So, does anyone know if there are any other services out there besides say Ricochet that offer wireless internet through the installation of PCMIA cards? Ricochet, besides having trouble from what I read, charges $75 a month and requires a contract for service. I just love the thought of using a laptop in this way. Seems to totally go against what a laptop is by connecting it with a wire. And Airport is nice, but it’s not quite what I have in mind. I use a long phone cord in my house to surf in the living room and it only cost $21.95 for the cord. I’d pay for the opportunity to sit under a tree in the park and surf.

Depending on what cellular phone services are like in your area, have you considered using a data-capable cell phone and dialing in to a regular ISP?

Raena has a good point. I have had good luck with dialing in on a Sprint PCS phone and connecting to Earthlink and the “free” ISPs back when there were free ISPs.

That leaves you with a nice fat AirPort connection for home, and your cell phone when you need to sit at the park.

BTW, I have an AiirPort card for sale.  Seriously.

So are you both saying that I should hook my cell phone directly into my laptop and just dial like normal? That is one heck of an idea. Does that usually cost more or is it a thing where you can just use your minutes? Well I guess that depends on the provider. Because I have 250 anytime minutes a month and 1000 off peak and weekends—Verizon. Hmmmm. See I’m willing to do that. I already have the data capable phone. Are these things usually compatible with macs? I mean, you know how that can go sometimes.

The airport tempts me Bryan .. .but with the price i just paid and still needing applecare, it would be hard right now. But thanks!

You still get to use your freebie minutes; as far as your provider is concerned you’re just making a regular call using your phone.  Little do they know, muahahaha…

What type of phone do you have?

Since you have a data compatible mobile, you probably have a modem inside it. Only thing to keep in mind is that the modem speed is a lot lower than 56K. I assume you’ll be using the GSM network, and I did the same when I was in Switzerland with my mobile and PowerBook, only I connected thru infrared. Downloading speeds were a lot slower. So before I blow your dream to pieces, just try it once to see how fast it is.

However, the modem speed when using a newer phone - the Nokia 62xx series, for example - is at 43220 kb/s.  That’s not that bad at all.   Many newer phones can cope with this kind of speed.  I’m in an older house, so the copper lines regularly cap my connection at 45333.

The bluetooth pack for the Nokia is pretty speccy, btw.

I have a 6210 mobile Reana, and I dunno what it was the limits of the IR connection or somethnig else, but IMO surfing while using my mobile wasn’t as fast as a regular modem, which connects to our house at 49333 kbps at best

Wow. That speed is amazing compared to what’s here. No, it’s not GSM mobile internet access in the states. It’s CDMA, which means top speed right now is 19,000 k/bps. That’s more than 2x slower than our dialup, and that’s obviously quite slow. I think the key here is to wait. Next year they are unveiling 3G wireless internet access, which is supposed to be superfast.