Good dial-up ISP for Treo and Visor

[ivanbaj]

I am not sure if this is the appropriate place to post this message. If it is not please remove it.

I would like to introduce Budget Dialup to all PDA users on this
forum. We offer prepaid hourly and monthly dial-up plans. The time from the hourly plans carries over from month to month. This allows you to pay only for the time that you use.

Because of the nature of our service we end up servicing many PDA users and we are familiar with most of the PDA out there. If you are interested to give us a try please visit us at:

http://www.budgetdialup.com

[NickC]

This sounds like a pretty cool plan - I have cable internet through AT&T, but they don't provide a dialup access number.

Do you know if anyone has used your service using a Palm OS machine (Clie T615) with a wireless phone as a modem (IR through a Nokia 3360)? That would be awesome for me!

[ivanbaj]

Do you know if anyone has used your service using a Palm OS machine (Clie T615) with a wireless phone as a modem (IR through a Nokia 3360)?

I can't say if we have other users using exactly the same configuration but it should work fine.

Make sure that your wireless plan includes data service. VoiceStream (T-Mobile) includes data on all of their plans for the other providers you may need to call them and ask them to enable data transfer for you.

Email us at support@budgetdialup.com and we will give you a test account so you can make sure that it will work before you buy.

[NickC]

Does the wireless plan HAVE to include data service? I thought I could just use my wireless phone as a modem. Then I'd need a software for my T615 that acts as a browser which will access the net through the IR port.

[ivanbaj]

Yes you will need data service. You should call your wireless provider and ask them if your plan will support dialing into an ISP with a modem.

When you dial-up to an ISP you will pay the ISP charges + your wireless time. Some providers like T-Mobile don't charge you extra for data transmissions, your time online will be deducted from your plan's minutes. Others will give you a separate plan with so many minutes that you can use for data transmissions.

If you have a regular "line"-modem then you can dial to our service and just pay for the ISP service.


For GPRS (Note: you don't need us or any dial-up ISP for this)

The new GPRS service gives you a data connection without dialing. Similar to a DSL or a cable connection. It is always ON. If your provider has GPRS then you don't need to use any other ISP. The GPRS is also faster then dial-up. Usually the GPRS is billed per KB or MB of data transferred per month.

You will need:

- A compatible GPRS phone with an Infra Red port.

- A Palm™ handled running Palm OS® 3.3 or higher

- The Access Point Name (APN) - You need to find out from your network operator the APNs for the services you will use. The APNs usually have formats like "operator.web" for Internet access or "operator.wap" for wap. Each service also has its rank within the network. The internet APN is generally number 1.
- Domain Name Server (DNS): DNS1 and DNS2 - if not provided, these parameters may be dynamic.
-User name and password - if not provided, any word works. Usually this has no impact on the connection.
-GPRS dial-up number - for example *99#

So why not use GPRS?

If you can setup GPRS and you like to pay per MB then you should use it.

Basically it comes down to having GPRS coverage, GPRS capable phone and be willing to pay per MB if usage.

If you can't use GPRS then use us but you will need to ask your wireless provider to enable data transmissions over your current plan.

[Prismer]

OK, GPRS is a subsystem of GSM as I understand it. Visorphone is a GSM cellular phone Springboard for Visors. If I get GSM service, and the provider has GPRS capability, will Visorphone become my GPRS modem? Or do I have to us a dial-up ISP with Visorphone when I want to surf the web?

Thanks for any help.

I am trying to decide if I should wait for my Cell provider of choice to begin GSM service this fall (they are now saying October) in my area (St. Louis) or go ahead and use their current TDMA technology and a data cord to connect through a dial-up ISP with my Visor Prism. If I sign-up now I cannot get a discounted GSM phone (and SIM card to use in a Visorphone).

Or should I just go another way to one of the CDMA providers and user their wireless internet option through the CDMA modem in their phone?

Another possibility is the CDPD service offered by Earthlink and some CDMA providers. The Minstrel S modem for Visor is now available cheaply, even bundled with a Visor (read: FREE!)

Decisions, decisions!