Short-term internet access?

rpadula

rpadula

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I have a friend who needs temporary wireless data access for about a week while at her parents' non-internet, semi-rural home. She has a white Macbook with Wi-Fi (no Express Card slot). I'm not sure if any neighbors have service she can mooch from.

I'm thinking possibly a USB data modem for cellular data access. She already has a Blackberry voice & mail plan on AT&T. Are there ways to get on board with them without entering into a new contract?

How about signing up data-only with somebody else (verizon, sprint)? You can quit most contracts within the first 30 days with no ETF and just paying for the service you used, right?

P.S. Two more tidbits: phone is currently a BB Curve 8820, and Mac OS is 10.4.11.
 
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Go to a Panera Bread, Starbucks, Kinkos, UPS store etc and use free WiFi or sign up for 24 hours of access.

BTW, you have free AT&T WiFi account with iPhone service.
 
mikea said:
Go to a Panera Bread, Starbucks, Kinkos, UPS store etc and use free WiFi or sign up for 24 hours of access.
Click to expand...

Yeah, she usually does that, but I think wants to be able to have access inside the home this time (her dad is quite ill).

All the USB aircard solutions I can find on quick notice involve shelling out $100-$200 bucks for about a week's worth of access.
 
mikea said:
Go to a Panera Bread, Starbucks, Kinkos, UPS store etc and use free WiFi or sign up for 24 hours of access.

BTW, you have free AT&T WiFi account with iPhone service.
Click to expand...

Ok.. but what about if he wants to do it from the parents house? Then what?
 
I don't have a solution but I'm interested in what it might be since I am sometimes faced with the same problem.
 
rpadula said:
Yeah, she usually does that, but I think wants to be able to have access inside the home this time (her dad is quite ill).

All the USB aircard solutions I can find on quick notice involve shelling out $100-$200 bucks for about a week's worth of access.
Click to expand...

AND a service commitment of least a year.

WAIT! The MiFi has a month by month deal, but it 's gonna be $200(?)

http://www.google.com/search?q=veri...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

*sigh* $99 but a two year commit.

http://search.verizon.com/?tp=r&rv=r&q=mifi
 
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I looked into this a while back for my trips to Florida and IIRC you can rent a USB cellmodem for a week at around $100 including airtime. I found several online vendors with a simple search. You need to set it up a week or two in advance to avoid overnight shipping charges.
 
I don't have a blackberry. But with AT&T I can sign up for tethering without any commitment. I think it is 29 a month. You can sign up then just cancel when you get back home. It will cost her the full month though.

Mark B.
 
AT&T will also allow you to sign up for the data modem service (3G, if available, is fast), and cancel w/in thirty days with no further obligation. Dangling taht in front of me is how they finally got me to pop for the deal.
 
There was a service that was essentially a Sprint reseller that had no-contract service. I'll see if I can find my notes... How soon do you need to know?
 
Thanks for the input everybody.

Last night, we met at the AT&T store and added the data tethering option for an additional $29/month. I sat in the corner and set up the devices for Bluetooth tethering via a combination of these two instructions:

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/blackberry_pearl_as_bluetooth_modem_with_mac.html

http://www.fibble.org/archives/000508.html


I've previously tethered my Mac to my Sony Ericsson phones in this manner when I had T-Mobile. They had a permissive policy and installing the scripts as in the above instructions were pretty easy for a technical guy like myself.

However, back when I looked into tethering with Blackberries, I found the results to be very mixed. Early models would only support it via USB, which is not supported for tethering use on the Mac. Others had firmware bugs which rendered it difficult to get working reliably. Basically, it used to be a "bag of hurt" that I didn't want to pass off to my friend. I guess the newer BB's are better, because I got the Curve 8320 (incorrectly listed as 8820 in my OP) working the first time. It was done in 5 minutes!

Granted, it'll only be EDGE speeds (~ 200 kbps download), but it was the least cost solution, and will be good enough for this pinch. I think the more serious road warriors prefer the Verizon, or AT&T 3G aircards.

Attached is the 8300-series modem script I used for all you Mac-heads.

Did I mention how much I love Mac OS X? :D
 

Attachments

  • BlackBerry_8300.zip
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I guess I need to wait until you can tether iPhones.
 
gprellwitz said:
You can with the newly announced 3G version. Unless, of course, you happen to live in the US. :(
Click to expand...

That's with the 3.0 software release; not necessarily needing a new phone.

Apple will beat on the Death Star until they come around. They already offer tethering as a rate plan add-on for other phones. There is more to providing a service than proving it can be done. Have to update the procedures, training, tech support staff, entry systems, yadda yadda yadda...
 
rpadula said:
That's with the 3.0 software release; not necessarily needing a new phone.

Apple will beat on the Death Star until they come around. They already offer tethering as a rate plan add-on for other phones. There is more to providing a service than proving it can be done. Have to update the procedures, training, tech support staff, entry systems, yadda yadda yadda...
Click to expand...

Think mm millions of users suddenly using lots of the precious bandwidth 24x7.
 
mikea said:
Think mm millions of users suddenly using lots of the precious bandwidth 24x7.
Click to expand...

That's why they have the 5GB/month cap.

And the cell towers throttle back data when voice calls need to be made.

And it's against the TOS.

And this isn't Slashdot, where arguments like this go on ad infinitum... :p
 
mikea said:
Think mm millions of users suddenly using lots of the precious bandwidth 24x7.
Click to expand...

Well, somehow all the carriers in other countries decided to make it happen.

I hope the AT&T execs realize that they were blatantly laughed at three times and booed during the keynote yesterday. AT&T FAIL.

And I have a feeling that this type of thinking is going to be looked back upon as AT&T EPIC FAIL when the exclusive contract runs out...
 
What's the deal with the Sprint's 4G network coming online? Are they seriously about to leap-frog AT&T or are they simply re-labeling their own 3G network as 4G?
 
Rich,

Article in the WSJ today about a "MiFi" box. Without a contract, $400 + $60/mo. Much lower with contract.

That is the *ideal* thing for what you want.
 
CJones said:
What's the deal with the Sprint's 4G network coming online? Are they seriously about to leap-frog AT&T or are they simply re-labeling their own 3G network as 4G?
Click to expand...

It's "3.5G" I think.

AT&T is supposed to have their double-speed 7.2Mbps HSDPA network going soon. The latest iPhone supports that standard. HSDPA = "3G" on GSM networks. Who knows, maybe their marketing department will call it 4G as well. :dunno:
 
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