Came home from work today, and the internet wasn't working. after reseting it numerous times, connecting directly to the modem instead of through the router, I gave up and decided to try something new.
I have Earthlink Cable service, and while it does offer dialup I didn't have a NYC local number because I never dial-up when I am in NYC. But I remembered that I could connect with my T610, so I connected my Bluetooth to the phone, transfered my settings for my dialup to my Bluetooth panel, and gave it ago. I used my free minutes on the phone, so I didn't incure any of the long distance charges I would have recieved had I used the direct line. It was speeds of 56k, which is good in an emergency.
I decided to take it one step further.
I have T-Mobile, and I remembered hearing that you could uses T-Mobiles T-Zones internet service with your Laptop. I have the T-Zones unlimited, which means that I don't get charged for any of my data minutes. So this would be better than Earthlink because I wouldn't have to worry about using my minutes, and I would still be able to get calls through, the beauty of GSM. So I did a search on T-Mobiles website, still using my Earthlink connection... and I found instructions on how to connect with infa-red but not with Bluetooth. But the options were kind of the same, so I followed the instructions anyway. They had me put in a *99***1* numbers into the phone, however when I went to connect, it crashed my phone.
I then did a search on google, and found this tip from macosxhints.com. All I basically needed to do was put in *99# for the number, leave the account name and password blank, and that was it! I did this and I connected easily.
While I was doing all this, I had been on hold with Earthlink's Customer care line. Finally I got through, and they told me what I already knew (outages in the NYC area), when I hung up with them, the Cable was back to working at full speed. I didn't get to use my Bluetooth internet for long. But it was extremely easy, and great to have when you are on the road. I just wish I had figured it out before the emergency came about. Guess thats the way things always happen.
