With my previous cellphone, I had the option of buying a $100 data kit from Sprint that would let me use the phone essentially as a modem. I didn’t spend a lot of time investigating this option, since it sounded like a lot of hassle for what would have been a really slow connection that chewed up a lot of airtime minutes.
A friend (thanks, Paul!) recently tipped me off to PdaNet from the June Fabrics PDA Technology Group. PdaNet lets your Treo function as a wireless data connection for your laptop. Unfortunately, your laptop has to be running Windows. After downloading the .prc file and syncing it onto my Treo, I was browsing the web almost immediately from my laptop (with WiFi radio turned off and no Ethernet cable attached, of course).
If you have a Treo 600 and a laptop running Windows, it’s a very well-spent $34. They offer a 15-day free trial so you can make sure it works for you before you buy it.
Treo 600 users need version 2.5.2, which came out less than a week ago. So far, it has worked flawlessly for me. At one point I got an error dialog on the Treo saying something like “Error: Serial: port in use (0×0307)”, but the dialog disappeared within a few seconds and I continued browsing as if nothing had happened. The FAQ explains that this is due to a conflict with the Sprint PCS Business Connection software when it tries to auto-connect and synchronize email and documents.
When PdaNet connected, it claimed that it had negotiated a 145 kbps connection. I tried the bandwidth meter at 2wire.com and got speeds of 107.8, 130.2, 99.9, 90.3, 90.5, and 79.9 kbps. During the tests, the signal strength on the phone stayed pretty constant at two bars.
I was even able to connect to my corporate LAN through our Avaya VPNRemote software as easily as if I were using a wired or wireless connection on my home LAN. Outlook was even slower than usual, but it was still better than over a dial-up connection. The 2wire bandwidth meter indicated speeds of 59.8 and 83.7 kbps over the VPN. Not bad, considering the overhead of the VPN encryption and the additional path through my company’s routers before getting to 2wire’s website.
January 23rd, 2004 at 4:24 pm
robert, i am half the man you are… i am using my new-for me- treo 300 !
February 26th, 2004 at 7:47 am
There is a way to use the Treo as a wireless modem for the Mac. Check out this link:
http://www.sprintpcsinfo.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=41&page=1
February 26th, 2004 at 8:38 am
Very, very cool! Thanks for posting that link. I will definitely give it a try, since I’m often roaming around with my wife’s Powerbook, wishing I could find a free WiFi hotspot.
Although the SprintPCS data connection is slower than for most WiFi hotspots, the effective speed for free WiFi in the East Bay is 0. In contrast, I can get a Sprint data connection of 50-100 kbps nearly everywhere, except in certain very hilly areas or deep inside buildings.
August 23rd, 2004 at 6:41 pm
wow! I never had an such an easy experience connecting to the net from my cell phone. Thank you for posting!
October 25th, 2004 at 5:50 am
Anyone know of a similar software for pocketpc ?
October 27th, 2004 at 11:14 pm
Nothing that I know of. Most of the people I know who have Pocket PCs use a WiFi connection. I don’t know anyone with a cellphone that uses a Microsoft operating system (well, I’m sure that I do, but I’m just not aware that they have such a device).
February 21st, 2005 at 9:27 pm
Is there a program that does this for free for Windows? Furthermore, did you wind up going to the $100 Data Package?
February 22nd, 2005 at 12:39 am
I don’t know of any similar free software for Windows, but I vaguely remember reading about somebody porting some wireless modem software from BSD Unix to Mac OS X that would work with the chip in the Treo 600. I had planned to try this out on my wife’s PowerBook, but never got around to it.
I use Sprint, so I went with the $15/month unlimited data package. That brought my monthly charge to $60, before employment related discounts. When I signed up for Sprint, I was working for a company that had negotiated a pretty good discount for its employees.