pi...@nohoo.com wrote:
> Sorry for the OT post, but I cant seem to get any response on the
> cellphone newsgroup.
>
> Here's the problem.
>
> I have a Tracfone. I just got a new phone after the old one died.
> This new cellphone has internet access. The old one was just a phone.
> Because the old phone did not have internet I was stuck with the default
> wallpapers and ringtones, or pay Tracfone a sizable fee for new ones
> which seemed like a waste of money.
<< snipped >>
If you use your favorite web search engine, and enter the model number
of the phone, you're likely to find a forum for working with your Tracfone.
For example, I tried looking for info on the LG800G, and some of the people
here managed to get Bluetooth pairing working. You might get enough ideas
here to solve the problem.
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1716997-LG800G-Bluetooth-Pairing-To-PC
*******
You can set up a web server on your PC. If you have WinXP Pro, go to
Control Panels, Add or Remove Programs, click the Add/Remove Windows
Components, and in there, is "IIS" a web server.
You can also find web servers, like say Apache for Windows. You might
use this if you had WinXP Home, and IIS wasn't listed in the control panel.
http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi
The problem with this idea, is whether the phone connects to the public
Internet, or to your private LAN. Setting up the web server is a great
idea, if the phone could be connected to the LAN in your house. But if the
phone uses the public internet, then the web server "faces" the Internet,
and every Black Hat from here to sundown, will be pounding on your little
web server, until they break into it.
Public Internet -------- Tracfone
|
Telephone Company
| IP=206.105.17.63 , public address
Dialup Networking --------- modem ---- computer
(Open port 80 in Firewall)
Now, in that example, we assume the Tracfone is connecting directly to
the Internet. And then, the Tracfone sends a packet to your home computer.
In Command Prompt, you attempt to ascertain the IP address of your dialup
networking session (the address will be different each time you dial up).
You can use a command like "ifconfig" in a command prompt window,
to list the IP address. And even then, some providers will block
certain ports, stating you "can't run a web server". Although, for
dialup, you couldn't run much of a business, at 3-5KB/sec...
When you set up a web server as in that diagram, the script kiddies
can also do the same thing. And that's why this is generally a bad idea.
Even if you password protected your new web server, there are always
exploits the bad guys can try out. I wouldn't do this on *my*
computer.
Public Internet -------- script kiddie ("Me wanna break in...")
|
Telephone Company
| IP=206.105.17.63
Dialup Networking --------- modem ---- computer
(Open port 80 in Firewall)
If the Tracfone had an Ethernet cable, or Wifi, then you could make a
direct connection, like this. You'd need a networking standard of
some sort.
IP=192.168.1.1
Tracfone ----- ethernet or Wifi ------- computer (private address)
(Open port 80 in Firewall)
Which brings us back to Bluetooth. If you use the Bluetooth method,
that's private and stays in your house. Much safer.
Keep looking :-)
Paul