Cell-Capable Modems

[David Rush]

Kevin:

We've done it at work with decent success over Sprint PCS.  Gotta buy a 
data cable for the phone, then pay an extra per-month fee for "wireless 
web" (I think it's like $5/mo).  From there it "looks" just like a regular 
modem, with an AT command set and all.  We set up a "dialer" just like it's 
a regular modem.  Works okay.  Not fast, and the occasional dropped call 
(no worse than voice, though).  Sometimes the data cable might 
inadvertently come loose and cause a failure.
We set up regular land-line modems to dial into.

It can be a little fussy sometimes, forcing a second try to get a call 
working, but we often keep a call up over an hour long, even mobile (at 
slow speeds).  We run RedHat 7.x on Fujitsu Stylistic "tablet" PCs.

We've never tried it with NexTel.

David

At 02:44 PM 8/15/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello all!
>
>Kinda off-topic, but I figured I would ask to see if anyone out there had
>some insights.  The idea got kicked around that my team might get a
>cell-capable modem to go with our new Nextel phone for the person on call.
>That way, whenever we get a support call, even if we are at the ballpark,
>we could go ahead and dial in.
>
>Any anecdotes anyone has on dialing in through a cell phone, I'm all ears.
>
>Thanks!
>
>Kevin Finch
>Network Administrator
>DST Systems, Inc.
>816/435-6039
>krfinch at dstsystems.com
>
>
>
>
>