This post is coming from a new Sprint PCS Vision + laptop user. Now what?

[CZroe]

OK, I remember picking up somewhere on Anandtech (Probably Hot Deals) that you can pay Sprint $20 a month for unlimited data service for their phones and with a USB cable it gives you unlimited "High Speed" internet service. It's not an official offering and may actually violate their terms of service, but I never read any (I'm not paying $99 a month for their alternative with the PCS Connection Card). A long time later, I went to eBay and got a charging USB data cable for the buggy (As a phone) Samsung N400.

I had to find the software myself, though it seems a bit intrusive. Due to the purposely limited availability of the drivers, I have no idea if I have the latest or not. The connection software came from Sprint's site, but seems unnecessary if you set up dial-up networking yourself. The guide I read made me do both :| Makes me mad that it's not only unnecessary but it intrudes on your screen every time you restart (As if your phone is attached to your laptop or something

).

OK, so now I can get my laptop online by dialing #777 with no username and password. Is there any reason why they intercept and downsample all images without making this optional? Is there some way to fix this? Getting the same image through FTP works fine but HTTP you get a artifacted piece of crap.

Normal
Cell

Also, now that my phone can browse online by itself, where can I go with it? Nearly everything I tediously enter crashed either the browser or the phone and the stuff they offer on their homepage is so buggy I can't use it either (ie, Hotmail has no "next" button to submit your username if you used a bookmark or simply resumed browsing from where you left it and a long email entry will dissapear before submission if you receive a call while writing it.). Are ringtones and wallpapers only downloadable from Sprint (For a charge) or can I get them elsewhere for free (Adapt them myself )? What about pictures? Just about every image will crash the browser with a "memory overflow" message or it will refuse to load the page with some "content" error. I have been able to see the thumbnails on pics.apartment808.com (Random "Today" image only as it crashes with any other link) and something on PCS Vision's rendition of Amazon. So far, it doesn't seem like you can do anything with the phone's built-in Internet software. I can't even load little 16x16 GIF images from my own servers even though I can see larger "thumbnails" from other websites!

 

[phonemonkey]

You can try Datapilot ($50 retail) to download wallpapers and ringtones to your PC. I've got the same type of connection on my laptop, and seem to get about 19kB/s down on a good night. Thankfully, I've got the unlimited nights and weekends, and those are my working hours (so I don't kill my minutes).

I've never really paid much attention to the images that I download on it, but I guess I'll have to look at it and see what it looks like.

 

[CZroe]

Huh? I was told it doesn't use minutes. It certainly doesn't while browsing on the phone during peak hours.

BTW, does the ad on the left look like this when you use your service?

 

[UNCjigga]

LOL, I had the exact same setup, until I said 'fvck you sprint' and got a normal WAP phone from Cingular. If you don't mind my asking, how much did you pay for your setup? I'm thinking of dumping my old stuff on ebay, including:

- N400 phone + original charger, box, manuals etc.
- leather case
- car charger
- data cable

I figure I should be able to get $50 for all that, even if the screen's a bit cracked (still fully functional though.) Never did figure out that thing with the messy images, but hey it was pretty good for what it did. My plan was pretty sweet too: 650 minutes, 3000 n+w starting at 8pm, and unlimited Vision all for $45 a month after taxes. Too bad their phones and CSRs suck ass.

 

[FoBoT]

i have the connection card and am posting from my laptop with it

but i got the card and laptop from work, so i didn't have to pay

they are currently running a special, $80/unlimited per month , i think i'll stick with dialup to connect my home LAN to the internut for now. but with a sprint tower < 2 miles from the house, in a year or 2 when they up the speed and drop the price, i will definetly switch

 

[CZroe]

Originally posted by: Jigga
LOL, I had the exact same setup, until I said 'fvck you sprint' and got a normal WAP phone from Cingular. If you don't mind my asking, how much did you pay for your setup? I'm thinking of dumping my old stuff on ebay, including:

- N400 phone + original charger, box, manuals etc.
- leather case
- car charger
- data cable

I figure I should be able to get $50 for all that, even if the screen's a bit cracked (still fully functional though.) Never did figure out that thing with the messy images, but hey it was pretty good for what it did. My plan was pretty sweet too: 650 minutes, 3000 n+w starting at 8pm, and unlimited Vision all for $45 a month after taxes. Too bad their phones and CSRs suck ass.

Well, my mother paid $79.99 for the N400 phone before I got my hands on it. It was so buggy everyone was returning them so Sprint has been offering four for free with activation (Just to get rid of them). I got my firmware upgraded at the Sprint store, but I still can't use speakerphone and it still locks up every now and then.

Anyway, the cable cost me $1.04 plus shipping

Belkin sells one for something like $80 and it doesn't even charge the phone!

Originally posted by: FoBoT
i have the connection card and am posting from my laptop with it

but i got the card and laptop from work, so i didn't have to pay

they are currently running a special, $80/unlimited per month , i think i'll stick with dialup to connect my home LAN to the internut for now. but with a sprint tower < 2 miles from the house, in a year or 2 when they up the speed and drop the price, i will definetly switch

So I guess cheaper forms of broadband are unavailable?

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: CZroe
So I guess cheaper forms of broadband are unavailable?

yes, i just moved to a very rural area. most Dial up ISP's don't even have a local phone number

no cable for ~15 miles, no dsl for ~6-7 miles

but i am within 2 miles of a highway so there are two cell towers close by, one is within half a mile and the sprint tower is just under 2 miles. it is flat here so i get full signal strength from the sprint tower

 

[Freejack2]

Enh, I have the Samsung I330 and I've found my speed to be about the same as a good dialup connection. Still beats paying some stupid hotel 5 cents a minute for a local call.