/An easy answer is wifi (801C) tethering/
Do you have a reference for this "801C"? I'd like to learn more
about it.
Also, a nit about terminology: "tethering" usually means sharing
you're phone/PDA's Internet connection with the laptop. For example,
using a T-Mobile 3G data plan for surfing the web on your laptop:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tethering
http://mytechbox.wordpress.com/2009/06/07/is-your-mobile-ready-for-wi-fi-tethering/
http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/
That does not sound like what you described. As I read it, you are
only looking for Android -> Laptop connectivity, not Laptop -> [tether]
-> Internet connectivity.
If the only equipment is the laptop and the Android phone, then
there is no easy answer. Android will not host an ad-hoc WiFi network
without being rooted. And I doubt that you want to support a bunch of
Windows users who are trying to configure their Laptop to act as an
ad-hoc WiFi host for their Android phone.
To keep things simple and marketable, I'd try a different approach.
Abandon the "peer-to-peer via ad hoc network" idea. Just write a simple
client/server application that uses TCP/IP. Then the user can use
whatever form of "wireless" that they want to -- up to and including an
ad hoc WiFi network.
For most users, that would mean they'd need a $50 WiFi router for
the laptop and the Android device to both connect to. That avoids the
need to set up an "ad hoc" network on the laptop. But other users could
opt to use the 3G data plan that came with their phone to upload the
data to an Internet-connected server. In your app the user would only
need to punch in the IP Address (and port) of the server.
--Derek
On 02/03/2010 09:59 AM, Larry M Bateman wrote:
I'm looking at doing an application for Android that needs to make
a connection to a local PC (typically a notebook) and be able to
send a few bytes back and forth. I need wireless connection, so
a USB cable won't do the trick. Also I need a fairly good range,
so Bluetooth isn't viable.
An easy answer is wifi (801C) tethering, but that is either completely
disallowed (T-Mobile/ATT), or very costly (Verizon). Root hacks
allow you to do this, but that's not viable for a real product.
I know there's a new spec for local device interfaces under wifi,
but that's a number of years down the road.
Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
