Cingular cell phone connectivity possibilities for my laptop?
 

Currently, I'm running FC2 on a Compaq Presario R3000Z with the AMD 64. Everything is supported, and it's working wonderfully. However, I'm also in the Army and am currently unable to access any dialup/wireless/ethernet networks in my barracks... I've seen it documented that cell phones/PCMCIA cards can be used to connect. Currently, Cingular only seems to be offering one option for laptop connectivity, the
Sony Ericsson GC83. I've looked in the channels that I know to see if I could find drivers for it, support, anything... And so far nothing. At $150, I don't want to risk buying it and having it be completely useless to me here.

My question is, do any of y'all know of other options available for situations like this? If it helps, I'm using a Nokia 6010 . Any help, direction, or support would be greatly appreciated.

NLawrence-

Linux should be able to handle a GC83. I know for a fact that a number of Red Hat users got their cards working, and I got mine working in Gentoo.

If you haven't figured something out yet, you can check out:

http://advantedgecomputing.com/opens...gc83linux.html

Also, I believe you get the GC83 card for free if you sign a 2-year contract. You might not be interested in such a long commitment but that was an option the last time I checked.

The 6010 doesn't have a infrared port, but before you hand over $150 you could try to get a $15 USB adapter cable on Ebay or Radio Shack and see if you can use the 6010 as a modem. I have the 6610 which has infrared, and I use IrDA to connect. RadioShack is probably more expensive but they might let you try it in the store.

It's not terrible fast with IrDA, it's like a 28K modem, but it's convenient to check email etc on the road and at night/weekends when the phone use is free you don't even pay. It might be faster with USB but I don't know.

I have posted about this before, search for my username here and 6610 and you's probably find it.

Be warned, though, that there are different implementations of the Nokia DKU5 cable (that's the one that works with the 6610, look up which one is good for the 6010). Some are based on a Texas Instruments Chip that is a micoprocessor in its own right and needs boot software uploaded when connected, won't work on Linux.

Hope it helps,

mlp