On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 10:38:56 +0000, Iain <no-one@hairydog.co.uk>
wrote:
>Sorry, but that isn't clear enough. What "something" do you want it to
>do? Without a fixed IP it isn't easy to connect to the laptop from the
>fixed PC, and I don't think that you even get a public IP, let alone a
>fixed ons. But if you just want remote control, www.logmein.com has a
>free solution to your requirements.
Actually, I was trying to simplify my aim by talking about a laptop.
What I really want to do is to talk to a serial-based instrument at a
remote location hanging off a GPRS-type modem (for example via an
RS232-to-IP device server or similar). I noticed that something like
the Billion 7300GX router will accept a GPRS-type datacard and hence
cna potentially provide a - relatively - low-cost route to creating an
RS232 tunnel across a GPRS-type radio link. It's not that one can't do
this using other kit, eg using a formal GPRS modem etc but this sort
of M2M communication seems to be jealously guarded by the networks and
their M2M specialist affiliates and consequently seems to involve
specialist expertise and high on-costs. It seems that in this respect
the mobile market is lagging substantially behind fixed-line
technology where it's fairly simple to set up such a link.
My quest is therefore still a find a mechanism that will let me set up
a serial tunnel over (eg but including any comparable protocol) GPRS
that can (i) have the tunnel initiated from the local rather than the
renote end; (ii) pass data continuously with up to 200MB/month of
bandwidth - ideally a little more - available at reasonable cost
(maybe £10-25pm but as low as possible); and (iii) be straightforward
to provision and configure. But it sounds like the technology/network
mindset still isn't quite there yet for this sort of application.
JGD
Contacting a data card 
Linear Mode
