PC to mobile phone connection

Does anybody out there have any practical experience of connecting a mobile phone to a PC? I'm quite good at PCs but my knowledge of mobiles is limited to Switch on - Dial - Talk - Hang up - Switch off. That's all I ever wanted one for but kids are different. I'm now being pestered to print pictures off a phone, download (or is that upload) ring tones and even edit logos. What's a logo???

The phones in question are both Siemens: an MC60 and a C45. The PC is a 233MMX running 98SE. After many hours' grubbing around the internet I've managed to download a Siemens software suite (free from their website) that says it's compatable with the MC60 but not the C45. The only thing I've found that claims to work with this ia a third party program called Mobile Navigator. So far so good. Now for the hardware.

It looks like I can get an RS232 cable for the C45 for about £9 which I don't mind paying but the MC60 is a tougher nut. The company (Solware) who sell that £9 cable don't do one for the MC60. They say it's obsolete. They do sell a USB cable complete with software (which I don't need - or do I?) for £20 but since the software is free I think this is a rip-off. I tried a local phone accessory shop and they wanted £30 for the same cable!!!

Downloading free software is one thing but I'm reluctant to shell out hard cash for hardware that might not work when I get it. Any advice on what to buy - or not buy - and how to use it would be gratefully received. Many thanks in anticipation.

logos are pictures, for example someone who likes racing may want a racecar on their phone, or have your name / a word on the phone

as for connecting the other phone you may have trouble if the phone is old, most of it is now done via infra red or blue tooth (but some pictures taken by phones are best left on the phone)

I can down load my phone's pictures to my pc via bluetooth, i use a thing called a bluetooth dongle (believe it or not) see here

good luck

Have you tried this?

Thanks lads. That's just what I was looking for. My local shop can go plug its £30 cable into an incompatible socket!

Just in case anybody picks up this thread:

When I ordered the two data cables from Activemobiles I was redirected to WorldPay to make the payment. So far so good but then things started to go wrong. The WorldPay website informed me that I'd just bought something from a company called Prentice International (????). Moreover, I wasn't returned to either Activemobiles or Prentice International but was left dangling in cyberspace.

At this point I did what I should have done in the first place and searched the internet for info on Activemobiles. It wasn't promising. All I found were tales of woe about undelivered goods, unanswered e-mails and a phone sent for repair but never returned. I e-mailed Activemobiles asking them to confirm that they were processing my order but got no reply. I phoned them and got an answer machine. They never rang back. I checked Companies House and found that Activemobiles ceased trading in January 2004. Not good! I searched the internet for any details on Prentice International but found nothing whatsoever. Getting worse!!

After a week of this I gave up hope of getting my data cables and went back to WorldPay who claimed to guarantee me against fraud. I filled out an on-line 'shopper escalation form' - a bit of an obstacle course in itself - and got what looked like an automated reply to the effect that they would contact Prentice International themselves and, slightly worrying, if I didn't hear anything in a week I should contact my credit card company. Not much of a guarantee then!

I was less annoyed about the possible loss of £19 than the need to start all over again, especially since nobody else was selling an RS232 to MC60 cable, but ---

Surprize, surprize, two cables arrived soon after!! I also had a single e-mail from WorldPay to say that Prentice International had replied to them to the effect that "the cables are in the post".

My advice to anybody who has ordered stuff from Activemobiles and got nothing is to complain to WorldPay; you might get lucky. And if you're thinking of ordering from them --- DON'T!!!

Apologies for the link. I have ordered from these guys in the past (albeit a couple of years), but had no problem. Just goes to show how businesses change.

Glad you got the cables. Maybe sell one on ebay

No apology needed Igorian. I'm not blaming you in any way whatsoever and I did get the cables. The RS232 to MC60 cable was a really lucky find because I've not been able to find them anywhere else (except eBay).

For anybody who wants to know, the new cable for this phone is USB but here's a puzzle. The phone itself is not USB compatible. Those new leads have a USB to RS232 converter built in and come with a driver which creates a virtual COM port on your PC. This sounds like a backwards step to me.

Some also come with software to communicate with the phone. You pay extra for this but you shouldn't because you can get it free from the Siemens website.

i know im digging up an old thread but are dongles universal...ie. if i go and buy a dongle from Maplin it should be able to assist in transfering pics fron bluetooth phone to pc?

might of been better in a new thread but never mind. Yes the BT dongles are not specific to the phone and should work with any BT phone. Best place for them I have found is Mobile fun. click here to go straight to a BT dongle for £5. I have one and it works fine.
Worth mentioning that BT can be a bit tricky to set up. If you have problems then come back here. Worth checking the settings on your phone though, most these days have 2 BT modes to connect to PC. One connects the phone for using the phone software, the other will connect it as a storage device. I would recommend going for the latter as it is easier and shouldn't need any extra software if you are running W2k or later.

Time for a new pc , my smart phone has a quicker processor than that.