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Pengineer
6th Jun 2001, 22:06
Hi Gang,
I'm thinking of buying a mobile phone with a built in infrared modem to connect to the internet with my laptop or Psion when I'm out.
The phone I'm looking at is a nokia 6210, does anyone have any advice or experience to offer? Also is it straightforward to set up? do i need any special kind of connection or will I be able ot point my laptop athe phone and dial my ISP through it.
Thanks in advance.
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[This message has been edited by Pengineer (edited 06 June 2001).]

mad_jock
6th Jun 2001, 22:14
You should have to much problems. It sets up a com port as a modem and away you go.

The only problem i finf with IR is that you have to be between 15-35cm from the phone otherwise the signal goes to pot. Also anything which gets in ists way (normally cup of coffee) will kill the connection.

I have given up and use a cable now on to a 3310 which works fine.

MJ

johntrav69
7th Jun 2001, 03:37
Iuse a 6210 with no problems at all and a friend of mine does too. I use a Palm handheld and he uses a laptop. Slow connection except on Orange at the moment which has a dialup number which can be used in inclusive minutes and is an ISDN so fast setup.
http://www.gcrsoft.com/data.html
has some more information on connecting

Lurk R
7th Jun 2001, 05:35
The following are all replies on a similar discussion on another message board:


We do that all the time here at work. The only thing is that it is pretty slow. Generally on the current range of mobile phones you only get a connection speed of about 9.6 kbps connection speed, therefore making browsing/email fairly expensive.

Im not sure what brand of mobile you are using, but with the Nokia's all you need is whats called the "Nokia Data Suite", which is a CD with some software and a cable which connects your phone into one of the COM ports on the back of the laptop. I bought a few of them quite some time ago and back then they were about $190 each, more than likey that price would have gone up by now.

The other thing you can do is to connect your mobile phone using the Infrared port on the laptop, providing that your phone has IR capabilities aswell. It tends to be pretty unreliable unless you have it sitting on a flat surface that doesnt move. The cable does exactly the same thing and you should have no problems with that.

I haven't tried it with the laptop yet, but I am able to connect to the net using a Palm Vx and a Nokia 8250 with the IR ports. The phone has an internal fax modem, so I just point the Palmpilot at the phone and it dials in much the same way your computer does. It connects at 14.4kbps which is quite okay for simple web surfing and e-mail. I'll give it a go on the laptop soon as well and let you know. As far as I am aware (and please correct me if I'm wrong), the phone's internal modem is a part of the GSM standard and therefore the Nokia Data Suite isn't necessary if you have an IR capable laptop and phone. The Palmpilot required no additional software to dial, I just told it to use an external modem connected via infrared.

Mobile phones will only connect at or below a speed of 9600 baud. Very slow for net access. The nokia data suite is actually free from the nokia web site. If indeed you have a nokia phone and compatible equipment. I use a nokia 8210 with infrared connect (via IR) to a toshiba notebook computer. In effect the phone is the modem.
You must make sure that you have a "data" line connected to your service. Normal mobile lines are not capable of transmitting computer data.
All in all i find it to be a pretty successfull waste of time.
Also, if you dont have an IR port on the notebook or phone ( most notebooks have IR these days, and i think all nokia have IR)then you will need to get hold of the data cable for the respective phone.


It is possible to get 14.4k if your phone is HSCSD (high speed circuit switched data) compatible.

Not a lot of phones are HSCSD compatable at the moment but the next step is GPRS which is available in the phone networks now with data rates of 40 to 120kB depending on other network traffic. There are a few GPRS phones around at the moment, Nokia ones to hit the market shortly. These make mobile data traffic a bit more realistic. Next step after that is 3G mobile networks with data rates of up to 2MBit to the Mobile (some stringent conditions apply to get this), available in around 2 years.


On the Palm Vx I went into Preferences/Connection/New, and set Connection Method to 'IrCOMM to Modem', Dialing TouchTone, Speed 14,400 bps.

Then, under Prefs/Network I setup a service for my ISP using the Connection I just created.

To actually use the net, I downloaded a program called MsgAgent for e-mail and Palmscape for WWW. There is also a program called 'Fax' which is nifty if you ever have the urge to send a fax on the run using the phone's faxmodem.

With that setup, all I have to do if I want to check e-mail or surf the web is turn on the phone's IR reception, point them at each other and tap connect on the Palm.

I imagine there would be some differences between the Palm V and III, but you should be able to do it without buying anything. Have you checked out the Software downloads on the Palm site, and also http://www.tucows.com ?

Pengineer
7th Jun 2001, 22:32
Wow thanks for all the trouble you guys went to, I think I've understood most of it, just a couple of questions though...
Lurk R, What do you mean I'll have to ensure that I have a data line connected? is this something I have to ask for when I sign up?
I had intended to buy the phone (sim unlocked) no contract, pay as you go, and simply use it as a remote modem to dial my internet account, are you telling me I'll have to ask for something specific?
If its going to be too difficult I'll just leave it and wait until I get home.

johntrav69
8th Jun 2001, 03:33
If you go to www.loot.com (http://www.loot.com) you can probably pick up an unlocked 6210 for about £80 and then connect to the Orange network on the Virgin tariff (email if you need more infor [email protected]) which has no connection charge/monthly charge. You can then get the high speed data access added on for £5 a month and you pay standard call charges to connect th orange.net internet service on an 077something number. I am not sure what connection speed I get but I think it must be around 28.8.

Office Update
8th Jun 2001, 12:59
Nokia 6210 infra red is very good at works from a good 12 inches away.
Word of advice, battery on telephone diminishes at a far quicker rate, suggest minimum three bars of charge for a ten minute session.

PS: Suggest you wait about 2 or 3 weeks and get the Nokia 6220 or 6630, this little gem will offer triple speed modemn connection via the infra web, (network dependant)

[This message has been edited by Office Update (edited 08 June 2001).]

Pengineer
8th Jun 2001, 20:12
Sorry to be a pain again, but I'm still abit puzzelled about having to ensure the line is data compatable.
I thought I could just buy the phone, buy a PAYT card, point it at the laptop, get the laptop to dial the internet connection via the mobile, and watch my e-mail (and porn!) appear on the screen.
Are you saying that it won't be possible on a normal connection unless I specifically ask for a data compatable line?
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Office Update
9th Jun 2001, 17:20
Not all GSM networks support data transmissions and very few pre purchade SIM cards allow data transmissions.
You normally have to be a full network subscriber.

Best advice is to take your notebook to the seller of phones and say to them, "make it work in front of me so I can see".

ExSimGuy
10th Jun 2001, 10:30
I have used one2one in UK for data (contract service - you'd have to check if theyr PAYG service will allow data). As said above, web pages are a tad slow (though I've used it for them when I got to the hotel one evening and realised I had left behind the phone number and address of the company I was visiting http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/confused.gif ) but great for email.

On the way back from the same trip, I was sending my trip report back to the guvnor, and emailing back and forth to a friend in another country - from a railway carriage en-route to Oxford - what a poseur http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/tongue.gif

Only problem there was that I had to redial FreeServe when the train went briefly "out of coverage" a few times :)

(but now I find it easier to use a cable from laptop to phone, instead of I/R most of the time)

Pengineer
10th Jun 2001, 22:51
Thanks again guys, I'm going to go with Office Updates suggestion and bring in the laptop with me and get them to show me it working before I part with the dosh.
Thanks also for the network suggestions but I'm not in the UK and I have only two networks to choose from. I've spoke to both and theyre "pretty sure" it will work but not exactly confidence inspiring, they basically wanted me to but it and take it home and try it, but I dont trust the after sales service so...
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Regds Pengineer

ExSimGuy
11th Jun 2001, 10:11
If you are not in UK (and you sound a bit dubious about the people you are going to see !) It would be as well to take your Windows disc with you, as the phone may come with some drivers, or you may need to install "standard 9600 modem" if you are going to use a cable connection.

Both the I/R phones that I have owned (Ericsson and Motorola) came with software in the box to "talk" to the PC via I/R. (but make sure your PC has the I/R port drivers installed and enabled - if you have ever had to relaod Windows from "scratch", it may not be loaded)

I suggest you keep all options open!!

Good Luck!!

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