Internet with BoostMobile pay as you go phone tethered to pc

[henry]

Didnt know where to post this, it really deserves own thread instead of as a post on a news thread in general chat. This isnt dialup and not broadband by any means.

I am currently playing with a Boost Mobile pay as you go cell phone (got Motorola i415 used along with a cheap new Boost simm activation kit on ebay). Finally read the instructions carefully and found I couldnt activate from phone itself, had to do it online or from another phone. You will get a "NO SERVICE" message until phone is activated even if you are in a strong service area. Probably same with any cell phone but I never had cell phone before. Anyway it works now despite me being very fringe for Nextel network coverage. A repeater antenna might help some.

I dont really need a cell phone as a phone though I am considering keeping it for emergencies. 20cents per minute buisiness hours, 10cents late nights and weekends. Comes with free gps and free call to check account balance. Minutes roll over if you recharge every 3 months. Lose your rollover minutes if you dont recharge before 90days is up.

They claim you can buy $10 recharge card, but I havent seen anybody that actually sells them, smallest denomination I've seen is $20. And the interesting thing is 35cent per day unlimited option for data connection. There is a very marginal web browser loaded in phone, but can also load Opera-mini which apparently is by far the best phone browser available. And you can use usb data cable to connect and surf with computer if you can figure out how. Boost doesnt really offer support for doing such. Nextel and Motorola does, well to certain extent anyway. After lot of reading, people tend to report slow web connection, much slower than slowest dialup unless you are lucky enough to have WiDEN turned on in your area, usually large urban areas only. with WiDEN, this is real steal of a deal and can be faster than dialup. Still, even slow mode, its usable for things like popping email or surfing minimalist sites. Not lot you are going to do with 11k to 15k connection on modern world wide web. Well not unless you have lot of spare time and dont care.

I am right now ready to install Opera-mini though will have to boot XP to do so with data cable. Opera cant directly install on an iDEN phone. And apparently no way to do it with linux.

I think however I figured out how to make Puppy Linux on my laptop use the phone via data cable as a "modem" to surf with since I found a post someplace by somebody that got it to work with Ubuntu. I am trying to learn as much as possible before calling and having the data connection activated. Figure by time I've used up the $10 credit that came with phone activation kit at rate of 35cents per day, I'll know if I want to put more money into it. I have very little invested right now, more an experiment for me than anything.

Update: Little update, I successfully installed Opera-mini 4.0 to cell phone. It is quite amazing, and surfed a bit with it. Then since I had already installed the official Motorola usb driver for the phone in windows, I went ahead and made a connection in windows. Works, though my desktop computer is in bad location for cell phone reception and it was slow and connection dropped unless I held phone as high in air as cable would allow. It did work. And I did get charged 35cents for my experiments today. Still to try getting it working with Puppy Linux on my old laptop. Either tonight or tomorrow.


Update2: I played with Puppy a bit, no luck so far but havent given up. I then booted PClinuxOS live cd on desktop. It auto recognizes the phone and its just matter of modifying entry in Kppp. I am using it now along with Firefox. Not fast, but with images turned off its usable. Unfortunately no Dillo. Dillo with images is fastest browser bar none that I have ever seen. It however doesnt use style sheets and renders is done in its own default way.

Internet this way is slower than maybe even slowest dialup, but you dont have to have a landline. If you are in range of Nextel network, this is way to get internet for $11 per month total, no phone bill or other fees on top of that unless you make phone calls on the Boost phone then charges as I mentioned earlier apply. But for data link, its flat 35cents per day. Once you start using it though, its a flat 35cents every day, not just the days you use it. Some old posts in other forums that deal with this sort of thing claim ways to get the data link free, but I believe if that was possible, the cracks have been plugged and anytime you use it they now know and you pay your 35cents.

Oh and I been reading, you can use a Boost sim card in at least one model of Nextel supported Blackberry (old model?) that now sells used for cheaper on ebay than what I paid for the i415. If you want to surf with phone, the Blackberry is far superior and much bigger screen. I had no idea or would have went that way. But I have went from zero to sixty in just few days getting up to speed on this Boost deal and still dont know many of the ins and outs. But its interesting.

Anybody here wants more specifics on how I have done any of things I mentioned feel free to post. Not hard to tether XP or PClinux computer. I will eventually tweak Puppy to use it also. By way when you buy a usb tethering cable, get the one that allows your usb port to continually recharge the phone.