Cell Phone Connection?

[Roberto]

Is it possible or practical to use a cell phone to maintain a dial-up internet connection between my laptop and dial-up ISP while on the road?

[mbossman2]

you can, but dependant on the service your performance may be painfully slow. I would limit my cell phone internet usage for text emails (no/minimal attachments)

[Roberto]

How would it be done?

[mbossman2]

your cell phone manufacturer may have a proprietary cable/modem connector that make the connection. also dependant upon the phone (ie real popular ones) may a generic kit.

[Great_One]

we use nextel phones with our laptops on the road. basically
you get the right cable, and with nextel you need the data option
on the phone which costs us about $5/month more. you hook the phone to the laptop and launch dial up networking just like using a modem. although at 9600 baud, e-mail and text based sessions
are the most pratical uses.

[glc]

Nextel also offers a dedicated data service that uses a PCMCIA card instead of a phone adapter and does not count against your airtime. Supposedly speeds "up to 56k" are attainable.

I have only set up a cell phone with a laptop once, and that was about 3 years ago. This was with AT&T and a Nokia phone. We put a cellular capable PCMCIA 3Com modem in the laptop and ordered a cable for the phone. It connected at 9600, which is painful on AOL :D

[Roberto]

OK. Now I am starting to understand. Thanks for the replies. Here is my summary so far. Let me know if I am on the right track.

Contact the cell phone manufactuer (in my case verison) and ask about phones that have the capability to accept cables that plug into the phone on one end and connect into a phone connector on the other end. Upgrade the cell phone package to include the data option. Assuming that you have a laptop with an internal modem, the experience on this forum is connections at 9600 baud rates. Pretty slow -- unless things have changed recently.

Are there any other on the road options that provide faster speeds?

[mbossman2]

Originally posted by Roberto
Are there any other on the road options that provide faster speeds?

Yeah, stay at hotels with broadband access :D

[Roberto]

I am a tent camper -- hotels are not an option.

[glc]

You do not need the data package from Verizon as long as you get a cellular capable modem card (the internal modem doesn't have the right connector) and an adapter cable for your existing phone. This is the one that will usually connect at 9600, but it may be better these days, a friend was getting 19200 on Sprint last year. I also believe that some phones may offer a kit to connect the phone directly to a serial or USB port. These both use the phone to dial your regular ISP, and regular airtime charges apply. All a data package on a standard cellular service gives you is email and websurfing through the phone used standalone, it won't interface with the laptop.

If you want higher speed, look at a data package that uses a PCMCIA card and doesn't involve your phone at all. This won't count against your airtime, this is a dedicated service with its own monthly (and possibly kilobyte) charges.

Bottom line? Stop by your local Verizon store and discuss the options.

[Spyda]

if those new 3G phones use 2Mb broadband, does that mean you can use the phone to access mobile broadband?
and the GPRS phones connect at something like 128k

[glc]

Spyda - we are behind Europe on cell phone technology, most of our networks are "old" low speed deals. Wireless data connections are still in their infancy here.

[Roberto]

I thought that I had the idea and did not. Thanks for being kind and letting me know that I still don't get it.

I have gone to the verizon wireless web site and they offer 2 packages that I am still trying to understand. One appears to use a digital data capable phone and a serial data cable to connect to a laptop which provides a connection to the internet without an ISP and uses existing voice phone rates. Coverage may be an issue. They advertize speeds of 14,400baud. The second is much faster, has a fixed monthly rate plus additional charges over a predetermined allowance. It appears to require about the same equipment.

Does anyone have any experience with either of these options?

[glc]

Yeah, it's definitely confusing, I just looked at the site and there are certainly a lot of different ways to skin a cat. You may have to hit the Verizon store and do a face-to-face with a knowledgeable agent to sort out all the options. I'm still back in the days of connecting a cellular capable modem to a cell phone instead of a landline jack to dial an ISP days.