Hi,

I wonder whether its possible to use the gsm of the device to dial into my home server? I could handle both ppp or direct telnet dialin
has anyone done that yet?

do you mean via N900 itself or by plugging n900 into pc?

It used to be possible in the past, there was a 'data' mode in GSM and you could set your phone to data mode and connect to an ordinary modem. But I believe that mode isn't available in GSM anymore and that it was abandoned when GPRS was introduced. There certainly isn't any 'data mode' anywhere in modern phone menues.

I meant with the n900 itself.

I haven't done that yet, but it think it should be possible.

If it isn't possible with the internal modem, you could use an external GSM through a bluetooth connection. It takes a little setup, but I have managed to use that to call out using the GPRS connection on an external phone over bluetooth.
It is basically the same setup as we used to have on the Nokia N8x0 tablets. On these tablets it was also possible to use a normal GSM dial-up connection to your own ppp dialin server. I did set that up once, and that worked. But data over GSM isn't supported by all phones, also I believe it needs to be supported by your GSM provider, and also it is VERY slow! I believe the maximum speed is 19200 bps, but I only managed 9600 bps when i tried it (no that isn't a typo, it is "bps"!).

A typo there, you meant 19200, not 192000.. I remember being able to run at 19200 occasionally, but yes, most of the time it was down to 9600 bps. Could still do some useful work over that link (mail, ssh, ssh/cvs tunneling). But I haven't seen a phone with data support since the previous century.

what a bummer,

that would rock. mmhh now I have to think of some other way of accessing my server when internets down :-)

But you should still be able to go the usual GPRS/EDGE/3G/3.5G route.. just go on the network, then ssh or whatever (I use OpenVPN) to your home server. It's way faster than the old GSM/Data mode anyway..

I go online on my N900 this way, and I also go online from my N800 via BT and the N900 (in the latter case I don't first go online on the N900, I just turn on BT. Then I go online on the N800 via its "telephone" setup (which is mapped to my N900). This latter method uses way less data because when you go online on the N900 it immediately downloads a few megabytes for whatever it think it should be doing (check for updates or whatever).

this functionality is called CSD, Circuit Switched Data. it's super slow, and only useful if you have a mobile voice plan but no Internet plan. you also need a dial up ISP account like AOL and your mobile carrier has to provision your line for CSD functionality first.

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

Hm, If its already a home server. you could just activate openvpn.

and use n900 to connect to it.

The most simple one:
1. use remote desktop or vpn from XP
and open the port in your router
and you should be able to use remote desktop or vnc from n900 to your home machine.

Once thats succesful, you could always change it to use openvpn.