The Life Hacker

What happens when you have a basic, W315 Motorola (other cell phones work too.) Cell Phone and a laptop (or pc with USB slots)? 14k Internet. I know what you are thinking, that is awfully slow. But what if you are in the middle of the woods like I was last summer with no wifi or even a landline? It’s slow going, but it works.

As it turns out, with the proper software and USB data cable (I used the one that came with my digital camera), your computer will detect your cell phone as a USB modem. The cell phone I was using, the W315 has a USB port similar to the one my digital camera has.

I then downloaded Motorola Phone Tools, or the Motorola USB driver will also work. You will need to install the software first. If you have an older cell phone, I would not recommend updating your Motorola Phone Tools software to the newest version. Although the newest version claims to support W315, mine stopped detecting it. Your situation may be slightly different. I have not tested this technique with other brand phones, I would imagine that the phone would need to have a USB port and phone tools software; so install the software that works for you.

After install, plug in your phone. In my case, I didn’t even need to open up the software, all drivers were present so Windows automatically detected my phone as a USB modem. You could use the software to use Axcess services, but you will likely incur large fees.

My techinique is different. My phone is prepaid with unlimited calls to the favorite number through Alltel. You can usually get this feature in the monthly plans or even the day plans for .75 a day you can choose two features. In advance, I went to the Alltel website or called customer support and set up my favorite number to be the same as my ISP. I have free Internet access through the college, so I used that number as my favorite.

Then I created a new internet connection identifying my “Motorola USB Modem” as the modem used for the Internet connection, input my account information, and voila! I was online at 14k, enough to check and send email. At times, my Internet connection would revert to the dial-up. All I had to do was right click the connection, hit properties and reaffirm the Internet connection to use the Motorola USB Modem. By using my favorite number, I never lost any  of my phone minutes as you can use my favorite number all day long if you have it enabled.

Again, it is not the fastest connection, but it does get you online. I have since donated my W315. What was so cool was, I was able to use this connection all day long without the battery wearing out.  When I went to the Alltel store to sign up for their wireless Internet data plan (I highly recommend it, it is just $69 with insurance to access Internet just about anywhere) and told the representative my little technique, he scratched his head and said, “You were online with a W315 and my favorite number?” He just couldn’t believe it.

You can also get a faster connection this way using EVDO technology.

EVDO:  Evolution data maximized (CMDA2000 1x EVDO) is based on CDMA2000. EVDO supports mobile data communications at speeds ranging from 400 Kbps to 2 Mbps.

This is known as tethering your cell phone to your computer. This technique is far faster than using the Analog phone, but you will still need the Alltel Data Plan or similar plan on your provider.  I have found other information on the Internet that they have a prepaid plan for this, but that was not the case at the Alltel store I went to. Your experience may be different.

Now, if you’re reading this and you don’t have broadband, and you’re considering going with the  Alltel or similar route, you can save money by picking up your own cable instead of opting for the “Wireless Internet Kit” which strangely, includes a cable. All this kit has are cable(s) for hooking your phone to your PC’s USB port, and some software/drivers on a CD.

If you have a phone that has a USB connection on it, just pick up the most affordable USB cable you can find. If not, well, you may want to spend extra for the $60 kit or maybe just upgrade to a new phone? Just make sure it’s an EVDO phone! For the software, all you need are the USB drivers. You can download these drivers directly from Motorola (free registration required to download.) After downloading and installing the drivers, but before hooking your phone to your PC, make sure your phone is set to work as a modem when hooked up via USB, this can be found under the “Connection” settings. Now hook your phone to your PC.

Now, assuming you have your Internet plan turned on, your phone has signal, your drivers are working with the phone, all you need to do to get connected is to setup a new dialup internet connection in Windows For Alltel, the number you need to dial will be “#777″. For username and password, use “[YourPhoneNumber]@alltel.net”, ie: 1235551212@alltel.net. The password should be “alltel”. Hopefully this all works. Your experiences may be different. Double click the connection, hit Dialup and you should be connected!

There are some drawbacks to this method as explained to me by Alltel. Your phone will be tied up, and they do run really hot sometimes.  I do recommend you try these techniques just as a little challenge. You never know when you will be out in the woods and need to check email. Wouldn’t it be nice to have it availabe just in case? It’s like an old friend saying hello, even if it is at 14k.