I was wondering if anyone tried to use their cellphones as a modem for their laptop while traveling. There is supposed to be a way to use a USB data cable to link your cellphone to your laptop. If it works, it may be a good backup if icafe's are hard to get to or if there are no wi-fi hotspots.

Be very wary of bandwidth charges. They can be a rude surprise.

I just tried that the other night. I recently got a usb data cable for my LG cell, downloaded the usb modem driver from their site, installed it (WinXP) and it added it as a modem. I added a new "connect to" and dialed my ISP and viola!! I was on.

Now the cons! I got reallllly slow connect speed around 19K a regular modem would get you around 46K which is what all a POTS line will handle, no matter what your modem speed is. I had the speed set at 115K on my laptop hopeing that if the modem wasn't connected to a regular phone line I would get over 44K. No such luck..yet! The other downside is that the cell detected it and classified it as a data call, which I'm not sure how it will be charged to my acccount (cell service plans all differ!) You should also be aware of where you would be calling from. If your service has roaming and you call your home ISP, you could be in for a shock!.

The Pros: Anywhere you can make a cell call, you can theoretically acess the web, or send an impotant email,fax, etc. Rememeber the bandwidth you nedd for a cell call is quite small compared to what you would need for a computer network, so expect the net access to be slow if you are quiet far from a cell tower. Their might be a way to tweak you net settings (increse MTU or reduce tcp/ip error corrections) to get better bandwith, but you do not need wi-fi access, a dial-up line, or a broadband card, (which dont work well in a lot of cities despite what the commercials say) to get on the web, just your cellphone!

Where I live, in a really rural. ie desert, area, I'm pretty far from the closest cell tower. I couldn't even get mobile access reliably with the old analog system, but its ok with the newer digital networks. I will probably test the setup again this weekend, but drive closer to a cell tower to see if it gets a better connect speed.

Hope this helps!!

OG

You're much better off just getting a data service from Sprint or Verizon. Speeds are adequate and the flat-rate plans aren't too bad per month.

I have an I-Pass account on my notebook, which means I can use T-Mobile or Boingo or just about any paid WiFi service out there. Doesn't do you much good if you're out in the boonies or something but for airports and the like, the "free" broadband is nice.

I have a cell phone from Vivo with unlimited data transfer. Works all over Brazil. 144 kbps

If you are in Rio, I gladly rent it to you, to offset the monthly cost. I rarely need it as I have DSL at home