FAQ/Serial_port_direction

Which is best, an incoming or an outgoing Bluetooth serial port?

This section explains the difference between Incoming and Outgoing Bluetooth serial ports, and helps you decide which type of port to use.

  • Incoming means that your computer is waiting for the mobile device to initiate the connection.

Incoming ports are more flexible. They are not affected by changes that take place on your mobile, such as software updates or installations. However, it is not always possible to use an Incoming serial port on your computer.

  • Outgoing ports are the opposite, i.e. the mobile is waiting for the computer to make the connection.

Outgoing ports don't have as much flexibility. Sometimes, if something changes on your mobile (e.g. a software update), the Outgoing serial port on your computer may become invalid, and you will need to create a new one. On the other hand, Outgoing serial ports can be used in virtually all cases.

  • When piAccess Mail is used together with piAccess Link, you can use either type of serial port.
  • When using piAccess Link with a third-party phone manager application, the choice of which type of serial port to make depends on how that application handles Bluetooth. If your phone manager application's instructions ask you to create a Bluetooth serial port then, in most cases, you should be able to use either type of port.
  • Some phone manager applications don't require you to create a Bluetooth serial port at all. In that case you should not have to do anything.
  • To use piAccess Mail with a non-Symbian OS phone over Bluetooth, you will probably have to create an Outgoing serial port on your computer.

This is because, as a rule, non-Symbian OS mobiles do not have the capability to initiate a Bluetooth serial connection for SMS transfer; they only accept connections from a computer.