(OT) Getting wallpapers to a cellphone from a computer

[piper]

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.

This new phone having internet access, I did find a website to download
them for a very small fee, (under a buck), but there were no wallpapers
that I really liked. I did download one just to see if it would work,
and it did. (payment was in the form of minutes deducted, not cash).

What I really wanted was to take some of my photos and use them. I took
a few of them and used a paint software to convert them to the size
needed (128 x 128). The problem is how to get them to my phone. I
began by sending myself an email from the cell, so I knew the email
address of the phone. Then I sent a reply email from my computer, and
attached one of these pictures. The email arrived but the attachment
was removed. So, that wont work.

I should mention this camera does not have a camera. It's just a phone
with internet access.

How can I download these photos to the phone?

Is it possible to just get one of those photo
sharing sites, put the picture on that site, go to that site with the
phone, and save (download) them? Or what if I create a website and put
the pictures on that site? Or another idea is to get a free web based
email account like yahoo or gmail and email the photo to that email
address, (from my regular email) and access that free email via the
phone?

I'm sure this has been done before, but I'm at a loss how.
What is the trick to doing this?

Note: This phone does not have a camera, and says that it can not be
connected to a computer via USB. Someone told me to use bluetooth. I'm
completely lost when that is suggested...... What is bluetooth? Will
that work.... What sort of hardware/software is used for bluetooth (if
that would work), and I dont know if this phone is capable of using
bluetooth anyhow????

Sorry if I'm asking a lot of questions at once. This is all new to me,
and I'm elderly and this is all pretty puzzling. Computers make much
more sense to me than these phones....

If this matters, I'm running XP, but also have an older computer with
Win98 and Win2000 on it. I have dialup internet or can use a WIFI
place. (probably none of this matters, and those pictures are a small
data size).

As for ringtones, I found the easiest way to get them is just play a MP3
on my computer and use the built in voice recorder on the phone. It
works for both voice, music and computer sound effects. So I really dont
need to download any ringtones.

Thanks

P

 

[Auric__]

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.

This new phone having internet access, I did find a website to download
them for a very small fee, (under a buck), but there were no wallpapers
that I really liked. I did download one just to see if it would work,
and it did. (payment was in the form of minutes deducted, not cash).

What I really wanted was to take some of my photos and use them. I took
a few of them and used a paint software to convert them to the size
needed (128 x 128). The problem is how to get them to my phone. I
began by sending myself an email from the cell, so I knew the email
address of the phone. Then I sent a reply email from my computer, and
attached one of these pictures. The email arrived but the attachment
was removed. So, that wont work.

I should mention this camera does not have a camera. It's just a phone
with internet access.

How can I download these photos to the phone?

Is it possible to just get one of those photo
sharing sites, put the picture on that site, go to that site with the
phone, and save (download) them?

Try that first. Go to, say, flickr, and find an image that's small enough.
Download that and see if it works.

Or what if I create a website and put the pictures on that site?

That's what I did for my old phone.

Or another idea is to get a free web based
email account like yahoo or gmail and email the photo to that email
address, (from my regular email) and access that free email via the
phone?

You can try it.

I'm sure this has been done before, but I'm at a loss how.
What is the trick to doing this?

Note: This phone does not have a camera, and says that it can not be
connected to a computer via USB. Someone told me to use bluetooth. I'm
completely lost when that is suggested...... What is bluetooth? Will
that work.... What sort of hardware/software is used for bluetooth (if
that would work), and I dont know if this phone is capable of using
bluetooth anyhow????
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth

Sorry if I'm asking a lot of questions at once. This is all new to me,
and I'm elderly and this is all pretty puzzling. Computers make much
more sense to me than these phones....

If this matters, I'm running XP, but also have an older computer with
Win98 and Win2000 on it. I have dialup internet or can use a WIFI
place. (probably none of this matters, and those pictures are a small
data size).

As for ringtones, I found the easiest way to get them is just play a MP3
on my computer and use the built in voice recorder on the phone. It
works for both voice, music and computer sound effects. So I really dont
need to download any ringtones.

If it works, it works.

 

[Paul]

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

 

[Paul in Houston TX]

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.

Tracfone is just a phone service provider.
Take a look at your phone and find out the make
and model number. If it is a LG or Motorola then
you may be able to use Bitpim.

 

[Paul]

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.

This new phone having internet access, I did find a website to download
them for a very small fee, (under a buck), but there were no wallpapers
that I really liked. I did download one just to see if it would work,
and it did. (payment was in the form of minutes deducted, not cash).

What I really wanted was to take some of my photos and use them. I took
a few of them and used a paint software to convert them to the size
needed (128 x 128). The problem is how to get them to my phone. I
began by sending myself an email from the cell, so I knew the email
address of the phone. Then I sent a reply email from my computer, and
attached one of these pictures. The email arrived but the attachment
was removed. So, that wont work.

I should mention this camera does not have a camera. It's just a phone
with internet access.

How can I download these photos to the phone?

Is it possible to just get one of those photo
sharing sites, put the picture on that site, go to that site with the
phone, and save (download) them? Or what if I create a website and put
the pictures on that site? Or another idea is to get a free web based
email account like yahoo or gmail and email the photo to that email
address, (from my regular email) and access that free email via the
phone?

I'm sure this has been done before, but I'm at a loss how.
What is the trick to doing this?

Note: This phone does not have a camera, and says that it can not be
connected to a computer via USB. Someone told me to use bluetooth. I'm
completely lost when that is suggested...... What is bluetooth? Will
that work.... What sort of hardware/software is used for bluetooth (if
that would work), and I dont know if this phone is capable of using
bluetooth anyhow????

Sorry if I'm asking a lot of questions at once. This is all new to me,
and I'm elderly and this is all pretty puzzling. Computers make much
more sense to me than these phones....

If this matters, I'm running XP, but also have an older computer with
Win98 and Win2000 on it. I have dialup internet or can use a WIFI
place. (probably none of this matters, and those pictures are a small
data size).

As for ringtones, I found the easiest way to get them is just play a MP3
on my computer and use the built in voice recorder on the phone. It
works for both voice, music and computer sound effects. So I really dont
need to download any ringtones.

Thanks

P

OK, I have another idea. Use a site like imageshack.us or picasa.
Store your desired wallpaper on there, using the computer and dialup.
Then, use the phone and the URL of the picture you stored, to
download it on the phone side. That'll save having to set up a web
server.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_photo_sharing_websites

On the imageshack site, I might select "Do Not Resize" before uploading.
That way, the pixel format of the image won't be changed.

If you click on the image after upload on the imageshack.us site,
you can eventually get to a point, where you can right-click and
copy the URL of the image file itself. That's what you want to use
for the phone, when downloading.

For example, this is something I uploaded to imageshack.us recently,
and this is a "raw" link to just the photo I uploaded. By using
the raw image link, you avoid the surrounding advertising. Some of the
other image hosting sites, are much more annoying about doing this
kind of thing, and make it harder to get to the image for download
purposes.

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/2522/checkusbkey.gif

Paul