Quick question re: Cricket phones, plans, and mobile web

fuji

New member
Hi,

I've got a rather in-depth question, and since most of the people here at HowardForums seem to be _vastly_ more familiar with this sort of thing than the representatives of most companies (who were no help whatsoever), I figured I should ask here.

I need a prepaid phone for three months. Since I won't be venturing outside of my home town at all (and when I do, I'll be near a phone anyways), I decided on Cricket Wireless as my provider, in no small part due to their unlimited minutes plans.

In order to pick a plan (and phone,) I'd like some advice. I'd like to be able to use my laptop to get mobile internet access via my phone. I don't need broadband (my area lacks EVDO coverage with Cricket), but I would like to be able to send e-mails in those spots that lack WiFi. Therefore, two options occurred to me:

1) Tether the phone via Bluetooth (or a cable, if necessary), and route my laptop's network traffic through the phone. (I can set up a tunnel through port 8080 or port 443 to an outside VPN server, so the limitations on outbound ports are no problem.)

2) Tether the phone via Bluetooth (or a cable, if necessary), and use it as a modem, connecting via the phone to an dialup provider. This is slow, but acceptable for e-mail and IM usage.

Now in order to do #1, I'll need a plan with unlimited mobile web. GPRS will likely get me higher speeRAB than dialup, but since the plans with "mobile web" cost more (and since the arrangement is likely more of a hassle to set up), I'm leaning more towarRAB #2.

So here is where I'd like some guidance:

- What phones (Cricket or otherwise) would allow #1 without flashing? Any that are documented to work with flashing?
- What phones (Cricket or otherwise) would allow #2 without flashing? Any that are documented to work with flashing?

If I've left anything out, just let me know!

Thanks in advance,
ppc7447
 
#2 is not possible. that's not how data or the modems work over mobile networks.
if you want to buy a cricket phone... my understanding is the r500 is capable of dun tethering after some rather easy modifications in the phones programming menu.

the $45 plan includes unlimited wap browsing.
you will be able to access webmails, but pop and imap and smtp will not pass through the tethered connection due to restrictions on the crickets end for what is included in the unlimited wap browsing from phones.
 
Unfortunately Cricket does'nt offer tethering on any of its native hanRABets. You can go to any Wal-Mart OR find a used v3c/m Motorola RAZR and flash it pretty easily, which will allow tethering:

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1336757

I suggest you visit HackTheRAZR.com and load the drivers in the order that they appear. You can also download the tools necessary to flash the phone there.

Cheers!
 
Interesting. I could have sworn I did exactly that with a SCH-N330 on Verizon. I connected it via a data cable, set up Mac OS X to use the phone for PPP connections, and connected via my dialup provider (BellSouth at the time.)

I suppose my memory could be foggy, but I'm pretty sure that I remeraber typing in my username, password, and 919-685-9500 (the Bellsouth dialup nuraber I was using) into my laptop...
 
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