Internet w/o phoneline??

steve-in-kville

steve-in-kville

Joined
Dec 25, 2001
Messages
1,139
Since my wife and I use our cell phones more than anything, I am giving some serious consideration to disconnecting our home phone. Only thing holding me back is my web connection. We are still on dial-up as we have no DSL on our road... and we don't have cable TV.

So what are my options?? I looked at wireless and thought that was a little expensive for what it was.
 
You can get wireless internet through more than one provider. It's essentially plugging a cell phone modem into your computer. It's pricy, yes, but when you consider that with a laptop, that means you can go online anywhere, it's not so bad. I tried it and was frustrated with how often the service dropped out, but that was just one provider; others might be better.
 
A broadband card for your computer might be the only way to go unless you add some wires to your house. I have found that if you go to a storefront for your cell carrier they will often cut you a deal on your monthly rate to get you to add a line.
 
Satellite

wireless (if available in your area)

Cable - if the house is not already wired, the cable company will have to run cables from the pole to your house. Takes them about twenty minutes...
 
Get a data card from your local wireless phone company and use a wireless router with it. Even though you might not have a wireless PC, you can directly plug an ethernet cable into it, and use wireless at a later time.

I use this -> http://cradlepoint.com/products/mbr1000-failsafe-broadband-n-router with Sprint service. You can also get a wireless data router from Linksys also to use with datacards.

I consistently get about 1.5 MB/s down and about 300 kb/s up during the day, and then around 2.6 MB/s and 800 kb/s in the evenings when the traffic on the cell site is low.

Might not be for you, but thought I would throw it out there.
 
Untill I got cable---I was using Net Zero through my cell phone as a dial-up modem----it was slow and the service sucked---but I was still online----cheap.
 
I have a sprint sierra wireless modem that I use on business trips. It works great. I'm sure the other companies must have them
 
Just to be clear, you don't need to have cable tv in order to have cable internet. If your house is wired for cable, or can be wired, then you are not required to purchase both services.

Another option for you if you are just an occasional internet user but a heavy phone user is to get a smartphone with a data plan, and tether the computer to the internet through the phone. Some phones have this feature, some do not, and many providers charge extra for the tethering feature.
 
bobofish said:
Just to be clear, you don't need to have cable tv in order to have cable internet. If your house is wired for cable, or can be wired, then you are not required to purchase both services.

Another option for you if you are just an occasional internet user but a heavy phone user is to get a smartphone with a data plan, and tether the computer to the internet through the phone. Some phones have this feature, some do not, and many providers charge extra for the tethering feature.
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What he said :thumbup: I've been window shopping for a while now (can't buy anything these days :grumpy:) and I've looked into the cell phones that can just plug into a laptop and give it internet instantly. Damn I want one of those :D Just talk with your cell phone carrier and see what you can find. You may be eligible for an upgrade anyways and that would give you a good reason to get a new phone to boot :p
 
I just upgraded my AT&T/Cingular cell phone plan to include internet. An extra $15 a month unlimited data usage, a steal with a total cost of $75-80 per month. My phone is 3g capable, and I connect it to my laptop via bluetooth. I can load picture heavy pages pretty quickly with this setup, and youtube is definitely not a problem. It is the same as having an I-phone, but with my laptop. The best part is it works anywhere i get a signal (NYC, so i get everything.)

I download a lot of stuff with my desktop, so it is not meant to replace the Roadrunner service I have here at home, but anything less that a full movie should be no problem if you were to download with it.
 
I've been using Xohm for a couple of months, and it's been pretty good. Faster than DSL most of the time.
 
qqfob said:
I just upgraded my AT&T/Cingular cell phone plan to include internet. An extra $15 a month unlimited data usage, a steal with a total cost of $75-80 per month. My phone is 3g capable, and I connect it to my laptop via bluetooth.
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What do you use on your laptop to connect to the phone?I have an ATT phone with unlimited internet and I've also got an aircard at an extra $75.00/mo.I'd sure like to run my internet through my phone without that extra charge.
 
My phone company, QWEST, offers broad band internet for $29.00 a month. I had Comcast cable which was a bit faster but it was $50 something a month and had frequent outages plus constant promotions to upgrade, sign up for tv channels, etc. You might call your phone company and see if they offer a faster link in your area. If so, it comes in over your normal phone line and they provide the modem and so on.
 
steve-in-kville said:
Since my wife and I use our cell phones more than anything, I am giving some serious consideration to disconnecting our home phone. Only thing holding me back is my web connection. We are still on dial-up as we have no DSL on our road... and we don't have cable TV.
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I have been without a telephone land line for going on six years now, and never missed it. :cool:

I'm not sure what other options you have though, other than getting your internet though either cable (which is what I have) or satallite TV. I suppose if you were a minimal user, you could get away with a laptop that had wifi and just used it at some local hotspot (seems like even McD's has wifi these days) but that can be a pain if you want to check your email at 1AM. :(
 
beau5278 said:
What do you use on your laptop to connect to the phone?I have an ATT phone with unlimited internet and I've also got an aircard at an extra $75.00/mo.I'd sure like to run my internet through my phone without that extra charge.
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I have a Sony Ericsson K850i. It comes with a Sony program called PC suite that allows me to use the internet once I connect the two, I didn't even have to change any settings. I can also do it through BT, but my guess is the speed isn't as great and the battery drains extremely quickly. All normal phone functions still work.

What phone are you using? A few minutes with Google can tell you a lot. My last phone, a basic Motorola, was able to take advantage of it as well, although it didn't have 3g speeds.
 
qqfob said:
I just upgraded my AT&T/Cingular cell phone plan to include internet. An extra $15 a month unlimited data usage, a steal with a total cost of $75-80 per month. My phone is 3g capable, and I connect it to my laptop via bluetooth. I can load picture heavy pages pretty quickly with this setup, and youtube is definitely not a problem. It is the same as having an I-phone, but with my laptop. The best part is it works anywhere i get a signal (NYC, so i get everything.)

I download a lot of stuff with my desktop, so it is not meant to replace the Roadrunner service I have here at home, but anything less that a full movie should be no problem if you were to download with it.
Click to expand...

Be careful with that as "unlimited" cell usage is not unlimited tethering. ATT considers this a totally different thing and will charge you if they catch you using large amounts of data. The "unlimited" they speak of is the reasonable amount you can use on an average dumbphone. They actually charge more for smart phones and even more for tethering. Check out the ATT forums for the horror stories.
 
I use Verizon wireless because I have no other internet options where I live aside from dialup and satellite. The $66/month bill seems like a lot, but considering that I don't need the phone line or a phone based ISP, it's really not a lot more than I'd pay for DSL (if it was available).

It's broadband speed. For the sake of curiosity, we took the wireless modem to my girlfriend's place and tested its speed against her cable and the wireless won.

I like the flexibility of the wireless modem as well because I can plug it into my laptop and take it wherever I go. But it is basically a cellphone and when the signal strength isn't very good the data transfer is very slow. And it does cause some interference with my speakers which is a slight annoyance, but you can't hear the interference when music is playing.
 
s2welee said:
Be careful with that as "unlimited" cell usage is not unlimited tethering. ATT considers this a totally different thing and will charge you if they catch you using large amounts of data. The "unlimited" they speak of is the reasonable amount you can use on an average dumbphone. They actually charge more for smart phones and even more for tethering. Check out the ATT forums for the horror stories.
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ouch, this is hitting me hard, thanks for the heads up. I just took a look at the fine prints... I guess I'll have to calm down those YouTube visits before I get caught.

I actually haven't used it too much, I got the service with the intention of being able to Google areas that I happen to drive to. I make lots of spontaneous trips into random places that I know nothing about. Maybe an email here and an IM there...
 
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