Pick up phoneline?

S

scaryfish

Registered
I was wondering if anyone knows if this is possible:
What I'd like to be able to do is to have my computer at home listen to the phoneline it's connected to, and if it rings pick it up. Then, possibly if a certain code is entered, it would hang up and dial up the internet.

Basically, I'd like to be able to access my computer (via ssh or ftp or whatever I'd set up - I've got a dyndns account so I can find the IP easily enough) remotely, without having to leave it connected to the internet all the time. So, I'd just give my own internet-line number a ring, maybe dial in a certain code if that's possible, and hang up and it would connect to the internet.

Any ideas? Is this even possible?
 
One word, broadband.


Seriously, I know you are in NZ however I know some people in NZ with broadband and that is your best bet. What you are requesting is possible to code, but not very easily and definately not very securely.

Not to mention when it dials up it will have to somehow give you the IP address it has, etc. etc. I guess you could use a dyndns service but overall I think you should just look into broadband :)
 
Yes it is certainly possible. You just have to have an app that is running that will listen on the line, pick up, and then wait for some touch tone combo to be entered. If the right "password" is entered, it would then hang up and launch your PPP client, or whatever you use to dial in.

Unfortunately I don't know enough about OSX to know exactly how to do this, though it seems like it's doable with a small app + AppleScript. "Talking" to the modem to do all the answering/listening is fairly straight forward, you just pass strings back and forth (e.g. you send an "ath" to hang up, it sends you "ring" to tell you the phone is ringing, etc).
 
I'd love to get broadband, but I'm a poor student :p
Seriously, I cant really justify the expense of it for what I'd use it for.

Why wouldn't it be secure? Ok, I can see how someone could ring up themselves if they got hold of my phone number and code, but the worst that would do would make my computer connect to the internet. Which isn't really a problem, as I have unlimited acces..

I've already got the IP problem sorted out, just a little script in ip-up that passes the IP to ddclient which updates scaryfish.dyndns.org - no problem there. It's also quite easy to make an applescript to dial up:
tell application "Internet Connect" to connect

Anyway, thanks for the ideas!
 
Hmm, you got me interested with your idea as I am in a similar situation. The only problem that I would see is actually communicating with the modem (heh, the thing you want to do)

Tell me if you make any progress, I will do the same.

Your idea also brought up an idea from me... voice mail! That would be really cool (and useful) :p
 
Originally posted by Untitled
Your idea also brought up an idea from me... voice mail! That would be really cool (and useful) :p
Click to expand...

Applescripting some speakable items and using voice recog would be cooler.
 
Yes

I was loking also as something like voice mail.
Someone has any idea how to record, voice from a internal modem? Someone know how and where to get info about the intenal modem?
May be cocoa or applescript code.

René
 
Sorry guys, you can forget about handling voice over the internal modem. I've searched high and low for a way to use the internal modem instead of a regular phone, but it just won't work. The internal modem doesn't do voice. Fax and digital connections only. :-(
 
i was thinking about doing much the same sort of thing before i bought my laptop. I would get to uni and realise i had left part of my assignment at home.


What i did was set it to dial up when ever the phone rang and if i didnt connect to it within 5 mins it would disconnect and go back to sleep.

This aint so clever if you know your phone rings during the day!! (and if it dosent why not just leave it on? - cause its better/harder that way!)

if you find a way of getting the touch tones and getting this working , you might almost have a marketable shareware app. Hell i might even have a go!! If you want my scripts i wrote i will email them to you! But what i had was fairly complicated and round about way of doing it!
 
I regularly send AppleScript commands to my Mac from my cellphone.
Here's how:

1. I got a broadband connection (cable modem) so I'm always connected to the internet. I could have had my Mac log on via a phoneline and accomplish the same thing but dialup is slow and I like the Mac to listen for a command every 30 seconds or so.

2. I established a dedicated email address for my Mac. The address is checked for particular key words and all other mail is discarded (no spam). I could have used an Instant Messaging (IM) address to do this but I went with email as a shortcut.

3. When an email is recieved at my Macs dedicated address my email application automatically runs an applescript. I use Entourage but most other Mac based email aps can be triggered to run a script.

4. The subject line of the emails I send are also the names of my applescripts I want to run. When the email is detected, the first script gets the subject line from the mail and uses that text as the name of the next script to run. (My subject-line and my applescript-name must match exactly for it to be treated as a command.)

5. I then use the voice dialing feature on my (Motorola/Verizon) mobile phone. Instead of activating a phone number when I speak, I have it set to activate a preset email which is stored in my phone's shortcuts. By speaking the command and confirming by pressing 'send' -- the email with the 'command' in the subject is recieved by my Mac and my script of the same name is activated.

The best part is that whenever I want to add a new speakable command, I can now simply type in a new command in my speed dialer. As long as there is a script of the same name in my home computer, it will be run. I don't have to edit any code or preferences file, it just works!

Examples currently in use:

- By using dialModemOSAX.osax I can have the Mac dial phone codes including turning call forwarding on or off. This allows me to transfer phone calls from my home phone to my mobile phone on the fly or turn off the feature if I need to call home.

- I use one really cool script to read my schedule and send a copy via email to my phone. This allows me to retrieve my schedule and other important info on the road.

- 'Remote Parenting' I can actually have the Mac read out loud and repeat the message until someone presses the button on the alert window. The most frequently used announcement is "Call dad! Call Dad!". (Used when my teens won't get off the phone.)

Although this is all being done on a MacG4 with Jaguar, I'm pretty sure most of this will work in OS9 (or earlier) as well. Voice dialing, email, triggered scripts, modem dialing OSAXen, and AppleTalk are all pretty standard stuff. It's linking things together that makes 'em cool!

I hope this helps with your concept of remotely dialing in to the Mac. It's not the same as talking directly to the Mac (which is what I set out to do) but it's pretty darned close! If anyone needs the actual scripts let me know and I'll post a copy (with sample commands of course.)

-Mr.Science
[www.theMrScienceShow.com]
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top