[ale] NewbieQs on 'tethered' net connections1

Tue Apr 21 10:33:38 EDT 2009

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.

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.

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.

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.

YMMV,
Brian

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 9:54 AM, Mills John M-NPHW64 <Jmills at motorola.com>wrote:

> Sean, All -
>
> Thanks for the replies. I'm responding to this note because it touched more
> of my issues directly.
>
> 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:
>
> 1. I have an e-mail address for SMS and can reply to those messages or
> forward them to regular phone numbers.
> 2. I can access their "T-Zones" which are basically a web flea-market for
> the carrier to sell me stuff.
>
> 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.
>
> 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!
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> Phone model reports as 'RM-225'; I can't get a solid reading on whether AT
> commands are supported.
>
> 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.
>
> "Science stumbles forward."
>
> More suggestions welcome.
>
>  - Mills
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ale-bounces at ale.org on behalf of Sean C. McCord
> Sent: Mon 4/20/2009 9:30 PM
> To: ale at ale.org
> Subject: Re: [ale] NewbieQs on 'tethered' net connections
>
> On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 05:43:49PM -0400, Mills John M-NPHW64 wrote:
> >ALErs -
> >
> >1. Is there a HOWTO on this that can suggest specs and models of low-end
> phones for net access from my Linux laptop?
>
> As far as I know, ALL GSM phones (those of AT&T and T-Mobile, in the
> USA), can serve as a modem.  I have used it in all my phones since my
> first one with Powertel who knows how many years ago.  That said, you
> have a few things to look for:
>
> a)  The phone has to have some method to _get_ to your laptop:  Wifi,
> serial, USB, etc.
> b)  If your phone is "locked" (that is, it was bought from the
> carrier), it may be restricted in some way, so all bets are off.
>
> >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?
>
> You don't necessarily need a "direct" net connection.  For years, I
> used T-Mobile's proxies access for $4.99/mo.  The only reason I
> changed is because I got a Google Phone and wanted full, unrestricted
> access for VPN, SSH, Email, etc., without having to funnel everything
> through a hacked up port 80.
>
> >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.
>
> For GSM (I have no clue about CDMA, i.e., Sprint, MetroPCS, Nextel,
> Verizon, etc.), the phone acts like a modem.  You interface to with
> with a slightly special AT command set, so to the computer, it looks
> just like a modem.  You even dial up and "connect" just like expected;
> and yes, it is a PPP connection.
>
> If you are using a special app some of the fancier Wifi-enabled
> phones, it is going to act more like a wireless access point.  You
> won't be PPP'ing, most likely.  It will just look like a normal TCP/IP
> link over wireless.
>
> --
> Sean C. McCord
> CyCore Systems
> scmlist at cycoresys.com
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