Yes. Get a real phone or data card. Real phone doesn't necessarily mean real expensive. STI Mobile and others work great until they cut you off for tethering. Too much hassle.<br><br>I use Boost Mobile's i285 phone and the unlimited data prepay plan with some success. It works well as long as I get a signal. The signal is the problem in Athens. Boost mobile is a Sprint/Nextel MVNO. I believe Nextel's more speedy WiDEN network has been decommissioned. I get about 19,200kbps on the regular iDEN network. I strap the phone to my laptop with velcro and a USB cable. The cost is $0.35/day every day. You can disable/enable the web plan on their website.<br>
<br>I don't think Boost cares if you tether, since the most you'll sqeeze out of it is 19.2kbps! Too bad they no longer offer free incoming SMS.<br><br>It works pretty well with ssh'd into a screen session with mutt on the remote host. Actually, gmail works quite well over slow links, thanks to AJAX, I guess. Also, try using dillo for web browsing. Beware, it skips javascript and CSS.<br>
<br>YMMV,<br>Brian<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 9:54 AM, Mills John M-NPHW64 <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:Jmills@motorola.com">Jmills@motorola.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Sean, All -<br>
<br>
Thanks for the replies. I'm responding to this note because it touched more of my issues directly.<br>
<br>
My carrier is T-Mobile, but it's a bottom-end prepaid account that doesn't knowingly support net or web access with two exceptions:<br>
<br>
1. I have an e-mail address for SMS and can reply to those messages or forward them to regular phone numbers.<br>
2. I can access their "T-Zones" which are basically a web flea-market for the carrier to sell me stuff.<br>
<br>
I asked T-Mobile about adding the $4.99/mo access and was told it was not available on my account; on the other hand I can keep the prepaid account alive for only a few $$/mo and it serves my needs for mobile phone service.<br>
<br>
I have a dial-in computer account for contingency use (mostly text mail reading) and that's the access I need from my laptop. I could live with 9600 Bd, but not love it!<br>
<br>
The phone is a Nokia 6030(B?). It's unlocked. (T-mobile will do that if they think you'll stay around - or at least they did when my accounts met their benchmarks.) In principle the phone even has an embedded web browser.<br>
<br>
It does support GSM, but connection to the computer is a problem: Nokia doesn't sell a data cable and the 3rd-party one I bought (USB-serial) seems about half functional under 'gnokii'. There is an external data connection for service use (not the pads under the battery that I've seen in photos of some models). I don't know if the problems are electrical in the adapter; or logical in the phone's functionality, the adapter, or gnokii's expectations: I can read the phone's profile, but then fall into a series of timeouts; I can extract the phone's contacts but when I reload them I have to do quite a bit of rework to find the uploaded numbers again.<br>
<br>
Phone model reports as 'RM-225'; I can't get a solid reading on whether AT commands are supported.<br>
<br>
I expect the smart answer is, "Get a real phone and a real account," but the partial responses keep leading me on with the possibility this might actually work.<br>
<br>
"Science stumbles forward."<br>
<br>
More suggestions welcome.<br>
<br>
- Mills<br>
<br>
-----Original Message-----<br>
From: <a href="mailto:ale-bounces@ale.org">ale-bounces@ale.org</a> on behalf of Sean C. McCord<br>
Sent: Mon 4/20/2009 9:30 PM<br>
To: <a href="mailto:ale@ale.org">ale@ale.org</a><br>
Subject: Re: [ale] NewbieQs on 'tethered' net connections<br>
<br>
On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 05:43:49PM -0400, Mills John M-NPHW64 wrote:<br>
>ALErs -<br>
><br>
>1. Is there a HOWTO on this that can suggest specs and models of low-end phones for net access from my Linux laptop?<br>
<br>
As far as I know, ALL GSM phones (those of AT&T and T-Mobile, in the<br>
USA), can serve as a modem. I have used it in all my phones since my<br>
first one with Powertel who knows how many years ago. That said, you<br>
have a few things to look for:<br>
<br>
a) The phone has to have some method to _get_ to your laptop: Wifi,<br>
serial, USB, etc.<br>
b) If your phone is "locked" (that is, it was bought from the<br>
carrier), it may be restricted in some way, so all bets are off.<br>
<br>
>2. If my phone account doesn't provide a direct net connection of some kind, is it practical to telephone my ISP's dial-in modems and run that way?<br>
<br>
You don't necessarily need a "direct" net connection. For years, I<br>
used T-Mobile's proxies access for $4.99/mo. The only reason I<br>
changed is because I got a Google Phone and wanted full, unrestricted<br>
access for VPN, SSH, Email, etc., without having to funnel everything<br>
through a hacked up port 80.<br>
<br>
>Some notes make it look just like setting up PPP through a modem and others seem more like a network link. I have a couple of half-*ssed ideas about what's going on, but nothing solid.<br>
<br>
For GSM (I have no clue about CDMA, i.e., Sprint, MetroPCS, Nextel,<br>
Verizon, etc.), the phone acts like a modem. You interface to with<br>
with a slightly special AT command set, so to the computer, it looks<br>
just like a modem. You even dial up and "connect" just like expected;<br>
and yes, it is a PPP connection.<br>
<br>
If you are using a special app some of the fancier Wifi-enabled<br>
phones, it is going to act more like a wireless access point. You<br>
won't be PPP'ing, most likely. It will just look like a normal TCP/IP<br>
link over wireless.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
Sean C. McCord<br>
CyCore Systems<br>
<a href="mailto:scmlist@cycoresys.com">scmlist@cycoresys.com</a><br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br>