Cell phone as a modem for laptop

[lm3]

How do you do it?

 

[silverbuyer]

Originally posted by: lm3
How do you do it?

I dunno, how do you do it?

 

[coolred]

Perhaps call your service provider, they may know. I am sure you will likely have to buy some sort of adaptor for the phone or something.

 

[lm3]

the problem is the extra fees they want to charge me for data transfer. 19.99 a month plus minutes.

 

[Keyvan]

Originally posted by: lm3
the problem is the extra fees they want to charge me for data transfer. 19.99 a month plus minutes.

just curious, if you use your phone as a modem to dial to a service provider, do you get charged that data fee or just air-time or both?

 

[lm3]

According to Cingular and Sprint you have to first pay the monthly fee to be able to use data and then pay additional for the minutes.

 

[The Linuxator]

T-mobile has a good one check their website for some pc cards , they have some decent offers but don't expect some broadband like connection, it's just something to get you by for some urgent work while you are on the road

 

[vegetation]

The way it works depends on the phone. First of all, your phone has to support the modem function and second, you need drivers to be installed on your pc to make it happen. You also need some kind of service plan to the internet, i.e. the "number" your phone dials. With tmobile, you can dial to GPRS but GPRS requires the tzones subscription, which has different plan levels (they block ports for certain things). Alternatively, you can use CSD which is limited to a maximum of 9600bps (slow but good 'nuff for text emails, chats). CSD requires a 'dial up number' for which there are free services out there specifically for cell phone use. GPRS does NOT use up voice minutes on tmobile; CSD DOES use voice minutes.

So essentially, the magic lies in your phone's ability to even be used as a modem and if there are any drivers to your pc for it. Like I said, not all phones support such functions, paritcularly cheaper ones. Oh, and you need some kind of connectivity to the phone and pc, such as a cable or , preferably, bluetooth.

 

[JAGedlion]

The Tzone thing works or at least used to, after they stopped giving it for free (it was like a year long promotional) I haven't tried, they do block ports but you can sete up a proxy on your desktop computer if you want to get around that and its like $5 a month or something, or was it 10? Sprint to my knowledge lets you use your voice minutes as data minutes without any additional fees. All you need is a way to connect it too your laptop (alot of phones have infra red, expensive ones might have blue tooth, and you can also just buy a data cable off of ebay for a couple bucks. Dunno about any other carriers.

 

[RobsTV]

The way it is "supposed to work" and the way it "really works" is night and day depending on provider.

For example, one major cell phone provider (not ATT, T-Mobile, Verizon, Cingular or Nextel) enables web access on the phones built in browser for a small $10 or $15 monthly charge. But, if you get a $10 phone to USB data cable, and install phone modem drivers, you can then access the net with a PC using the phone as a modem. This does NOT use any of your minutes or airtime. It IS against the TOS agreement, and while the provider knows many do this, they allow it as long as you do not abuse it. Don't use bittorrent. Good for checking email, and light browsing, perhaps 20 minutes a day?.?. Connection speed are around 140k both ways! Search their user groups for more info.

 

[bearxor]

I also use the nameless provider that RobsTV does, although I suppose your list of who it does not include should now leave out Nextel), and I have PocketPC based phone. You can use your phone to provide internet access to a compiuter as long as your phone has the capability. You don't have to sign up for the internet service, but if you don't you will be charged 2 cents per kilobyte. You should really sign up for the providers internet service that lets you see things that they charge you about fifteen bucks a month for. Don't overuse it and you will be fine.

Check out Howardforums for your provider.

 

[DaWhim]

beware of how much they charge. cingular wants $80 for unlimited. the one they charges $20 is for the wap access(only in your phone). tmo charges less.

well, here is the speed you may interested in
CSD = very slow
GPRS = 4-5kb/s
EDGE = 20-25kb/s