No wireless - how to add books

[peaceridge]

I do a lot of camping where there is no wireless at all. I have books on Calibre that I want to add to my Nexus 7-2 Android tablet. I pointed CC epub to the folder "Books" where Calibre puts ebooks when I say send to device when my tablet is connected via usp to my pc. But CC doesn't list them. Am I doing something wrong or does CC just not work without wireless?

[eschwartz]

Calibre Companion can scan folders for books IIRC.

I think it would be easier to just setup an ad hoc WiFi network broadcast by your PC, then connect to that. You do not actually need access to the world wide web just to pair two devices over the WiFi protocols.

[chaley]

CC requires a networking connection to add books to its database. It is (currently) not able to handle books dropped onto the device by calibre. I have been considering adding this capability, but some complexities and other demands on my time have gotten in the way.

The method eschwartz suggested will work: turn your laptop into an access point. There are several ways to do that, depending on the OS and how much tinkering you are willing to do.

My preferred method is to get an access point/router dongle and let it deal with it. I have a Asus WL-330NUL but there are a zillion others available. The advantages are many: ease of setup, private wifi networks (what you would use in this case), wifi sharing in hotels, cable-to-wifi routing, and the like.

If you have a device with a cellular connection then you could turn on "Tethering" (a wifi hotspot). This should let both your laptop and your N7 connect and then talk to each other. I have used this scheme with both a Galaxy Nexus and a Nexus 5.

Finally, it appears that your N7/2013 model supports being a hotspot. See https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/2812516?hl=en. If this works (I can't test it because I have an N7/2012) then it should suffice to turn on the hotspot, connect the laptop to it, then run calibre and CC.

EDIT: another thing you could do (which I and many others do) is to put your entire library into CC. I know of a few with 10,000 books in CC, and one with 18,000.

[peaceridge]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm good at following directions, know a lot about pcs, but am not a techie. I looked at my Windows 7 networking and can't figure out how to do it - I guess I do need the dongle.

I totally understand the difficulties of adding something to software for just a minority (old COBOL programmer here). I'll keep an eye out if you ever do decide to do this.

I don't think my Nexus 7 2013 can hold all my books - so many are non-fiction. I only have 26gb available without any books on it and I have 19gb of books currently. However, I'll give it a look to see how many I just have to have on my tablet - once I figure out how to do collections of some kind - I gather I use tags for this. At one point I had all my books categorized nicely, but have gotten lazy over time.

I so appreciate your replies. At least I have a direction now.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by peaceridge

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm good at following directions, know a lot about pcs, but am not a techie. I looked at my Windows 7 networking and can't figure out how to do it - I guess I do need the dongle.

Before you do that, check out the hotspot function on your N7/2. It if is there (and it should be) then turning it on should be straightforward. All you would need to do on your laptop is switch to the newly appeared wifi hotspot.

I understand about fiddling with the laptop's networking. I am a networking person from long back and I don't like to do it. There are too many interlocking configuration options that mess up normal networking. That is one reason I bought the dongle. The other and actually more important reason was connection sharing while traveling. Too many hotels provide one wifi password or cable outlet per room, and sometimes one must pay for that. The dongle acts allows you to share that single connection between multiple devices by creating a second private network and routing outgoing traffic onto the hotel's wifi, allowing me to connect my tablet and phone, my wife's tablet, and (if needed) my laptop. A friend of mine who travels a *lot* goes even further, plugging a ChromeCast into the hotel's TV and 'casting' films from his tablet/laptop to the TV over the dongle's private network.

I don't think my Nexus 7 2013 can hold all my books - so many are non-fiction. I only have 26gb available without any books on it and I have 19gb of books currently.

It would take a while to transfer 19gb of books! And all those bits are heavy.

However, I'll give it a look to see how many I just have to have on my tablet - once I figure out how to do collections of some kind - I gather I use tags for this. At one point I had all my books categorized nicely, but have gotten lazy over time.

You should be able to use the same process you use on your laptop.

As for using tags: that works, but I personally prefer to use a few custom columns with known semantics. I have 4:

• A "reading priority", 0 - 5. In the end it could have been yes/no because I use only 0 (highest) and 5 (lowest)
• Whether I have read the book (synced from CC)
• The date I read the book (synced from CC)
• Genre, a two-level hierarchical multi-value column.

I have added all but the date to CC's grouping drawer.

I so appreciate your replies. At least I have a direction now.

You are welcome.

[eschwartz]

http://lifehacker.com/5369381/turn-y...eless-hotspot/

[chaley]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

http://lifehacker.com/5369381/turn-y...eless-hotspot/

Android devices will not natively connect to ad-hoc networks, and windows 8 has removed creating ad-hoc networks. Although both problems can be overcome, doing so requires installing and configuring apps and programs. And when you get there, I have no idea if CC will talk over the network. It depends on how the Android work-arounds advertise the network internally.

Unless one's time is free, spending $30 on a dongle or using the device's hotspot facility is a better plan.

EDIT: Yes, I know peaceridge has Windows 7, but I am trying to be more general here.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by chaley

Android devices will not natively connect to ad-hoc networks, and windows 8 has removed creating ad-hoc networks. Although both problems can be overcome, doing so requires installing configuring apps and programs.

Why would they DO that?

Sorry.

[theducks]

chaley

have you ever thought about using a blutooth connection?
All my Android devices support that. (I have a BT dongle for my (now older) W7 laptop)

[chaley]

Originally Posted by theducks

chaley

have you ever thought about using a blutooth connection?
All my Android devices support that. (I have a BT dongle for my (now older) W7 laptop)

At one point I tried using a bluetooth PAN. It didn't work for reasons I can't remember, but it may be that CC didn't "see" the network.

It is worth trying again. I even have the equipment to test it. My Win 8.1 laptop has bluetooth built-in. I have been thinking about adding an option to CC to attempt to connect even if it appears that networking is off, which might make bluetooth PANs work and might eventually be needed for Lollipop multiple network support.

EDIT: Apparently the bluetooth stack on my laptop doesn't support PANs. I give up.

[peaceridge]

Going to try everyone's suggestions and see what I come up with. However, starting to think that Chaley is right - I should just fix my tags/columns and transfer everything to cc when I have wifi.