Tech Old-Timer, cellphone upgrade, and "Whither go I now?"

[BonzaiDuck]

I've been "doing micro-computers" since 1982. I've built all my systems since '95. After experimenting in the '80s with something like a home-made precursor to a laptop, I stayed away from laptops because I didn't trust the battery technology. But now, I've flipped on that, adding a refurb-surplus souped-up laptop to my array of desktops.

Been running a home LAN since before 2000, and we opened up the wireless access point of the router to accommodate the lappie.

I ONLY EVER WANTED A CELLPHONE FOR VOICE-COMMUNICATION. All during the last decade, I was watching these youngsters with their texting, reading about people texting and driving before their visit to the Emergency Room, watched the degradation of our language with some kind of "acronym-speak" -- U NO? U NO what I mean, jelly-bean?

Now I see that having a "beam-me-up-Scotty" device for all sorts of things may be an advantage. And my cell provider offered me an iPhone upgrade to my "dumb phone." Hardware: free. The $30/mo subscription with limited free minutes becomes $60/mo unlimited talk and text with 250MB of "data" (for internet access). I can see it can be worth it: I was rationing my cell calling to keep within the $30 minimum, and a single 20-minute call out-of-state would've boosted my charges to $60 on occasion. I'll adjust my monthly budget.

SO FAR:

I've got home internet access on my iphone through my wireless LAN, so I don't cut into my 250MB/mo.

I've downloaded the apps so I can watch HBO or CNN in that warm, quiet place for my morning evacuation routine.

I can use the phone as a "remote" for my cable-TV, once I've identified and named the set-top boxes in the house, which already show up on the phone once I've logged on with it to my ISP account.

I can't STAND "texting" on anything with which the E-Trade baby can't touch type. Maybe I'll establish a fourth e-mail account for myself for "doing mail," but this is pretty primitive communication -- U NO?

I'd like to get iphone access to my LAN and certain file folders, but I'm a bit bewildered. Does this require VPN? Do I need to register the phone as a "device" on my WHS box? Can I do something like pull up a remote desktop view of a desktop computer on the phone?

Then, there's SECURITY. It seems my main e-mail account and password has become such for running my ISP's "app" for TV, and it's now registered with Apple. I just saw the news about celebrities using iCloud. I reluctantly chose to use iCloud when I was setting up other aspects of my phone.

Any thoughts? Sorry I'm such a noobie on iPhone. Some ideas or directions could help.

I still don't "facebook" or "tweet" -- after reading of folks whose identity info had been compromised.

Oh, golly-wolly, Mollie! I can take selfies!! [I don't need to remind myself to avoid pointing the iphone camera at my shorts -- to pull a "Weiner." ] I value my privacy.

 

[s44]

I'd like to get iphone access to my LAN and certain file folders, but I'm a bit bewildered. Does this require VPN? Do I need to register the phone as a "device" on my WHS box? Can I do something like pull up a remote desktop view of a desktop computer on the phone?

You should have gotten an Android.

 

[PowerYoga]

splashtop does remote computing, not sure if there's an iphone equivalent though and the connection is spotty at best for me. Astro and esFileExplorer also does remote file sharing, at least it lets you access stuff if you're on the same wireless network, but I've only used those on droid and don't know how well it works for the iphone.

 

[Auric]

You should have gotten an Android.

$60 seems a lot with 250MB data but of course it's really paying for an unnecessarily expensive and high margin device. Should have considered a better value universal outright sans contract (whether Android or Windows Phone).

 

[TuxDave]

splashtop does remote computing, not sure if there's an iphone equivalent though and the connection is spotty at best for me. Astro and esFileExplorer also does remote file sharing, at least it lets you access stuff if you're on the same wireless network, but I've only used those on droid and don't know how well it works for the iphone.

Heh, you bet there is. It's one of the most popular business apps on the Apple Store.

 

[bearxor]

I'd like to get iphone access to my LAN and certain file folders, but I'm a bit bewildered. Does this require VPN? Do I need to register the phone as a "device" on my WHS box? Can I do something like pull up a remote desktop view of a desktop computer on the phone?

Before this can be answered, I think it might be best to know what type of files. And do you want to access them around the house or while you're out and about?

Then, there's SECURITY. It seems my main e-mail account and password has become such for running my ISP's "app" for TV, and it's now registered with Apple. I just saw the news about celebrities using iCloud. I reluctantly chose to use iCloud when I was setting up other aspects of my phone.

There's nothing really wrong with iCloud. There is a problem with being someone of notoriety and using weak passwords. Do you have either of those issues?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Before this can be answered, I think it might be best to know what type of files. And do you want to access them around the house or while you're out and about?


There's nothing really wrong with iCloud. There is a problem with being someone of notoriety and using weak passwords. Do you have either of those issues?

No -- I don't get paid like a celebrity, and I don't have exposure. The password has l-case, u-case and numbers.

On the files issue, you got me thinking. I don't want to look at my PDF archives or Word files if I can't edit or "do stuff" with them. Otherwise, it would be "both" -- around the house and out and about. Even so, I really don't need that sort of access when I'm away from home.

I don't even like the idea of reading or answering e-mails on the phone, and I don't want to use my existing addresses. While I could access multiple addresses in my outlook browser, my strategy had been to allocate different addresses to different computers. So I can create a new address at my ISP and allocate it to the phone.

OK probably for READING e-mail, but I'm not very goosey and warm to the idea of COMPOSING them. I'd noticed that my iPhone-hotdawg friends had been answering e-mails from me with one and two liners -- a departure from earlier behavior. Then I began to see the "Sent from my I-phone" script at the bottom of each message.

Nice -- to have these handheld devices, but in a broader sense, I'm beginning to suspect -- from world events, state and local -- just emerging trends in human behavior -- that the entire human race is going nuts.

It still makes sense, though, that I can watch CNN while taking a long massive-gassive . . .

UPDATE: Someone thought the monthly subscription was a tad high. I looked at the "plan" again. The original subscription -- limited or promotional free-minutes and free weekends -- was averaging $29/mo. The new plan offers unlimited talk/text at $40, and the data is $15/mo. So I think I'm looking at $55/mo. I can only say that seems reasonable in comparison to the old plan. I could actually drop the data access, but it seems like a nice thing to have. Maybe some other provider would offer it for less.

This was always behind my reticence to have a smart-phone, or a tablet with wireless: subscription charges. I see all these Gen-Z kids burning up their brains with the devices, and an older guy I knew who did construction contracting told me of his "family" subscription that was costing him closer to $500/mo. that's really quite insane. For all the great connectivity, I had a conversation with one of the "youngsters" about 20th century history -- The Cold War. She said: "Oh, yeah! That was when we were fighting the columnists!!" So . . . I don't think the connectivity has resulted in a newer, better human race.

 

[bearxor]

So the easiest and fastest way to do what you want would be to sync your files to Dropbox or Google Drive or OneDrive or iCloud Drive (in a few weeks anyways). That's the quickest, easiest way to get your files accessible to your phone in your house and out.

When you first started up the App Store, it should have asked if you want to download the Apple Apps. Things like Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Those are Word/Excel/PowerPoint applications. You will be able to open a Word document in Pages from a cloud service.

I have a feeling, however, that you probably don't want to do that. In that case, you'd need something like FileExplorer. That will connect you to your shares and even has a viewer built in. You can then open the file in other apps like Pages or Office Mobile.

But then you have the issue of accessing outside your house. For that you'd need a VPN.

 

[ImDonly1]

So which provider are you using?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

So the easiest and fastest way to do what you want would be to sync your files to Dropbox or Google Drive or OneDrive or iCloud Drive (in a few weeks anyways). That's the quickest, easiest way to get your files accessible to your phone in your house and out.

When you first started up the App Store, it should have asked if you want to download the Apple Apps. Things like Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Those are Word/Excel/PowerPoint applications. You will be able to open a Word document in Pages from a cloud service.

I have a feeling, however, that you probably don't want to do that. In that case, you'd need something like FileExplorer. That will connect you to your shares and even has a viewer built in. You can then open the file in other apps like Pages or Office Mobile.

But then you have the issue of accessing outside your house. For that you'd need a VPN.

Bearxor!! You're a prince -- scholar and a gentleman! Who knows how long it would've taken to find out those little gems of information? I don't even know if they're mentioned in the "I-Phone Manual/guide-book."

WHS has this feature for "remote access" by computers, which I suspect implements VPN. Need to look at it more carefully. If I were still in my former life, humping up and down the Shirley Highway to work every day, I'd be more keen on doing something like that. But even if I go on a two-week vacation to visit fam-damn-ily in WA now, I'm not sure I'd need it.

It's a trade-off between curiosity and a desire to "explore features," versus the basic need for them. I had just gone "goo-gah" several months ago, when a cell-store employee of a friend who runs the store showed me his Android, demonstrating how his home desktop appeared with little teensy-weensy icons on the Android screen.

Really. What are the benefits of that? To see that everything's running ship-shape? or to run some application on the PC while you're away from home? These days, I go out for three hours to make a round of several stores for grocery provisions and miscellany . . .

 

[bearxor]

WHS has a web page you can make public to log in to and access files and stuff. I'm not sure it'd be compatible with any of the phone browsers. Maybe for some generic file browsing and stuff, but not likely for the remote control.