Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 15

For those of you who have a modem that uses phone lines (not wireless) ... how do you use them? What I mean here is, what exactly is on the other side of the phone line? Do you have your PC up and running all the time, somehow configured to answer the phone if the PDA calls? Is there a particular ISP that is PDA-friendly? I'm interested in being able to use a hardline modem, but haven't been able to grasp even the basic principle of what exactly I'd be calling in order to access my data, surf the web, etc.

Of those of you who do have hardline modems, do you like the one you have?

thanks

Joe
[email protected]

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan USA
Posts: 790

I use mine in 2 ways:

1. I dial up my ISP and surf the web
2. I tell AvantGo to do a Modem Sync, which dials up my ISP and updates all my AvantGo pages.

You can supposedly also go to FusionOne and hotsync all your stuff that way.

I don't like the idea of leaving my PC's modem on answer so that I could call it and sync. FusionOne seems (if it works) to be a good alternative to that.

BTW, I have the Psion (IR) Travel Modem. I like it except for 2 things:

1. It eats batteries (I need to get some rechargable AAs for it). I could get an AC adapter. When are you near a phone jack but not an electrical outlet.

2. If I wanted to use it with my StowAway keyboard, I'd have to sit it on something tall enough to aim it at the IR port.

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Jeff

Registered: Dec 2000
Location: Petersburg, AK
Posts: 131

I downloaded a program for my computer (I think from winfiles.com) that makes my computer dial in to my ISP, start up Outlook and check my mail, log off, start up the hotsync and wait for me to dial in from my Handspring while out of town. It took a bit to get it set up but it worked okay eventually.

Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 15

I have the Handspring modem, and I can surf the internet (text or GUI) depending on the browser. Check or send my e-mail, stock updates, Avantgo updates and amaze my friends at work when I plug my Visor into the phone line (by-passes the big brother looking in at my personal mail on the business computer )

Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 1

I'm happy with the Thinmodem. Low profile (fits in standard cases), low battery usage, low cost. I use an existing AOL account for e-mail, which doesn't give me Web access, but costs me nothing in addition to what I already pay AOL.

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Greenwood, IN
Posts: 125

I use a Thinmodem as well, and I have Earthlink as my ISP. As stated in an earlier post, you jsut use the modem to dial up the ISP number (you enter this under the Prefs ->Network page on the Visor) and you're in. If you have an email program like MultiMail you can use the POP3 server to check any account that supports POP3 (like Yahoo and Earthlink), and if you have a web browser you can get on the web (although I find this has its limitations on the Visor). Someone also mentioned the AvantGo "Modem Sync" capability too. The biggest problem I have had is finding a hotel that doesn't charge >$0.75 to call outside the premises to my ISP.... (I was at a hotel in New Orleans last week that charged $1.50 a call... ouch!)

I have found Earthlink to be quite PDA-friendly in the sense that I have had to do no technical mucking-about to get the Thinmodem to work with it. There are tons of access numbers so I have not been on a trip yet where I have been out of local call range. I initially had NetZero, and there are some impossibly complicated steps you have to go through to get it to work -- in fact, all free ISP's have these same problems, so steer clear of them.

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BertBert
Mark 12:28-31

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: bright side of the moon.
Posts: 996

i have the handspring modem and dial into mindspring/earthlink...since the merger, both phone numbers work.

i use proxiweb and proximail to surf and get my email.

http://www.proxinet.com


i agree with BertBert...no problems at all setting up for mindspring/earthlink.

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Ever feel like the train left while you were busy reading the paper?

Stealth-Mod.

Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 7

I have a Thinmodem, and use the family ATT worldnet account when I travel to surf and check email (local access virtually anywhere). I can even log onto my company's mail server via employee website access to read and respond to business email.

I love the Thinmodem which comes with a proxy-style browser and a demo of Multi Mail. I generally use Eudora's Internet Suite v.2, as it has a nice browser and email program (for free).

Registered: Mar 2000
Location:
Posts: 8

When you have a hardline Modem, can you download applications to the Visor from the Web ? Or do you still have to download to your PC, then sync to your Visor.