Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
June 24, 2007
Volume 3, Number 2 — Sunday, June 24, 2007
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
3. Connecting to the Internet While Traveling
So, how can I actually access the Internet when I'm travelling?
If you're going to one of your companies other offices, the easiest solution may be to use a computer there to check your business email. If you need a few files — say, for a presentation — take them with you on a flash drive.
If you're using an employer-supplied notebook, you should already have the systems in place for accessing the Internet via dialup. In today's world, employers know that dialup is as risky as high-speed Internet connections, so they equip the notebooks with firewall programs as well as anti-virus programs.
If I'm staying in a hotel, I'll often spend he $6 to $12 per day to have access via the hotel's wired or wireless Internet service. That solution is usually much faster than using dialup.
I've written before that I have two favorite solutions for dialup Internet access. I don't normally use dialup, so I don't want to pay a monthly fee for dialup service.
These options — and I use both of them — give me low-cost dialup access when I travel. The are also great as a backup solution for those times when my cable Internet connection goes down.
Real History!
I sent my August 31, 2005 newsletter to my mailing list server via my notebook computer and my backup dialup account, since my power was out. That was the day that Hurricane Katrina visited Baton Rouge (and New Orleans, more of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama).
The first solution I found was BudgetDialup.com. I maintain an account with BudgetDialup.com which lets me purchase blocks of dialup time that are good for a year from purchase. They offer 10- and 20-hour packages at very reasonable prices. They have local and toll-free numbers in the U.S. and International phone numbers also -- you buy the package, and the non-local numbers have different "equivalent minutes" for every minute of use. Of course, you can monitor how much time you've used and buy more time when you need i.
My other dialup choice is a free dialup Internet account from NetZero. They offer a free, advertising-supported account that allows you up to 10 hours of free connection time per month. I consider the advertising display to be a reasonable price for the Internet access. Although they install an I.E. toolbar to cause the advertising display, you can turn off the toolbar when you're not using their services. When you're using the service, you're required to have their advertising toolbar active — it's a condition of the free service.
4. Fast Internet Connections — Via My Cellphone
Update 9/8/07: This is no longer a viable option since the Cingular has been acquited by AT&T and the Cingular network has been re-branded AT&T. The AT&T wireless data terms of service prohibit "tethering" a PDA, Blackberry or phone to a computer in order to enable the computer to access the Internet.
Many cellphone services now offer high-speed data networks, too.
I'm sure that just triggered your "Yawn Reflex." If it didn't, it should have!
I'm not interested in buying a $80 card for my computer and signing up for yet another $40-80 per month service charge to get access for my notebook. Fortunately, that's not what I've found.
I'm using my regular Motorola V3xx cell phone to make a 230Kb per second connection for my notebook to use. That's four times the maximum speed of a dialup connection!
That's right — while the phone has a built-in Internet browsers that uses the extremely limited WAP browser functions, the phone will function as a high-speed modem if you buy the right Motorola software.
I can do email, surf the web, do web mail, or whatever other function I like. I can even stream videos from my home theater PC to my notebook via my cellphone modem.
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There are several things that together make this possible and affordable.
First, there is the Cingular Unlimited MediaNet service to which I subscribe. This is an add-on to my cellphone service provided by Cingular. One of MediaNet's selling points is that you can access the Internet using the browser built into the phone. They didn't mention that you could access the Internet through the phone. Perhaps that's because they don't sell the necessary software. I was already subscribed to the MediaNet service when I found that I could use it for Internet access from my computer.
MediaNet gives me unlimited Internet access via the phone — and my Motorola V3xx phone has built-in text and video browsing via MediaNet. The MediaNet service provides a lot of functions via the phone itself, when not connected to a computer, too.
The important word above is Unlimited. That's at a $19.95 rate, although I think they even have lower priced services, but don't dare consider it if you're thinking of hooking your computer to the system.
Cingular's data rate is available even if you don't sign up for their Unlimited MediaNet service, but the pricing is "So 2002!"
Does anyone really want to pay $0.01 per KB? It doesn't sound like much until someone emails you a 1 megabyte photo — and it costs you $10 to download the photo in your email!
There is one more thing that makes this Internet access possible. Motorola cell phones do not talk to computers unless the computer gets the right software and drivers installed. I found the software about 5 years ago and had to purchase it directly from Motorola for $40 plus shipping. Now, you can get Motorla Phone Tools
I bought Motorola Phone Tools several years ago because it lets me copy ringtones and images directly from my computer to my phone, saving any Cingular download fees that would drive the price up. This way, I can edit a song to create a ringtone, copy it to the phone, try it, change it, copy it to the phone, etc. without spending big bucks on all the "data downloads" necessary to get them onto the phone.
Can you share a MediaNet service among his-and-her's cell phones?
Like many other cellphone options, this is not a family or multi-phone service -- each phone must sign up for this $19.95/month service. While I haven't tried this, I would expect that a family with two notebooks (his and hers), could set up Windows Internet Connection Sharing so that both computers could access the 'Net via one cellphone.
By the way, the cellphone modem function seems to be independent of the voice cellphone functions.
I've found that I can use my Motorola V3xx as a regular cellphone at the same time that I'm using it as a computer modem. It works best with my H700 bluetooth earpiece
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Volume 3, Number 2 — Sunday, June 24, 2007
Copyright © 2007 Terry A. Stockdale. All rights reserved.
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