Is there a way to connect a laptop to a cell phone? I'm taking my laptop in my truck with me and I want to be able to access the net from the truck to my ISP at home. Don't really want to surf the web but just pick up my email when I'm not driving. I am not sure what this laptop has in it for a modem...

Thanks,

Roger
'85 GL1200

By Don Ferguson on Saturday, February 17, 2001 - 05:54 am:

Yes there is. Most new cell phones have an adapter that has a female telephone connector. You plug it in just like you would if you were connecting your laptop at home; assuming your laptop has a modem.

By Roger Wessels on Saturday, February 17, 2001 - 07:00 am:

Thanks Don. Do you get the adapters at the cell phone store or computer store. Don't have too many computer stores but we got quite a few cell phone stores.

By Don Ferguson on Saturday, February 17, 2001 - 12:29 pm:

The cell phone store probably has what you need. Also, try the internet

By Jim Boehk on Sunday, February 18, 2001 - 11:18 am:

I have a 3Com 3CCM556 Cellular Modem in my Compaq Armada 1750. It has a seperate cord and jack to connect to my Nokia 5160 digital cell phone. The data transfer rates are so slow that I very rarely use it. I normally wait until I get to a hotel and use their phone line. Another option if all you want is email is to go with a Internet capable cell phone or a wireless PDA like the Palm VII. Many paging companies are also offering email service.

Good Luck
Jim

By david j. riley on Sunday, February 18, 2001 - 06:00 pm:

need help, i tried to post a new conversation but i received an error for the attempt from discus ware. i am using Win "ME " is there something i need to set up or is this OS too new to work?
sorry to piggyback on this thread.
david riley
david.riley@mindspring.com

By Jess Tolbirt on Sunday, February 18, 2001 - 06:44 pm:

David,
I have had no problems with ME at all,
wish i could help,

By JOE JONES on Monday, February 19, 2001 - 12:10 am:

What make and model of cell phone are you using? I have a nearly new "Data-On-The-Go" PCMCIA fax/modem for a laptop which I would like to sell. I used it a couple of times with my Qualcomm 860 phone. It will work with other phone models, but you will need that ever-evasive cable to connect your phone to the modem.

In fact, I have the phone for sale too, only it is BRAND NEW, replaced through insurance just prior to my switching over to NexTel Communications.

The problem with laptops and cell phones is bandwidth. you will be lucky to achieve 14,400 baud speed when connected in this way. Even if you have a 56K modem, the cell phone cannot keep pace with it, so surfing the net will be impractical, although getting e-mail and reading and responding off line, and then sending out the responses is tolerable.

Also, your cellular connection will be ANALOG. The laptop modems are not DIGITAL .. yet!

By Jim Boehk on Monday, February 19, 2001 - 06:34 pm:

Joe Jones,

You are correct about the analog modem connection. However, you can still use a digital cell phone connection to connect to an analog modem. But it's not any faster. In fact, the error correction on a digital connection is worse than an analog connection for some reason. I'm not real sure why.

By David Eady on Tuesday, March 27, 2001 - 03:40 pm:

Use mine all the time. I started out with a Qualcom 2700 which I recently replaced with a Samsung T100 (cute little thing). Have used it to access e-mail and also to do customer demos in a pinch.

All of the above is digital.

Your cell provider may also support the Venturi personal client which can speed up communications when using digital data on a cell.