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Re: Cell phone connection

Any ideas on how I can connect to the internet using a cell phone ? 

Joseph,

I use the Mac OS X version of QuickLink Mobile, the "Wireless connectivity kit for mobile Internet computing," from Smith Micro Software, Inc.

Their website <http://www.smithmicro.com/> has a long list of supported phone models and service providers. They also sell cables for the phones that don't have BlueTooth. They claim that you can use iSync with many of the Motorola phones to synchronize your address books.

Personally, I've used QuickLink Mobile on a couple of PBG4's with an Audivox 9155-GPX phone. Other than some initial problems with QuickLink not recognizing its serial number, QuickLink Mobile has always worked well for me. That came as a pleasant surprise, considering the many problems I've had over the years with Smith Micro's misleading advertising for, and the poor quality of, their FaxSTF product line (the Mac OS X version of FaxSTF is such a disaster that I had to abandon it altogether).

I was reluctant to buy QuickLink, but it was the only Mac solution that I found after much searching. My experience had been like your's: The mobile office kit that Verizon sold worked with my Wintel laptop but didn't didn't come with Macintosh drivers. The USB cable from that kit, however, works fine with QuickLink Mobile on the Mac.

Connections over Verizon's Digital1x packet service Express Network have been very reliable, but throughput can vary greatly! On average it's been comparable to a 56k analog modem connection. Occasionally it's been twice that fast.

It's also worked reasonably well, though rather slowly, when roaming in analog cell system areas.

Verizon's Express Network has impressive national coverage. It has a nominal peak throughput of 144 kbps. For QuickLink's fall-back "Quick 2 Net" analog mode that's 14.4 kbps, but tends to feel like a throwback to the 2400 bps era. Heck, that seemed incredibly fast after 50 cps teletypes and my first 300 and 1200 bps landline modems...

Best wishes!

Wolf
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