mobile internet - gizmohead on the road

[nibot]

I set up tcp/ip access over GSM. The girls were attacking an outlet mall in a (apparently traditional?) post-thanksgiving shopping spree, and Kenny and I were left lounging in the van for an hour or two. In that time I managed to connect my Ericsson T616 to my laptop and get GPRS (General Packet Radio Service, aka packet-switched data over GSM) working. (As they say — how stereotypical.) For some reason, I couldn't get the Ericsson software to talk to the phone over the IrDA link, but with the serial cable (thanks to baseballump) it works fine. Service is available nearly everywhere in the cities and along interstates. It's a bit slow, though, (reportedly 9600 bps), and expensive (cents per kilobyte)? I'm interested in other solutions to the mobile internet problem. Can I, for example, just dial up a regular ISP using the phone as a modem? I tried calling a BBS [Digital Decay, +1(714)871-2057] but it wouldn't connect ("NO CARRIER" without ever connecting). I'm eager to play with 802.11b some more, but I'll need a better card first (and an external antenna).

I'd also like to get some mapping software for my computer too, so I can have something like mapquest-on-the-fly. Delorme Street Atlas gets surprisingly horrible reviews, and Microsoft Streets and Trips apparently has atrocious GPS support. Not sure what to get, then.

Comments

[kari-marie.livejournal.com]

Gizmos are good. We went to Fry's yesterday on our way home to look at GPSs, but left w/o one--I still can't decide what I want.

We did, however, acquire an I-Rock--it's a radio signal gizmo so you don't have to use a cassette adapter to plug in mp3 player/laptop for music. Works quite well for $30.

We're gonna have quite the load of gadgets when we go on our trip in a few weeks--3 cell phones (4 of us total going), laptop w/ cell modem, 2 mp3 players, GPS. Whee.