When I travel, I would like to use my cell phone as a modem to access the
Internet. I have a Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop with Win XP Home, a Verizon LG VX4500 phone, and dial
up access when I am away from my home cable internet connection. I purchased the recommended
LGVX4500 Data Pac by BitPim with a serial to
USB cable and software drivers etc. After installing the cable and drivers, I was able to see my
new COM3 port in WinXP "device manager." But I was not able to download info from my cell phone to
my computer, nor set up the cell phone as a modem to call my ISP. Is there somewhere to obtain
detailed instructions on how to set this up?
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You'll find on-line help for BitPim here; see
their troubleshooting serial communications section. You may also find it useful to read about
other inexpensive commercial products like DataPilot DataConnect or Smith Micro QuickLink Mobile. I'd also recommend asking for help on HowardForums from other users who might have experience getting
BitPim to work on LG cellphones.
You should be able to use your phone like an analog modem; you will not to purchase Verizon's wireless data service just to do that. However, you should expect speed to be pretty slow, and your on-line minutes will count like any other voice call (e.g., count against your cellphone plan minutes).
This was first published in September 2004