Overview; How It Works - Iridium Extreme Manual

1 Overview

Iridium's Extreme TM
Satellite Phone provides dial-up connectivity to another computer, a
remote LAN (e.g., a corporate network), or an Internet Service Provider (ISP). This
service offers a typical data rate of 2.4 Kbps. You will be able to use Dial-Up Data
service just as you would use the modem on your computer to dial a call through the
public switched telephone network (PSTN). The only differences are that the dialed
telephone number must conform to the international dialing pattern used by Iridium, and
that you will use your Iridium phone as the data modem. In essence, your Iridium
phone appears as an external modem to your computer.
Before using Dial-Up Data, you will need to install the PPP modem driver onto your
TM
computer. This driver is provided on the Iridium Extreme Data CD from your Iridium
Service Provider. This document provides detailed instructions on installing this driver.
TM TM
Iridium Extreme Satellite Phone users must also install the Iridium Extreme USB
TM
(VCOMPORT) driver. This driver is available on the Iridium Extreme Data CD or from
your Iridium Service Provider. This document provides detailed instructions on installing
this driver.
Upon installation of these drivers, you will be able to use standard software applications
(e.g., Microsoft Dial-Up Networking) to initiate data calls with the Iridium Dial-Up Data
Service.

2 How It Works

The Iridium Dial-Up Data Service functions in much the same way as a modem. From
the perspective of your computer, the Iridium handset is an external modem. On your
computer, you will configure a dial-up networking connection. As part of that
connection, you will identify the modem associated with the Iridium handset and the
phone number to dial. Then, in dial-up networking you will enter your user name and
password to access your data service and you will initiate the connection. Your handset
will dial and initiate a connection with the Iridium gateway through the Iridium satellite
constellation. Since your Iridium handset is requesting to establish a data connection,
the switch at the gateway will route the call through to the data service you have dialed.
Once connected and a session has been established, you can access data services
such as email, web browsing or FTP just as you would over a standard modem.
The following sections of this document will provide instructions on exactly how to do
this.
1