Using your Sprint smartphone as an Internet modem for a laptop

[indygt]

I recently bought a new Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook to carry on motorcycle trips for blogging, email and - well, just to get my Internet fix at the end of the day.
It frees me from typing with my thumbs on my Sprint Palm Treo 700p.
The Mini 9 is perfect for my needs, except for one thing. It depends on Wifi or a LAN connection to access the Internet. Bad news if I end up in a motel or campground without an Internet connection.
Sprint is offering a free Compass 597 wireless dongle, but the catch is you have to sign a two-year contract and pay and additional $59.99 a month.
But if you have a Sprint Internet-enabled smartphone for which you're already buying unlimited Internet connectivity, you can use it as a modem for your laptop.
The software you need is a free download from sprint.com.
Here's the path: Support>Helpful Links>Smartphones (click on your model)>Sprint Connection Manager for Phones as a Modem for Windows.
There are two versions - one for Windows XP and Windows 2000, and one for Vista.
I tried it yesterday and it works like a champ, so anywhere I can get a Sprint Internet signal, I can be online by connecting my Treo 700p to my laptop with the synch cord that came with the phone. And, if the laptop is running on AC, I get the added benefit of charging my phone battery.

 

[bubbagazoo]

I recently bought a new Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook to carry on motorcycle trips for blogging, email and - well, just to get my Internet fix at the end of the day.
It frees me from typing with my thumbs on my Sprint Palm Treo 700p.
The Mini 9 is perfect for my needs, except for one thing. It depends on Wifi or a LAN connection to access the Internet. Bad news if I end up in a motel or campground without an Internet connection.
Sprint is offering a free Compass 597 wireless dongle, but the catch is you have to sign a two-year contract and pay and additional $59.99 a month.
But if you have a Sprint Internet-enabled smartphone for which you're already buying unlimited Internet connectivity, you can use it as a modem for your laptop.
The software you need is a free download from sprint.com.
Here's the path: Support>Helpful Links>Smartphones (click on your model)>Sprint Connection Manager for Phones as a Modem for Windows.
There are two versions - one for Windows XP and Windows 2000, and one for Vista.
I tried it yesterday and it works like a champ, so anywhere I can get a Sprint Internet signal, I can be online by connecting my Treo 700p to my laptop with the synch cord that came with the phone. And, if the laptop is running on AC, I get the added benefit of charging my phone battery.

Verify this with Sprint. Folks up here in Canada have been shocked to discover that their Unlimited use phone has a "reasonable use" proviso built into the contracts. Some folks have been hit with huge bills at the end of the month which they had to pay (most were able to negotiate a settlement rather than paying the full amount). It was a case of caveat emptor or make sure you read and understand everything in the contract.

 

[tommcgee]

I've used the Treo as a modem for the computer via bluetooth, but the network is painfully slow. Sprint does have a specific plan for this, but if you're only going to do it once in awhile, it will not raise any red flags.

 

[miairhead]

I use a Sprint Blackberry

I work in IT, I use a Blackberry for my modem when I am off site on the bike. I get a call and then can connect to work, and the computer that has a problem. Sprint has a download for the modem to work. It is fast enough to use unlike a analog modem.

 

[indygt]

Verify this with Sprint. Folks up here in Canada have been shocked to discover that their Unlimited use phone has a "reasonable use" proviso built into the contracts. Some folks have been hit with huge bills at the end of the month which they had to pay (most were able to negotiate a settlement rather than paying the full amount). It was a case of caveat emptor or make sure you read and understand everything in the contract.

Yeah, it's a whole different game in Canada.

 

[indygt]

I've used the Treo as a modem for the computer via bluetooth, but the network is painfully slow. Sprint does have a specific plan for this, but if you're only going to do it once in awhile, it will not raise any red flags.

Bluetooth is the limiting factor. It using the synch cord gives you much more speed.

 

[tommcgee]

Bluetooth is the limiting factor. It using the synch cord gives you much more speed.

Sprint network speed on the Treo by itself, without tethering, is dismal. Bluetooth is not dragging it down further, at least in metro-Boston. FWIW, network speed isn't any better on the Sanyo SCP-2700 which just came out.

 

[indygt]

My experience so far has been surprisingly good. My Mini 9 with the Google Chrome browser, using the Treo for a modem, is way faster than the Treo's own Blazer browser.
I'll still look for a Wifi connection first, but the Treo modem seems like a good Plan B.

 

[Daedalus214]

Modem Usage Charge

IndyGT,

I too was looking at this setup several months ago as I had a Palm 755P on the Sprint network. I was paying for the internet on the 755P and wanted to use the Palm as a modem. I downloaded the software and tried it. Unfortunately, I could not unlock my phone for modem usage as I did not have the pass code of the phone (been a few months and I'm not exactly sure what the unlock code was properly called). So I called Sprint.

Even though I had the internet package, there is a separate charge for modem usage of the phone (this was called tethering). I believe it was an extra $30.00/month to use tethering. Being thrifty, I declined the offer from the Sprint rep and went on some of the Sprint forums that discuss this issue. Some people were able to use the tethering feature, without paying for it, without a problem. Others ran into big problems with Sprint and were charged accordingly; hundred if not thousands of dollars. I believe the legal term for this offense was theft of services.

So how did some get caught and not others? The theory was that those who used the tethering feature occasionally did not have a large jump in the amount of data (ie megabits) flowing to their devices. If you used the tethering feature often then the data flow went up accordingly, and a Sprint software monitoring program caught these indiscretions.

What I am saying is that without the tethering package, you could get yourself in trouble using the phone as a modem. Forewarned is forearmed.......