Can you use your cell phone as a modem?

Getting a wireless Internet connection on the road is getting easier all the time. On my last trip I used my Cingular Blackjack phone connected to my laptop as a modem. Most of the time I was able to get a spectacular connection, equal in speed to a standard cable connection at home.

Using the Blackjack as a modem is surprisingly easy, effecient, and even cost effective. I was able to add the 'unlimited' data plan to my current contract by simply calling Cingular. Since I already had the company's MediaNet plan (an additional $20/month over the voice minutes), I changed that for the data plan for an additional $40/month. Compared to the typical WiFi day rate of about $10, that's a bargain for the month. What's even better was that I could drop my plan back to the MediaNet plan during the times I didn't need the data plan.

But I said it was easy to use the phone as a modem. That's completely true, once you have the service set up and know how to tell your phone to let your computer connect through it. Here's what I found out:

The normal way to use a cell phone as a modem is to make a connection, either by USB or Bluetooth, from your laptop to the phone. Once that's done, set up a dialer just as you would to dial the internal modem in the computer, but direct the dialing out to the cell phone. That generally required a driver installed on the laptop that knows how to connect to the phone for this purpose. It also requires that you set an option in the phone allowing it to know that it's being a modem. That method works on most phones. Thankfully it doesn't work on the Blackjack.

Why 'thankfully'? Because using the phone as a modem doesn't always allow you to use the phone to make voice calls at the same time. The method I'm using allows me to use the phone for voice calls and as an Internet conenction at the same time... very cool.

So here's the step-by-step. I don't know if this works with other phones, but I would guess that it would as long as the phone supports the InternetSharing function.

1. Connect your Blackjack via USB to your PC and get ActiveSync running. Then Explore the Blackjack.

2. Look in the Windows folder for a file named InternetSharing.

3. Copy the file (Ctl-C)

4. Paste a shortcut in the Windows/Start Menu folder.

5. Push the Start button and browse to the Internet Sharing icon. Click on it.

6. You'll see two option boxes. Select either USB or Bluetooth PAN depending on how you want to connect.

7.The other box should already read "MediaNet" with no other options. Click the Connect button.

At this point the Blackjack will disable your ActiveSync connection and in just a few seconds display the "Connected" message. It's like magic.

Let me know your results if you decide to try it out.