atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Connecting to Modem over VOIP/Mobile Tethering

Background: I find myself in an environment where our office is physically open 8-6 but we're expected to provide 24/7 access to all our systems. In the event of a system failure or outage someone either needs to go on site or remotely connect to troubleshoot. Normally wasn't a problem for me since I live 15 minutes away in the event I need to run in, but plan on moving further away (an hour)in the next couple of months and I'm trying to avoid the trip if unnecessary.

Ok, on to the question: Is it possible to get a solid handshake and connection from a modem on a VOIP line at home to a modem using a POTS line at the office? From what I'm reading it's shaky at best, but wondering if anyone has any experience doing the same. My boss seems to think it shouldn't be an issue, but the last time he successfully did a modem-to-modem connection was years ago over POTS. He said if that doesn't work we can always use our mobile phones and tether them to a laptop. My thinking is it would be the same thing?

Are you possibly going at this the wrong way? Is your network available through an internet connection? How about DSL or Cable DSL from your house to some point in your network, rather than fiddle with modem speeds of 56K.(If you're lucky!) John C.

What do you mean by "modem on a VOIP line"?
Cell phones do NOT normally use IP protocols, though some of them have WiFi or/and SIP capability (that last one still rare).

What we do is access our office PC via VPN/remote desktop or Logmein - then use modem on office PC. Functions anywhere you have a PC and internet access.
Mike

We now use a cable provider for our POTS lines via their MTA. I have been pleasantly surprised to find that our dial-up connections to remote modems are rock solid.
Exception: Sites with Dynamic T1/PRI lines. You can try to have the provider uncompress specific numbers but just plan on losing remote dial-up access on those accounts. It doesn't matter what type of phone line that you are calling from.
Other - I have no experience with mobile phone modem connections.

That's what we do as well. I believe that would be your best solution.

If I understand correctly - you want to use a cell phone as you would a POTS line to connect to a MoDem, is that correct?

I too think you're going about it the wrong way. The best way would be to tether the cell to a laptop and use a VPN or LogMeIn.com or TeamViewer, etc.

I don't think the cellular data connection can handle the normal data transfer of an analog or POTS line via MoDem.

Most smartphones now have remote control apps for them. For example my HTC Touch used to have a Remote Desktop app that connected ala Windows Remote Desktop. I now have a BlackBerry Tour that operates a similar app.

We normally connect remotely to our servers using a Citrix secure gateway; that way all we need to do is be able to get to the web page from our current location and as long as the gateway is up we're in. I agree that a straight vpn connection would be the best bet, but we're doing this in the event that the our internet circuit goes down, at which point a vpn would need to be established via dial up. My boss has made it clear that LogMeIn is not an option after another vendor mentioned it as a better way for them to provide support.

With respect to the cell phone - I meant to use my blackberry and tether it to my laptop as a modem and access it that way via vpn. My feeling is it would be used for accessing IE but wouldn't work as a traditional dial-up modem on the laptop but my boss believes differently.

sph - by "modem on a VOIP line" I meant a modem at home going over a telephone line provided from a VOIP service like Vonage or a cable provider offers. At this point I know none of us in the dept have POTS lines at home anymore.

Sure you can use your cell as a modem if you have the appropriate software/drivers from the manufacturer. Depending on the service from your mobile provider it can be slow and insecure. There's also the area coverage available.

As for the other option, for MoIP (modem over IP) such as you are describing your ISP/provider must support the V.150.x protocols. Many of them don't.

I use my cell phone (LG VX-9900 En-V from Verizon) with a USB cable for all of my remote programming from home. I also use it when I'm on the road connected to my laptop. It works absolutely perfectly as a Hayes-compatible MoDem.