Im surfing from the boat now, on the hard in the boatyard. Im way out in the country with no wifi, at the cheapest boatyard around.
I have Verizon, (actually Alltel which was just bought by Verizon, got a better plan and will be a Verizon customer once they make the switch) with a Motorola Q9c running windows mobile 6.1. I have the unlimited data plan on my phone, along with all the other voice minutes, text, etc. I pay $89/month for my plan.
You can have any kind of smartphone, blackberry, htc, android, palm, etc and this will work. basically, if you can install and run apps on your phone you can do this.
You need a pc, your phone, a program called JuneFabrics PdaNet 2.0, and a connection cable between your phone and pc. Download PdaNet: http://www.junefabrics.com/palmnet/ . Select the file for your operating system. The program is not free. It costs $34. but it has a 30 day free trial. if you are really cheap like me, you install the program to your storage card, and when your 30 days is up, simply remove your storage card and restart the phone and insert the card. it will start the 30 days over again! (i will eventually buy it, b/c its helpful).
Follow the installation instructions. You need to be running activesync or the equivalent for your phone on your pc. when you connect the phone to the pc, after a few seconds a dialog will pop up saying that your phone is connected and 'click here to connect to the web'. click it. if you miss it just right click on the icon in the bottom right tray and select connect. sometimes it gives me trouble starting, like if you keep unplugging the phone or something. just click on pdanet on your phone and stop it and restart it. BAM!! your on the net.
There is nothing illegal about this. If you DONT have unlimited data plan on your phone, you will be charged just the same as if you were surfing the net on your phone. it will use your minutes or whatever your company normally charges.
Think about it this way: you have unlimited net on your phone, you surf all you want right? Well, you are just transfering that ability to your pc. Kinda like if you attached your phone to your monitor and blew up your phone screen and displayed on the monitor. you wouldnt be charged extra for displaying it on your monitor right? Thats all your doing, sharing your net connection, but you dont have to look at your phone screen and you get a keyboard and mouse. You dont really see your phone screen on your monitor, its your normal pc.
In fact, you dont even need the program PdaNet. Windows already has ICS built-in (internet connection sharing). but with the program there are no issues. just plug and go. Normally if you tethered to your pc you have to use it as a dial-up modem and dial a special number like #777 and have a password and username. Thats where they get you, you are using DUN in that case (dial up networking), and they can see that and charge you accordingly. since no DUN, no charge.
Then, to speed things up even more, you can change your DNS servers to openDNS and get additional benefits of speed and more control over your network. you can also do a simple hack on your phone and change the dns servers there too, and even speed the phone up. nothing illegal, you just dont want to use the phone companies jammed up, restricted servers. OpenDNS costs nothing, I wont go into it here, just google it.
Below are some pics of my setup. I uploaded them instantly, from the phone, while still connected to the web. I have a laptop, but decided to use an extra desktop onboard b/c of increased functionality. I installed the monitor flush in the bulkhead at the rear of my nav station. originally it was an access panel which i saved, but just made a new panel with a flat screen inside. I still need to stain and varnish it (along with everything else on the boat). I mounted the desktop "floating" under the nav station, and there is still room for my legs. I made a lower bracket out of a piece of 1/4 steel bent in a "L". I had two brackets that went to those square outdoor speakers that i didnt use, so i attached them to the underside of the nav station to support the top of the tower (they just happed to be exactly the right size), and drilled through the case and attached all the brackets to the pc case with through-bolts. its all very sturdy.
My Stereo is right at the nav station, and it has aux input which i plugged the pc into. I can play a huge library of music over the system. Im going to mount a 26" flat screen tv on the forward bulkhead and connect the pc to it as well. Then I can play my HUGE library of movies from the pc. I have a 500 gig external harddrive too, filled with movies & music. All in Surround Sound!
I can also get radar images over the net, weather reports, NOAA info, etc. I have multiple PC Nav programs and some take the free NOAA charts. I can download any free NOAA charts and use them immediately on my pc at the nav station. Next I need to hook up a gps receiver to the pc and have a fully functional Chartplotter on a 19" monitor!
There are even some "boxes" you can buy for less than $200 that will allow you to translate all your instruments, NMEA/Seatalk, to usb so you can use Wind, depth, radar, gps, etc on your pc. Thats on the to-do list.
My Verizon coverage is excellent. I live in Charleston SC, and I go out past the Jetty's, 3 or 4 miles offshore and can still make phone calls (Im not on this boat yet), so I know I would have net too. If you got a 6 watt Cell Amp and mounted an antenna on top of the mast, I could see 10+miles offshore with Verizon.
Hope this helps any geeks out There. if you have any questions, let me know.
I have Verizon, (actually Alltel which was just bought by Verizon, got a better plan and will be a Verizon customer once they make the switch) with a Motorola Q9c running windows mobile 6.1. I have the unlimited data plan on my phone, along with all the other voice minutes, text, etc. I pay $89/month for my plan.
You can have any kind of smartphone, blackberry, htc, android, palm, etc and this will work. basically, if you can install and run apps on your phone you can do this.
You need a pc, your phone, a program called JuneFabrics PdaNet 2.0, and a connection cable between your phone and pc. Download PdaNet: http://www.junefabrics.com/palmnet/ . Select the file for your operating system. The program is not free. It costs $34. but it has a 30 day free trial. if you are really cheap like me, you install the program to your storage card, and when your 30 days is up, simply remove your storage card and restart the phone and insert the card. it will start the 30 days over again! (i will eventually buy it, b/c its helpful).
Follow the installation instructions. You need to be running activesync or the equivalent for your phone on your pc. when you connect the phone to the pc, after a few seconds a dialog will pop up saying that your phone is connected and 'click here to connect to the web'. click it. if you miss it just right click on the icon in the bottom right tray and select connect. sometimes it gives me trouble starting, like if you keep unplugging the phone or something. just click on pdanet on your phone and stop it and restart it. BAM!! your on the net.
There is nothing illegal about this. If you DONT have unlimited data plan on your phone, you will be charged just the same as if you were surfing the net on your phone. it will use your minutes or whatever your company normally charges.
Think about it this way: you have unlimited net on your phone, you surf all you want right? Well, you are just transfering that ability to your pc. Kinda like if you attached your phone to your monitor and blew up your phone screen and displayed on the monitor. you wouldnt be charged extra for displaying it on your monitor right? Thats all your doing, sharing your net connection, but you dont have to look at your phone screen and you get a keyboard and mouse. You dont really see your phone screen on your monitor, its your normal pc.
In fact, you dont even need the program PdaNet. Windows already has ICS built-in (internet connection sharing). but with the program there are no issues. just plug and go. Normally if you tethered to your pc you have to use it as a dial-up modem and dial a special number like #777 and have a password and username. Thats where they get you, you are using DUN in that case (dial up networking), and they can see that and charge you accordingly. since no DUN, no charge.
Then, to speed things up even more, you can change your DNS servers to openDNS and get additional benefits of speed and more control over your network. you can also do a simple hack on your phone and change the dns servers there too, and even speed the phone up. nothing illegal, you just dont want to use the phone companies jammed up, restricted servers. OpenDNS costs nothing, I wont go into it here, just google it.
Below are some pics of my setup. I uploaded them instantly, from the phone, while still connected to the web. I have a laptop, but decided to use an extra desktop onboard b/c of increased functionality. I installed the monitor flush in the bulkhead at the rear of my nav station. originally it was an access panel which i saved, but just made a new panel with a flat screen inside. I still need to stain and varnish it (along with everything else on the boat). I mounted the desktop "floating" under the nav station, and there is still room for my legs. I made a lower bracket out of a piece of 1/4 steel bent in a "L". I had two brackets that went to those square outdoor speakers that i didnt use, so i attached them to the underside of the nav station to support the top of the tower (they just happed to be exactly the right size), and drilled through the case and attached all the brackets to the pc case with through-bolts. its all very sturdy.
My Stereo is right at the nav station, and it has aux input which i plugged the pc into. I can play a huge library of music over the system. Im going to mount a 26" flat screen tv on the forward bulkhead and connect the pc to it as well. Then I can play my HUGE library of movies from the pc. I have a 500 gig external harddrive too, filled with movies & music. All in Surround Sound!
I can also get radar images over the net, weather reports, NOAA info, etc. I have multiple PC Nav programs and some take the free NOAA charts. I can download any free NOAA charts and use them immediately on my pc at the nav station. Next I need to hook up a gps receiver to the pc and have a fully functional Chartplotter on a 19" monitor!
There are even some "boxes" you can buy for less than $200 that will allow you to translate all your instruments, NMEA/Seatalk, to usb so you can use Wind, depth, radar, gps, etc on your pc. Thats on the to-do list.
My Verizon coverage is excellent. I live in Charleston SC, and I go out past the Jetty's, 3 or 4 miles offshore and can still make phone calls (Im not on this boat yet), so I know I would have net too. If you got a 6 watt Cell Amp and mounted an antenna on top of the mast, I could see 10+miles offshore with Verizon.
Hope this helps any geeks out There. if you have any questions, let me know.
