Desktop As a Cellphone Extension?

spaceman375 writes "Like many slashdotters, I've given up on landlines and have only a cell account. The problem: when I am home I don't want to carry my phone on my person, AND I don't want to have to run (possibly up or down stairs) to answer a call. Landlines solved this with extensions. I could go buy an xlink or other Bluetooth-to-POTS solution, but that takes money for equipment. My desktop has Bluetooth, as do my laptop and cell. All I want is a program that can use my cell's Bluetooth to make and receive calls from my Linux PC. I can do this with asterisk or related programs, but that is like buying UPS when I just need a taxi ride. Yet all I can find are programs that either use 'presence' to shift other-sourced calls to my cell, or ways to use a Bluetooth headset when receiving a call on a PC. Has anyone found a way to use their desktop to make and receive calls through their cell via Bluetooth?"

Re:Grand Central

[Anonymous Coward]

Grand central isn't available to the general public yet.

They have been opening it up to those on the waiting list over the last few days, but overall it's still a closed site.

Use Forward

[lunk]

I just forward my calls to my asterisk instance with *72 on Verizon. *72111-222-3333.

1989 called.

[Gordonjcp]

They want their breezeblock-sized phones that run off a car battery back. Apparently you were supposed to go and buy a modern phone that you can carry with you.

HFP Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

Take a look at HFP for Linux: http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/linux/125997-hfp-linux-bluetooth-hands-free.html [mp3car.com]. I've been able to dial my phone over bluetooth, and use the desktop's mic and speakers for the call.

Why so complicated?

[fluch]

Place your battery charger at a convenient place and when ever you get home plug the phone into the charger and do NOT unplug it untill you leave the house. Then you have the same functionality as you had with a fixed line phone with a cord. You cannot misplace your phone anymore.

Re:Let me get this straight...

[Khris]

Actually yes, I do always carry my wallet with me.

Re:No such functionality

[theeddie55]

look like a twat (wear a bluetooth headset all day) is not a good solution to anything, i'd have to stick with carrying the phone, if you tend to wear cloths without pockets, get a belt clip. If you're a naturist, get a lanyard to hang your phone on or stick the phone up your ass, there's always a way. (BTW that last bit was a joke, unless you feel that it's something you want to try. :-))

Same problem- so fixed it

[iamtheprincess]

We are not near the computer at all times sometimes out side working so not realistic to have the cell phone on you. and have to have it inside pluged in to charge. So I got a house phone with base unit and 3 portable phones. solved all problems karen http://www.iamtheprincess.com/ [iamtheprincess.com]

Re:No such functionality

[ttldkns]

check out bluephone elite. its for the mac, but it does everything the OP wants

Let me get this straight

[Pokey.Clyde]

You neither want to carry your phone with you, nor do you want to have to actually walk somewhere to answer it. Are you really that damn lazy? It's a damn phone. Stick it in your pocket and be done with it. Shit, do you need help tying your shoes, too? Get a helmet and go on about your life.

Cellphone, home phone, sip and the freebox

[orogorhotmail.com]

If you live in France you get a my favorite ISP, (don t have any commercial relation but be one of his customer), free (appears at fbx.proxad.net on irc )who has what they call a freebox (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freebox), which is one of the inventor as what we know now as triple pay for internet, phone, and video, and they offer as a small but good geek bonus an option like a sip account, wifi, and redirections of your phone line linked to your adsl account to that sip account you own. now if you have a phone on which the sip works (bought a n85 a week ago), then you can do what as you want, have a single device. However note that peoples still have 2 numbers to contact you and you still have 2 outgoing choices for phone calls. They got other bonuses like tivo like recoder with HD channels, about 180 channels, and phone to landline to 60 countries for 30â, good news server retention, usualy, 6MB adsl, ipv6, Gb sized mail with zimbra and web account with apache mysql. (note that they had to inovate and redo the dslam infrastructure to do that), hoo too much goodies. I even like their geeky tv ads, and i mean by anyway , long time ago in france when isp were charging us for internet access on top of the phone comunication fee (which was way higher than now), and free was the first to have no charge on top of the phone fees, and that's where they got their name and then their infrastructure and budget to do what they do now. Now also be prepaired to wait for 3 months to get your dsl line, because the historic operator always make a few errors when switching the connecting to their lines.

Re:Let me get this straight...

[zonky]

google has suggested: http://www.cell2telgateway.com/ [cell2telgateway.com]

I went with a a hardware solution

[midicase]

I thought about these issues and ended up just buying a Panasonic bluetooth capable home phone: http://www.panasonic.com/consumer_electronics/telephones_central/bluetooth_phones/default.asp [panasonic.com]
I paid about 100 USD.
When the cell phone is in range the base acts just like a headset but relay's the call to any of the three cordless phone handsets around the house. My wife has even grown accustomed to it but there are a couple drawbacks. Weak bluetooth signal drains the battery, fast. No voicemail alert.
I west so far as to port my land number to wireless and just leave the extra cell phone plugged in the charger near the base-station. I can't even see the cell or the base-station, just have the threee handset strategically placed around the house.

Re:Grand Central

[adolf]

Google Voice doesn't have that problem.

It just rings all of the phones of my choosing, and if someone answers one of them, it talks to me: "You have a call from [caller's name]. Press 1 to answer, 2 to send to voice mail, 3 to listen in on the voice mail, or 4 to accept and record the call."

Since neither my home answering machine nor my cell phone's voice mail know how to dial 1, calls don't get terminated if voice mail (or whatever) answers inappropriately. It'd work the same way with a Gizmo SIP extension, if I'd ever bothered to set one up . . .

I don't remember if this was the default behavior, or something that I had to set up with Google Voice, but it works just fine for me.

windows mobile to XP (and Vista)

[blackest_k]

http://www.inspectmygadget.com/2007/04/30/use-your-computer-to-receive-your-mobile-phone-calls-via-the-hands-freeheadset-profile-using-bluetooth-wm5/ [inspectmygadget.com]

Ok theres a windows solution for windows mobile phones (it looks like it should work for other mobiles).

now who can find a linux solution.

Re:Let me get this straight...

[Anonymous Coward]

OfficeMax has a fairly basic "cell fusion" phone for $60.
http://tinyurl.com/n4t25n

Re:Let me get this straight...

[imamac]

1. Get Google Voice. 2. Set it to ring your cell and a Skype number. 3. No step 3. See how easy that was?

Asterisk...

[lordsid]

Congratulations you answered your own question in the very same post you posed it in.

There is no "buying" asterisk, it's open source. At most you will need an FXS card/box. The FXS card allows you to ring your house phones. If you want to deal with a real land line you need an FXO card.

Using the FollowMe feature in Asterisk will give you exactly what you ask for. In all you shouldn't have to spend more then $300 on the card and computer. Best part is you can keep using the same house phones you've had all along. (SIP phones cost $90+)

Your ideal setup would be a cellphone with a friends and family package where you pick a number you get unlimited calls to. Setup a SIP account through one of the many services. This will give you a callable number. Pick this as your number in your friends and family package. Connect the asterisk box to the sip account. You can now call home to your asterisk box over the internet for free, you can then call out again using your asterisk box to any other sip user for free or to any other landline for a small charge depending on the service (typically $0.01/min).

Re:Let me get this straight...

[Cylix]

Panasonic has models with the integrated blue tooth link.

They also do not cost 99$.

I'm sure there are many products out there. My intention is not to advertise a product, but rather explain that such a device exists (with multiple competitors).

The advantage of the particular model I have is that you can use it for both land line and blue tooth pairing, but the draw back is that only one line can be in use.

The land line portion is actually connected to a VOIP analogue adapter. Now, it would be nice if I could simply have everything in one package, but it works well enough for now.

bluetooth?

[BrokenHalo]

In any case, the fact that bluetooth adds another load to your phone battery besides the usual cell coverage, it occurs to me that any solution involving this might leave the device tied to a charger too much to be useful. I agree with the earlier poster: just carry the phone with you.

On the other hand, while we (may) no longer need a POTS phone, it's usually simple enough to just connect a VOIP phone, with as many extensions as you need. Most people are perfectly capable of coping with you having more than one phone number.

Re:bluetooth?

[grub]

In any case, the fact that bluetooth adds another load to your phone battery besides the usual cell coverage

Simple: put your phone charger near the bluetooth-enabled base station. A nightly charge should be plenty.