Ok, here’s the deal: I have a cell phone plan with unlimited data. But I don’t want to browse the internet on my cell phone. I want to use my laptop. I can connect to my phone with bluetooth. I can connect to the internet with my phone. I can run arbitrary Java applications on my phone. Surely there is a solution that will use these various capabilities to connect through, right?
I asked my phone company. They said it’s an extra $40/mo to get the “phone as modem” service. You know. Because it costs more to take the bits that already got from the internet to my phone and push them all the way from the phone to my computer.
The phone I happen to have is a Samsung M510, the company is Sprint, and the laptop is a Mac. I know that programs exist for some phones. Is there a list of such phones somewhere? It doesn’t seem like it would be that hard to implement in a fairly general way, so I’m wondering if there are any open source projects for this sort of thing.
In the future, I could potentially buy a different phone, or even run Windows if necessary (I don’t expect to use this often, but sometimes it’s nice to be able to check my email (and the Dope) when I’m somewhere without wireless access).
I’ve got an AT&T HTC 8525 smartphone, and it’s one of the default programs available. No extra charge over the existing data plan.
I haven’t actually tried it, but I hear it works pretty well.
I’m doing exactly that with a Macbook, Motorola Razr, and Cingular. It’s not fast enough for regular use, but works like a charm as a back-up option when I’m on the road. I have a standard-issue $20/month unlimited data plan, no extra bells & whistles needed to use it as a modem.
You’ll need to hunt down the right modem script for your particular phone. This site shows how it’s done with a Razr & Cingular, which won’t help you directly, but might be useful in hunting down what you need.
That’s exactly the kind of thing that Sprint wants me to pay an additional $40/mo for. Apparently to them, “Unlimited data” only means “to the phone.”
I don’t have an access point to call into. What I am hoping for is a program I can run on my phone to fake it. I have a friend with Sprint and one of those smart phones that can do it (on windows) so maybe I just need to do that.
I do it all the time when I travel with my T-mobile SDA (a rebadged HTC Tornado). It’s a part of the normal $20 monthly data plan I pay for.
In my case, I just tell my computer to dial (over Bluetooth modem) the phone number *99#. That’s how GSM phones do it, but I don’t know about PCS phones. Because of the ease that the computer has getting the phone to connect to the regular access point, I’m not sure that T-mo can really tell whether I’m using my phone’s browser or my computer’s. I know they don’t care for the purposes of my plan, but I’m not sure if they can tell.
Not all Bluetooth-enabled phones support the “modem” profile. Deliberately.
As an example, the iPhone doesn’t.
Even though I love my iPhone, it would still be nice to be able to tether it to my MacBook and use the computer for web browsing sometimes.
I do that with my Treo - I don’t even have to specify an ISP, as it uses the phone carrier’s (UK Orange) internet connection profile. I do have to switch the bluetooth mode on the phone to dialup networking, during which time it won’t support other bluetooth functions such as headset or comms to sync to the PC.