Database Users

Data Call between two XDA's

Hi
I am new to this form.
I had a look at the tsril.zip example as it seems from this forum that to make/receive a data call the ril is the only option. Unfortunately the documentation for ril is nonexistent and I want to ask if someone has done an example of a client/server data call, data transfer between to XDA's.
Thanks in advance.
Anton

It all depends on what type of data you want to transfer. I have never used RIL so I don't know the advantages of it, over the normal programming interface. I say normal, not thinking there is anything wrong with RIL but the little I do know is that RIL is operating system level and is normally hidden from the application programmer. There must be times when RIL must be used if Microsoft forgot functions in the normal APIs.
However I would say that for a data link between 2 devices then RAS seems the way forward. One device would be the Server and the other the Client. I have only ever programmed RAS from the client side, making a Telnet link to an already running server.
I just had a look at the help on Embedded Visual C++ 3.0 and under 'Creating a TCP Stream Socket Application' it explains the server side and then links to the client side. Have a read there.

RAS is not an option as it is a server consept, which I think does not even exist as a service on the desktop windows os let alone on a Pocket PC.
What I am looking for is something similar that you would be able to do with a landline modem or a gsm modem connected to a serial port of a pc (even a usb modem) which is to send AT commands to make/accept a call and then to make use of the serial port as if it is an io stream. This is possible on windows, linux using either c#, c++ or java. I can even do this with an embedded gsm module like the siemens TC45 java module.
What I can not understand is why Microsoft and the XDA suppliers (I am using a Qtex running Pocket PC 2002) is making it so difficult to make/answer a data call and let you run your own protocol over the connected stream.

RAS (Remote Access Services) is built into all Windows Operating Systems, including Windows CE. Did you look up the help example I pointed to ? What you do with RAS on an application level is for you to code but the connection itself is handled by the operating system.
As to making a connection similer to a modem and using AT commands. Then no you can't use AT commands directly, but you don't need to. To get that type of connection you need to use TAPI. Once Tapi has made a DATA_MODEM type connection, you use the TAPI callback connect event to then ask for a file handle that you can use with the normal WriteFile and ReadFile commands.
I already have something on this forum about that see:-
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?p=7857&highlight=#7857

The problem is not so much making the data call but it is accepting/answering the data call that I can not get working on the XDA

Not sure if this is your problem, but in Australia they have a seperate "data" phone number for the same SIM. If yo call one number you get voice, if you call another number you get data on the same sim. Not sure if this may be effecting you.

I just looked into all this ras stuff a bit deeper, and yes I think I may of been talking rubbish. Although RAS does exist in PPC2002, it can't see any functions that allow the device to answer the line. I can see that PPC2003 has a Ras Server and RasIOControl that looks like the answer there.
Also looking into Tapi, I can't see how you answer a data call using that.
So I now understand your problem. It seems PPC is made as a client device.
Is GPRS the answer ? With that the link is always present and then you can use the built in Ras functions on seperate devices. Since you only pay for data actually sent then would it matter if the network link was always present ?
I have only worked out Tapi and Ras from the client side so I have never had this problem, but I agree it is an interesting one. I will have a bow out of this thread for a bit and see if anybody else knows how to Answer a Call.

Thanks for trying.
GPRS is also not the answer as you need a server in between that both XDA's can connect too and use as a router as the XDA's do not get fixed IP adresses but actually a NAT adres from the APN so you can not connect directly between the two.

Now that's an interesting thought, how about using some free web space to act as a pigion hole for your data ?

Believer: A seperate number? How do you know this, and what would the number be?

I can actually make two XDA connecting to each other using TCP. The trick is that I have one client always connect to a server to register it IP address with an ID. Then the caller send a query to the server to look up the callee's IP address.
In this way, accept() and connect() work fine.
I am using AT&T network and not sure about if other networks behave the same.

I wrote two application using TAPI. One is ModemDial and the other is ModemWatch, if I make a voice call the ModemDial dials the number successfully and ModemWatch reports that an incoming call exist. But when I change the behavior of call to DATAMODEM, the ModemWatch couldn't track any incoming call.
Is there any one, had some experience with pick a call for DataModem?
Best regards,
A. Riazi

riazi said:
I wrote two application using TAPI. One is ModemDial and the other is ModemWatch, if I make a voice call the ModemDial dials the number successfully and ModemWatch reports that an incoming call exist. But when I change the behavior of call to DATAMODEM, the ModemWatch couldn't track any incoming call.
Is there any one, had some experience with pick a call for DataModem?
Best regards,
A. Riazi
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In your ModemWatch application make sure you are calling lineOpen with dwPrivileges (the 7th parameter, 1 based) equal to LINECALLPRIVILEGE_OWNER and dwMediaModes (the 8th parameter) equal to LINEMEDIAMODE_DATAMODEM.
If you're able to answer a voice call successfully, making these changes to the ModemWatch application should allow you to answer a data call.

PC<->PPC application comms concurrently with GPRS conn

Hi,
I am trying to develop an application with both PC and Pocket PC components.
The PC and PPC need to exchange data whilst the PPC (eg XDA) has an active GPRS connection.
I first tried using evc and RAPI to allow the PC and PPC components to talk to each other. However RAPI relies on ActiveSync and it seems you cant have an ActiveSync connection to the PC (eg over USB) at the same time as a GPRS connection.
So
1)Am I right that ActiveSync at same time as GPRS is impossible? (And hence RAPI...)
2)What is the easiest way to do PC<->PPC comms without ActiveSync, on the widest variety of PPC devices?
3)Is there a way to do this without writing PC and PPC sides for all of
i) Bluetooth
ii) USB
iii) Serial
It seems like a lot of hardwork to reimplement all these, but some models have BT, some only USB etc etc
Any help appreciated...
Regards,
Giles.

hey,
im also trying to write some client -> server software for my mda/pc. Ive managed to narrow it down to two technologies (excluding activesync cos it needs to be portable)
- Web Services
- Client Server Model (tcpclient and tcplistener)
webservices are good as they will run on any net connection with port80 open, pretty fast and versetile but have some bad flaws. u need some back end data store (like a mysql database) as data is not persistant on then... also u cannot "push" from the server to the device (this may or may not be an issue)
the tcpclient model is starting to appeal to me in a number of ways. u can define your own light-weight protol (SOAP has a nasty habbit of bulking the objects out and GPRS costs!)... i started to write some little test apps and so far its looking good. Ive wrote a very tiny server that runs on windows and has a thin client running a threaded tcplistener and a mysql backend datastore. The test mobie simply constructs a tcpclient object and writes a string "hello world" to the port, which the server picks up and displays in a messagebox... so far this concept is working really well, and i have more control over the serialisation and communication of the objects and types.
i hope ive helped u in some way hehe
Will

HELP GUYS

Hi forum,
I have a WiFi Connection in my office premisis & was womdering if I could create a VPN or a similar p2p connection between my laptop & my universal...
Any comments or ideas..
Thanx,
mOrph

yes you can
but not an activesync connection.
you basically have to get on the WIFI network (VPN not necessary unless you are external of the network and/or behind firewalls).
then its a question of what you want to do, the WIFI network gets you on to it using WEP or WPA SPK I think (we use WEP at home and work).
if you want to connect to your laptop, create a mapped drive then you can copy and paste backwards and forwards.
you can run terminal server to control your PC or connnect to a terminal server, or connect to SBS with administrator priverlidges.
The question is, if you connected, what do you want to do. You cannot activesync, but you might like to try streaming music or other bandwidth consuming activities...

ok
got your PM.
Question: If you created the connection using WIFI between your laptop and your PDA, what do you want to do/achieve?

PS morphosin
Please please please stop using "help guys" as your heading. Refer here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=4534
Particularly point 2.
This is at the beginning of every forum topic.

Hi
Answer:
Hi Simon... The reason i was wanting to connect my laptop & my ppc through Wifi is that i cannot activesync (like you already know).
I was thinking maybe i can have a data trasfer between the devices if nothing else.
Is that possible?
If not, what can the connection be used for?
Thanx buddy,
mOrph

Activesync cannt be done over WIFI, 2003 allowed it not WM2005.
You can share a folder on your PC, and thus place files in and out of that using WIFI. Generally though, I found it more efficient to use an SD card with a USB memory reader to transfer files, much quicker read/write. Usually I want to put pictures or videos back the other way anyway. some pc's and laptops come with memory card readers anyway.
ON your PC' find a folder, right mouse click and share it with a share name. Make sure you know the name of the machine, eg my computers name is TLA-DELL1 for work, and home is the name of my daughter. If you havent named your machine it will have some dodgy obscure pathetic name issued by the manufacturer. You can get this from system in control panel.
On your PDA, start your WIFI.
Using Resco explorer hopefully you have it, map a net work drive. You can try the standard file explorer, but I dont like it. Total commander can also do it. In the share address use:
\\computername\foldersharename
note the double backslash.
Enter usernames and passwords as appropriate.
Now, the pain in the arse bit.... do you have a firewall? This is where it can get tricky.
The other thing you can do is if you are running XP Pro (if not, I recommend it), you can also go into control panel > system on the tab called remote connection, you can tick a box that allows you to take control and use your machine on your PDA using Terminal Server. This allows you to access all the resources and facilities that your machine has as if you were sitting at the console, including the power and processing speed of your computer.
Only downside, the screen is much much smaller than your computer, so getting around it can be painful.
Once you have enabled your machine to allow the connection, its simply a matter of starting wifi, programs > terminal services, and enter the IP address or computer name of your laptop to connect to it, and it should open then a log on name for you to start using your machine.
A further feature, which I dont use and cannot advise how to, but read about it here, is to "stream" mp3's from your laptop to your PDA so you can play music on your PDA based upon music on your machine rather than having to copy it.
In relation to sending files to your computer, if all else fails, I ahve two extra email accounts on my PDA a hotmail account, a POP3 account, and if in times of need, a GMAIL account, all of which allow me to email particular files anywhere I want using any WIFI connection. I use this when all else fails.....
Hence my question, what did you want it for....
Dont worry mate, we'll get there... one day. We just have to challenge MS, and what is life without a challenge or 100 from MS.

remote data software?

was not sure where this post would go so i put it here.
what i am trying to do is this (i might lose ya, but here we go):
I have a home server located in a not-so-easy to get to place that is running opensuse 10.2 and is headless. there applications on there that i would like to see the status of and also any system events that need my attention. these are not complex items, just stuff like kernel updates, disk failures, file usage, etc. i do use realvnc to access that machine from my main computer to check stuff but that is a bit of a pain in the butt. usually the times i vnc in are when the **** has already hit the fan and i am greeted with a dead connection. and yes, before you ask, this server pc is oooollllld. that is why i put it out to pasture just to host my development websites and music/videos for parties (not worry that stuff is backed up).
now to the point. what i want to do with that info is have it sent to my main pc in general and to my wizard in specific. can this be done? i had tried the sms alert apps and the email alert apps that i found on the opensuse forums but they are cludgey and not very detailed and sometimes false positives like if someone (me) deletes a file(s) on purpose i get an alert for each damn thing that gets moved or changed.
so to sum up: i would like help developing a package to send system alerts (temps, hd usage, kernel panics) to my wizard while my wizard is connected to my main pc by usb or when my wizard is on my locally secured wifi network. can this be done?
i see 3 stages here
1) the opensuse machine must run a system event logger (has this already) that can broadcast over the net certain stats (havnt seen this)
2) the main pc will have a client "listening" for these events and routes the information to the wizard either through usb or wife re-routing (this can be done for syncing data over wifi/bt/usb so the protocol is there)
3) a listening app on my wizard to recieve the info sent to it by the main pc. this application will not be on all the time (like when i am not home..in that case i use the opensuse email/sms app) but only when it is within wifi range or is docked to my main pc.
i have found several temp monitors for linux that do log data or that allow other apps to hook into it. filesystem errors can be handled by the overall system health apps as well. i can send data to and from my wizard with a little rinkydinky test app i wrote but the problem seems to be the transfer of system level data to a remote machine. the only problem i am having is connecting all the pieces.
any help or pointers would be welcome. not asking for handouts but help or else i wont learn much in the process =)
wergeld

ActiveSync over GPRS - Programming Request

Guys,
i know im not that great of a programmer. But i was wondering if anyone can program the following setup? it would help A LOT of us newbies .
- Serial Port emulator for PocketPC.
a. Input has to be transfert from a serial port (for use with activesync) to the internet service (TCP) with a specific IP-adress and back.
- Serial Port emulator for PC.
a. The emulator needs to listen to a specific port for TCP connection requests. And forward everything to the emulated com-port and back.
I know there excist many serial emulators for the pc, but none with an TCP/IP server integraded.
For a visual display, take a look at the picture that is included.

This is a very interesting thing. It would just provide ActiveSync over ANY TCP/IP connection (so also WiFi and such).
The serial ports part can certainly be done (not that I looked into how difficult it is, but I know it is possible)
I am however still unclear in how doing this would enable ActiveSync to work. Sure I can connect the PC side to a COM port, but how would this work on the PPC side? If I look in ActiveSync there, I don't see an option to connect to a COM port. Maybe I am overlooking something.

There are several USB-over-IP solutions out there, would they help in achieving your goal?? although its not clear to me what your goal is...
Hope this is helpful,
Cheers!
nid