Connect a Palm to a LAN via USB cable

Nov 16, '03 10:03:00AM

Contributed by: fuse2

There's a splendid program out there called USB-TCP Bridge that takes everything that comes from the USB port and reroutes it to a TCP connection. And vice versa of course -- everything that comes from that TCP connection will be sent to the USB port. This makes it possible to connect a Palm with a USB interface (Zire for example) to a network via a host computer that runs USB-TCP bridge, pty-redir and pppd.

First of all, download USB-TCP Bridge and pty-redir via the above links. Start USB-TCP Bridge and set it up to:

Press "Start Bridge," and (as written in the app), "You may need to deactivate HotSync before activating the bridge." Decompress pty-redir and run make in the Terminal to compile it. Then run it with:
./pty-redir nc -l -p 22000
This will reroute incoming traffic from port 22000 to a device. pty-redir will print out which device it's going to use -- /dev/ttyp0 or something like that. Next, start pppd on that device:
pppd /dev/ttyp0 115200 10.0.0.1:10.0.0.2 noauth proxyarp
Replace the IP numbers with whatever you are using on your network. Now your connection will be all set to go, just configure your Palm to use USB and connect.

Strong Warning: This hint might jeopardize the security of your network, due to the fact that anyone can connect to your host computer on port 22000 to gain access to your network.

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