent is for you to buy the 6.95/mo service from what I could gather. If thinking along those lines, dial into an ISP and not #777 if you don't have the 6.95/mo service. However, I'm sure the wireless network has to know if your call is being set up for a data call (and even when my call detail comes in the mail, calls to an ISP still show as a data call) so I really really doubt you can get buy without the "web" phone service feature.

Another possible solution is to use a CPCD network. The big problem I had with this one was lack of a CPCD CF card. Well, one just came out (I remember seeing it advertised but can't remember details). With this, you don't need a cable between your phone and PDA, you don't need your phone at all. Get CPCD service and you're really free. Verizon sells this too for $40/month unlimited access in my area and it runs at 19.2K. Never tried it, so I don't know how well it works.

I'm also not a Verizon person. I'm just more familiar with their services since I'm a customer. There could be other combos out there. Also, Socket has the Digital Phone Card (DPC) for use with GSM phones so that must be an option in areas as well...

Analog vs. Digital phones

[Anonymous Coward]

A few months ago I wanted to do the same thing (but with my laptop). Actually, I had intended to buy a regular PCMCIA modem (as my onboard winmodem could do nothing for me but reduce battery life :), and ended up splurging the extra $100 for one that had an analog cellular connection.

Well, as it turns out, there's a part missing from the box - the proprietary cable to connect the modem to the phone. This stupid cable ended up costing me another $200!

And to top it off, the service was crap. :) I ended up with unreliable 4,800 baud connections.

Few weeks ago I dumped the whole system in favor of an all digital (CDMA) one (Startac 7867W), after skeptically watching one in action. It was quite impressive. 14.4k (really - solid 2k/sec download), never dropped carrier, even when moving / switching cells, cheaper service, etc. And, to top it off, the cable was only $80. No modem required (serial port connection).

I'd highly recommend anyone who has an analog phone upgrade to a digital one before investing in a wireless Internet solution.

Palm Vx, Nokia 7110 and Dr Salami

[jazman]

I got a FREE Nokia 7110 from the decent guys at breathe.com; I recently acquired a Palm Vx to see if it was worth ditching my increasingly useless Pison 5 for, which it turns out it is, and thanks to Dr Salami I got the two hooked up through IR to my ISP and I can now go surfing, expensively, and with a _very_ trashed screen because everything out there is designed for 800x600 not 160^2, but at least it _works_. With the Pison it always seemed that I had to get n+1 cards, bits of wire or software each costing about a hundred quid, where n=the number I thought I needed last time I looked at it and gave up cos it was just too stupidly expensive: 130110X to that and my pison is now up for sale.

Okay I can probably surf with the pison and the 7110 but when you're hacked off with something you just want to get rid, even if it has just started working. Well I do anyway. And the Palm is just such a sexy little device, especially after seeing that great big massive Pison 7 block which doesn't even go in external pockets its so damn oversized. Nice screen though, but far far too big.

As for the other discussion about phone plans I'm thinking of starting a page up for direct comparisons of what people are _actually_ doing. In discussion with some friends I've already surprised them with my tariff even though they think they covered all bases. It's time there was a site up there that lists examples of _actual_ users and what they are really paying.

Palm IIIe and Nokia 7110

[edwazere]

Works brilliantly for me in the UK, I also use the 7110 with my laptop, but nothing beats sitting on the sofa reading slashdot on a tiny screen!

AvantGo seems to work well as a browser when used online.

You can pick up your mail using multimail or any of the other hundreds of alternatives.

And contrary to everything written on the web (and that palm tell you!) it does work with a IIIe with palmos 3.1.1, you just have to get the file called IRupdate from the palm website and choose Cradle or Irda in the preferences menu!

Get a GSM phone with an internal modem.

[alex@thehouse]

I use a Casio E105 CE machine, a Nokia 8210 phone linked by infra red and connect via the UK's orange GSM network to their own ISP.

Configuration was as easy as you would expect with a desktop set-up.

I downloaded the Nokia CE driver from the web, signed up for the Orange ISP service, entered the relevant telephone numbers, usernames and passwords and picked up my e-mail.

I would seriously recommend getting a GSM phone with built in modem and CE/Palm drivers freely available. The Nokia 8210 is an example.

In the UK such phones cost $100 on an upgrade or new contract, thanks to the marketing of WAP phones. Thats less than the cost of a phone cable.
Some of the newer phones have 14.4K of bandwidth on some networks.

I'm just giving the browser a try this weekend.

Anyone had any experience with Avant-Go or another browser, used directly on-line as opposed to downloading from a desktop?