Category: Geeks r Us
hello to all,
does your phone have a data plan? Are you afraid to tether it because it'll cost you $15 extra per month? Do you wish to share your phone's data plan among many computers and family members? Or perhaps you have a laptop and are in an area where you can't get wi-fi access but have service (example: my school's spanish class)?
An excellent program exists for Windows mobile devices called WM Wifi router. There is also a link to another software that does the same for Simbian phones:
It converts your phone into a wi-fi hotspot, and directly re-routes your data plan to the network.
I've been using this with the HTC Ozone (wm6.1) and mobile speak, works well.
Below is the New York times article talking about this. :)
It's legal, but be careful how much data use. Obviously if you were to use 5 gigs of data in a few weeks your account would be flagged with suspicion, and they might know once they check into your history and see what you have been doing. For instance, I wouldn't use this as a p2p/bit torrent internet connection.
Verizon, At&t, and Sprint are charging us for mandatory Data plans if you have a web 2.0, Windows Mobile, or blackberry phone - why not use that $30 for something more than browsing mobile sites?
article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/technology/personaltech/11smart.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=wmwifirouter&st=cse)
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BOB TEDESCHI
Published: September 10, 2008
Wi-Fi nomads are a sorry bunch, wandering with laptops open, hoping their modern-day divining rods can locate a
Here’s a tip: check your pocket.
The cellphone there makes it possible to bypass the laptop cards and dongles that turn cell signals into Internet connections. New technologies are making it possible to bypass the wireless phone companies’ old approaches as well as the steep monthly fees that accompany them.
At the moment, the Internet alchemy to turn the phone into a wireless Web transmitter is available only to a small subset of phone owners, since one needs a smartphone new enough to feature Wi-Fi connectivity. Those include newer-generation Nokia smartphones and some of the later Palm Treos, though more devices arrive each week . (IPhone owners, we’ll get to you later, but the news is not good.)
Why use a Wi-Fi phone to send an Internet signal to your laptop when you could just use that phone to jump onto the Web? This trick is for times when your phone or laptop cannot pick up the local Wi-Fi signal.
And why would you want to go through the bother I’m about to outline? The best reason is that a data card or dongle costs up to $150 or it is rented for a monthly fee, like a cable box. Sprint, AT&T and Verizon Wireless each provide data card services, ranging from $20 monthly for casual users to $60 for heavy users — all on top of the basic wireless subscription costs.
Here is the alternative. Getting the software for a smartphone is fairly easy. People with smartphones featuring Windows Mobile software, like the AT&T Tilt, the T-Mobile MDA Vario III, the XV6800 from Verizon or the Mogul from Sprint, can go to WMWiFiRouter.com, where the application costs about $30. Those with smartphones featuring Symbian software, like the Nokia E71 and the Samsung Omnia, can visit Joiku.com, where the software costs about $21.
Both sites include a full list of compatible devices, as does a similar service, walkinghotspot.com, which had its debut this week. That service costs $7 a month, and works on recent Nokia and HTC phones that have either Symbian or Windows Mobile Professional software, like the Palm Treo 800w. (No one has yet created such software for the BlackBerry from Research in Motion, so its users will watch this trend unfolding from the sidelines.)
Once the service is working, you will create what is actually a mobile hot spot. You will want to protect your service with a password to keep the connection safe from hackers and fraudsters. Even if no bad guys find you, the more users who are on your line, the slower your Web connection and the faster your battery will drain.
If you have a new smartphone, you are likely to have an unlimited data plan already. But if you do not, and you use these new applications for a few hours of video chatting, have the defibrillator handy before opening next month’s bill.
The hot spot software will work wherever you get a data signal, but it will work well only if you have a 3G connection. Check the carrier’s coverage maps for that; otherwise Web surfing will be excruciatingly slow.
IPhone users are out of luck. Netshare, software similar to JoikuSpot and WMWiFiRouter, was withdrawn last month from the iPhone application store days after it appeared. Netshare’s parent company would not respond to e-mail messages seeking comment, AT&T referred inquiries to Apple and Apple would not comment.
Penny-pinchers who can get high-speed cell service at home may be tempted to scrap their Internet providers and use their phones as wireless modems. Nic Covey, an analyst with Nielsen Mobile, said: “If you’re on a 3G network, it becomes an interesting possibility.”
The networks certainly like the fact that more people connect to the Web with their cellphones. Mr. Covey said that 43 percent of those with mobile data cards use them most often at home, and 59 percent of them might ditch their home Internet providers as a result.
Carriers seem to have no problem with customers’ use of the new software to make end-runs around the company’s paid services, perhaps because they generally have no way of knowing when subscribers are using such software. But an AT&T spokesman, Fletcher Cook, suggested customers might find more reliable or faster connections with AT&T’s PC cards — a claim the sellers of hot spot software dispute.
Wireless networks are watching the rise of JoikuSpot and WMWiFiRouter with understandable interest. The carriers make money from people with unlimited data plans — like those who use JoikuSpot and WMWiFiRouter — but they make more money from those who add laptop data card services to their monthly subscriptions, and even more from a monthly Internet service bill.
As more people buy fancier smartphones and inexpensive hot spot software, though, data card services will have a tougher time competing.
Well people should check into their data plan for their phones to see if they have the 5 gig cap that the laptop cards have. I know on Att the phones data plan don't. Also if you have a non smart phone on AT&T like the nokia 6650 you can get the data plan for $15 and not pay extra to tether to your laptop without the wi fi work around
i use my phone with my netbook, and it works well. must upgrade the encription on that though.
yes, most data plans, at least with Verizon I know, do have the 5 gig cap...
My only "fear" is that they will somehow see it in the system, at least that I've used so many megabytes a day and consider me as tethering ($15 extra). Right now I've only used 1000000 kilobytes and I have 8 days until my billing cycle ends, so I think I'm good, unless I decide to use 4 gigs all of a sudden which I won't.
Basically, if you are going to be streaming radio all day for instance, you might eat up your 5 gigs which would be bad. It's 99¢ for every megabyte after that with Verizon.
hi, i've used joikuspot for some time and it works great, i'm trying to get my friend to use it, he says that it can connect to his laptop but no internet, the access point in his phone works, any ideas