Using Your Mobile As A Modem

[Hikage]

Anyone tried connecting a cell phone via bluetooth to say a notebook using a normal dial up account like csloxinfo to get online?

Can anyone let me know their experiences with setup, speeds, stability etc...

Thanks

[Shivek]

Anyone tried connecting a cell phone via bluetooth to say a notebook using a normal dial up account like csloxinfo to get online?

Can anyone let me know their experiences with setup, speeds, stability etc...

Thanks

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I havent tired but once my cousin did it and the internet connection was like 100k but when i opened a web page it seemed to be slower than 50k!

[monty]

If you use dial-up with a mobile, you'll get connected at 9.6kbps.

Pretty slow, almost only usefull for e-mailing.

Most mobile networks now offer gprs, which is faster, and ends up a lot cheaper. The pre-paid packages charge 1 baht/minute for gprs, whereas with dial-up you'll pay 3 Baht/minute, plus your internet card!

[The_Other_Mac]

whereas with dial-up you'll pay 3 Baht/minute, plus your internet card!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Dialup costs 3 baht per call. A call can be many hours long. Slight difference.

If you're unfortunate enough to be in a rented studio-type room, they often have a system that charges, say, 5 baht per call, and then cuts off your call after 15 minutes. Very annoying but still 33 satang per minute. Internet costs are a bit extra on top of that though, e.g. 5-10 baht per hour.

Edit: Sorry Hikage, that doesn't answer your question at all. Never done it, but I'm pretty sure you don't/can't use ordinary dialup packages via mobiles.

Edited July 26, 2005 by The_Other_Mac

[Tywais]

whereas with dial-up you'll pay 3 Baht/minute, plus your internet card!

Edit: Sorry Hikage, that doesn't answer your question at all. Never done it, but I'm pretty sure you don't/can't use ordinary dialup packages via mobiles.

Actually you can. The mobile phone internal modem behaves the same as one attached to a PC, just a different media (wireless vs wired). When I got my bluetooth enabled cell phone and an iPaq pocket PC the first thing I did was try to get it connected to a standard ISP dialin account. In my case I had 15 hours of free use of Jnet and used the supplied phone numbers to make the connection.

Pretty neat actually to be walking down the street with your phone in your pocket and punch in the pocketPC (Bluetooth enabled notebook works just as well) a connection request. The pocketPC makes a connection to the mobile, the mobile then dials the number out, establishes a ppp connection and voila, you are now browsing the Internet, getting your e-mail and the full gambet.

Mine is gprs enabled but still can run up a big tab on your cell phone bill. First weekend I used it, it added 1500.00B to my bill.

[dereklev]

whereas with dial-up you'll pay 3 Baht/minute, plus your internet card!

Dialup costs 3 baht per call. A call can be many hours long. Slight difference.

If you're unfortunate enough to be in a rented studio-type room, they often have a system that charges, say, 5 baht per call, and then cuts off your call after 15 minutes. Very annoying but still 33 satang per minute. Internet costs are a bit extra on top of that though, e.g. 5-10 baht per hour.

Edit: Sorry Hikage, that doesn't answer your question at all. Never done it, but I'm pretty sure you don't/can't use ordinary dialup packages via mobiles.

I am pretty sure that it has to be via your mobile supplier.

I know both AIS/DTAC offer pay as you go at 1 baht per minute.

I have a contract with AIS and get 200 hours per month for 500 Baht.

The connection is very good, in fact as good as any dial-up I have had in London.

But then I live in a rural area where, other than the kids downloading to their mobiles, there is little internet usage. Not sure how it would work in BKK.

Hope this helps....

[monty]

Yes you can use dial-up packages with a mobile (they call it a "data call"), that's why I was referring to 3 Baht/minute.

Unlike a fixed line, where the time connected doesn't matter, on a mobile you do pay per minute, making the on-line cost very expensive!

If installed correctly, your PC will recognize your mobile as a regular modem.

Also, you'll have to call your mobile phone company first to enable data calls. With AIS they only do this for post paid accounts, On the one2call prepaid system they won't open data calls, but you can however use the gprs network at 1 Baht/min.

[autonomous_unit]

For those curious about the geeky side of this, the data call sends the modem data over the digital wireless link instead of the normal digitized audio, and it is a modem at the wireless telecom provider that actually forms the accoustic modem connection w/ the remote modem at the ISP which goes out over the higher bandwidth plain old telephone system. It is 9600 bps because that is the underlying data rate for normal GSM wireless.

You have to enable the data calls w/ the telecom provider because of this involvement of a modem on their end. If you somehow tried to run an accoustic modem through the GSM voice compression algorithm, you'd get a much worse data rate. Now where did I leave that accoustically coupled modem?

[billd766]

I am pretty sure that it has to be via your mobile supplier.

I know both AIS/DTAC offer pay as you go at 1 baht per minute.

I have a contract with AIS and get 200 hours per month for 500 Baht.

The connection is very good, in fact as good as any dial-up I have had in London.

But then I live in a rural area where, other than the kids downloading to their mobiles, there is little internet usage. Not sure how it would work in BKK.

Hope this helps....  

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I also live in a rural area but when I go to BKK I get the same level of service that I do when I am at home.

I also use it when I work overseas and it works just as well.

I bought a legal program which turns my laptop into a DNS standalone server so I have no need for CSLoxinfo etc.

[Ice Maiden]

I live in the central of Pattaya so internet useage lacks. Sometimes if I'm lucky I get a connection lasting approx 5 mins. It's a downer actually because I was hoping to play online with my brick errr I mean N-GAGE.

The joys of living in a busy Pattaya.

[markuk]

I use my laptop when out of wifi range to connect via bluetooth to my Nokia 9300, works fine, generally speed says around 100k but is quite slow, dont know about costs and only use it when i really need to. Would be no good for proper browsing.....

[Crushdepth]

Just picked up a brochure about GPRS packages for One-2-Call. Looks like you can get bundled hours with prepaid accounts now. Brochure says:

20 hours / 100 baht / 0.08 baht per minute

10 hours / 70 baht / 0.12 baht per minute

4 hours / 40 baht / 0.17 baht per minute.

At least that's how I interpret it - while I can read Thai, my vocab is crap so I still don't know what it says

[Ken]

Just picked up a brochure about GPRS packages for One-2-Call. Looks like you can get bundled hours with prepaid accounts now. Brochure says:

20 hours / 100 baht / 0.08 baht per minute

10 hours / 70 baht / 0.12 baht per minute

4 hours / 40 baht / 0.17 baht per minute.

At least that's how I interpret it - while I can read Thai, my vocab is crap so I still don't know what it says

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Crushdepth: You interpreted it correctly as I visited the AIS office in Korat and had them explain it to me. While at the office I also "registered" my One-2 Call card. The service works "fine" and can easily be signed up for by dialing the numbers on the brochure...*138=sign up; *139=check balance; 1175=customer service. All the numbers have an "English option".

The yearly contract promotions are now stated as 24 month contracts (ie, two years) and of course you still need a work permit or a Thai to sign up for it. Actually I've opted to change from the "yearly" contract to my AIS One-2 Call number and the actual service remains the same (usually good "up here" in the villages but has it's occasional hiccups.)