Anybody use cell phone as internet modem full-time?

[Jeffwo]

Anybody use cell phone as internet modem full-time?

If so how much does it cost/month?

What kinda speed do you get? Does Cingular allow it?

What kinda phone would I need? (have bluetooth equipped lappy)

Pros?

Cons?


Thanks,
Jeff

 

[JLGatsby]

I didn't know you could do that.

I know you can buy a wireless card from Verizon and use broadband internet from anywhere in town.

 

[S Freud]

No, I don't.

 

[caivoma]

My roomate used to have it with verizon wireless. Basically, she used her cell phone as a modem with a monthly fee of about 10 to 13 dollars along with her cell phone bill. It takes up cell phone minutes so she only used it during night and weekend. She isnt a big computer person so she barely used it at all. The speed is a little bit better than 56K but the connection isnt stable at all. It was 2 years ago and she has it before she moved in with us. I already has comcast cable internet so she cancel after that.
It is pretty good for a laptop because she can used it every where verizon has a signal but the cost is kinda high ...

 

[Jeffwo]

Originally posted by: caivoma
My roomate used to have it with verizon wireless. Basically, she used her cell phone as a modem with a monthly fee of about 10 to 13 dollars along with her cell phone bill. It takes up cell phone minutes so she only used it during night and weekend. She isnt a big computer person so she barely used it at all. The speed is a little bit better than 56K but the connection isnt stable at all. It was 2 years ago and she has it before she moved in with us. I already has comcast cable internet so she cancel after that.
It is pretty good for a laptop because she can used it every where verizon has a signal but the cost is kinda high ...

Thanks, Caivoma

Jeff

 

[ElFenix]

sprint and verizon are much faster than cingular and tmobile, because gsm sucks.

 

[MixMasterTang]

I had a verizon wireless broadband card as my only internet for a while. It really pretty much sucked for day to day stuff. The transfer rates were pretty good, but the lag time was horrendous. So basically it was really sluggish for just surfing around the internet or connecting to my citrix server at my office, but if I needed to download a few files it was pretty decent. An example is you click a link, it would take a few seconds to start to load, but once it started to load it was fairly quick loading.

 

[MrMaster]

Originally posted by: Jeffwo
Anybody use cell phone as internet modem full-time?

If so how much does it cost/month?

What kinda speed do you get? Does Cingular allow it?

What kinda phone would I need? (have bluetooth equipped lappy)

Pros?

Cons?


Thanks,
Jeff

1. I don't use it full time but I have been using DUN on verizonwireless for years.
2. If you do dialup networking with only 1x you can use just the minutes. It is a grey area. If you are on EVDO it is definitely against the TOS but if you don't abuse it they won't mind.
3. You can pay $50 a month for it but the problem is there is a 10gb cap. You break the cap you then lose your service.
4. Cingular has something called EDGE which is ismilar to EVDO but I don't know anything about it.
5. speeds for 1x is 144k while EVDO is 450k I think
6. If you want the cheap route forget about doing this on Cingular. THey'll make you pay.

 

[RichieZ]

I have the Cingular 3G HSPDA/UMTS card. its quite fast, i get about 1megabit down and 300-400kbps up.

I pay $20/mo, runs off my media net max 200 plan. Only use this card when i'm traveling (at hotels, and aiports) which is pretty much every week!

 

[secretanchitman]

ev-do is great. i had used it for a couple of days and it was surprisingly fast.

im on sprint and i use a samsung a900.

 

[Jeffwo]

Thx for all who replied.

I called Cingular and they have no idea what I am trying to do.

Hmmm

Jeff

 

[thomsbrain]

Originally posted by: Jeffwo
Thx for all who replied.

I called Cingular and they have no idea what I am trying to do.

Hmmm

Jeff

you just need a data plan, basically.

 

[OS]

i used to do this with verizon, there was some huge thread on fatwallet on this, it didn't cost extra and just used your minutes, which was unlimited N&W.

it worked ok, the connection was sometimes unstable. Also, the bandwidth was quite good (~256K) but the latency was worse than modem.

 

[b0mbrman]

Originally posted by: Jeffwo
Thx for all who replied.

I called Cingular and they have no idea what I am trying to do.

Hmmm

Jeff

Just get a data plan, a BT-capable phone, and waaah-lah!!! (voila)

Pros: Internet everywhere you go. If your phone has a browser, you don't even need your laptop for simpler pages.
Cons: Slow, depending on what you plan to use it for. Might be cheaper ways but I didn't really research them (you should research them )

I did this in 2005 when I used a PDA. Not terribly fast, but good enuogh as all I really did was check email, read the news, and read the AT forums.

I had the $20/mo unlimited interweb plan with Cingular. I imagine the deals might be different now, and the transfer may be faster

 

[compnovice]

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Just get a data plan, a BT-capable phone, and waaah-lah!!! (voila)

Pros: Internet everywhere you go. If your phone has a browser, you don't even need your laptop for simpler pages.
Cons: Slow, depending on what you plan to use it for. Might be cheaper ways but I didn't really research them (you should research them )

I did this in 2005 when I used a PDA. Not terribly fast, but good enuogh as all I really did was check email, read the news, and read the AT forums.

I had the $20/mo unlimited interweb plan with Cingular. I imagine the deals might be different now, and the transfer may be faster

I remember there was a thread about this sometime back saying you can use the data plan by T-mobile to make your cell phone act as a modem (you can connect your laptop). However, Cingular has restrictions on it. I cannot find the thread but I am also interested to use this plan if such a thing is possible with Cingular...

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
sprint and verizon are much faster than cingular and tmobile, because gsm sucks.

Wow, how's the weather that far up your ass?

GSM implementations in the US suck, not the technology as a whole.

Actually, speaking of what sucks and what doesn't, CDMA sucks. Having to call in and pay to activate a new phone is so stone age compared to just switching your SIM card it isn't even funny. Also, Verizon nukes all the original software on their phones (don't believe me? when was the last time you saw a Motorola Verizon phone with the original Moto UI?), and forces you to use specific, expensive BREW software as opposed to any free Java programs you can find.

 

[GeekDrew]

Originally posted by: mrSHEiK124

Originally posted by: ElFenix
sprint and verizon are much faster than cingular and tmobile, because gsm sucks.

Wow, how's the weather that far up your ass?

GSM implementations in the US suck, not the technology as a whole.

Actually, speaking of what sucks and what doesn't, CDMA sucks. Having to call in and pay to activate a new phone is so stone age compared to just switching your SIM card it isn't even funny. Also, Verizon nukes all the original software on their phones (don't believe me? when was the last time you saw a Motorola Verizon phone with the original Moto UI?), and forces you to use specific, expensive BREW software as opposed to any free Java programs you can find.

Christ, this has been debated extensively. Just quit arguing, nobody is going to win.

Yes, GSM is awesome. No, CDMA is awesome too. What the technology can do is IRRELEVANT, when the implementation is not there. It's pointless to buy a GSM phone when there is no GSM support for miles and miles around you.

The last Moto UI I used was on the e815, which was just retired three months ago, I believe.

I agree that the VZW UI absolutely sucks.

 

[b0mbrman]

Originally posted by: compnovice

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Just get a data plan, a BT-capable phone, and waaah-lah!!! (voila)

Pros: Internet everywhere you go. If your phone has a browser, you don't even need your laptop for simpler pages.
Cons: Slow, depending on what you plan to use it for. Might be cheaper ways but I didn't really research them (you should research them )

I did this in 2005 when I used a PDA. Not terribly fast, but good enuogh as all I really did was check email, read the news, and read the AT forums.

I had the $20/mo unlimited interweb plan with Cingular. I imagine the deals might be different now, and the transfer may be faster

I remember there was a thread about this sometime back saying you can use the data plan by T-mobile to make your cell phone act as a modem (you can connect your laptop). However, Cingular has restrictions on it. I cannot find the thread but I am also interested to use this plan if such a thing is possible with Cingular...

Dunno, I had the $20 plan shown here: Text, and never saw any additional charges, and I used it quite a bit w/the PDA.

Furthermore, can whoever's feeding me the bandwidth even tell that I'm pulling internet from the phone using BT rather than just using the phone to surf?

[Edit] This may not be what the OP has in mind because "internet modem" seems to imply that he wants to use the phone to call an external service provider. I used the internet connection that came with my plan...

 

[Jeffwo]

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Originally posted by: compnovice

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Just get a data plan, a BT-capable phone, and waaah-lah!!! (voila)

Pros: Internet everywhere you go. If your phone has a browser, you don't even need your laptop for simpler pages.
Cons: Slow, depending on what you plan to use it for. Might be cheaper ways but I didn't really research them (you should research them )

I did this in 2005 when I used a PDA. Not terribly fast, but good enuogh as all I really did was check email, read the news, and read the AT forums.

I had the $20/mo unlimited interweb plan with Cingular. I imagine the deals might be different now, and the transfer may be faster

I remember there was a thread about this sometime back saying you can use the data plan by T-mobile to make your cell phone act as a modem (you can connect your laptop). However, Cingular has restrictions on it. I cannot find the thread but I am also interested to use this plan if such a thing is possible with Cingular...

Dunno, I had the $20 plan shown here: Text, and never saw any additional charges, and I used it quite a bit w/the PDA.

Furthermore, can whoever's feeding me the bandwidth even tell that I'm pulling internet from the phone using BT rather than just using the phone to surf?

[Edit] This may not be what the OP has in mind because "internet modem" seems to imply that he wants to use the phone to call an external service provider. I used the internet connection that came with my plan...

Thanks Bombrman, others....

I am hoping to use the phone/plan to supply my internet neeeds with my laptop.

Jeff

 

[SoulAssassin]

I do this with my Treo 700w on Verizon and a guy I work with does it on Cingular. I think he's got an 8125 or something like that. I have Comcast at home but I'm on the road often and use the phone pretty heavily. It's good but I wouldn't use it over cable or dsl if they were an option.

 

[Rastus]

I have a Verizon aircard and it is stable. About twice the speed of dialup. When I go out of range, the connection goes dormant and comes back automatically when I get back to civilization.

 

[Jeffwo]

Hmmmm...Verizon doesn't have wireless service in this area.

Jeff

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: Jeffwo
Thx for all who replied.

I called Cingular and they have no idea what I am trying to do.

Hmmm

Jeff

I just called them and they confirmed the CSR you spoke with didn't have a clue.

Don't make it to complicated for them, ask about their data/internet plans or mention Edge. Hopefully they'll get the clue.

If they still don't have a clue direct them to this coverage map.