[NTLUG:Discuss] RadioShack Offers $99 Acer Netbook

[Carl Haddick]

On Sat, Dec 13, 2008 at 12:14:51PM -0600, Patrick P wrote:
> 
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20081212/bs_nf/63538;_ylt=AmkgKxoT_wYgA9OakIJwxOYjtBAF
> _________________________________________________________________
> You live life online. So we put Windows on the web. 
> http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/127032869/direct/01/
> _______________________________________________
> http://www.ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Living in the boonies is nice, but there is no broadband at my home.
So, I contacted Alltel, my cell phone provider, about what they call
'tethering', the practice of using a cell phone as a (slow) broadband
modem via USB.

Disappointingly, even though I was already paying $30 per month for
unlimited Internet access, they told me the tethering would not work
unless I paid another $30 monthly.

No, thanks, I'll stick with dial up.  Dial up, by the way, to my Linux
box running Squid, a DNS cache, and routing out my cable modem seems
to be noticeably faster than the more traditional access server setup.
I connect at 28.8, but it's a very efficient 28.8.

The next day I was beaten down.  I wanted the access, so I called back -
but now the bad news.  Yes, I could pay the extra $30 a month for them
to turn on tethering, but only if I got a new Treo.  My older Treo isn't
supported for tethering by the version of PDANet Alltel sells, and the
CSR said he couldn't sell me the tethering feature.

I think the real problem is my older Treo doesn't support the cell
company thwarting PDANet, but they told me I was out of luck.

Persistence pays, sometimes, so I asked about downloading PDANet from
the vendor, the oddly named junefabrics.com.

The nice CSR told me if I did that it would be unsupported.  Hot dog, I
thought, I live for unsupported!

Next I asked the CSR if I would be violating the terms of my unlimited
data, using it with unsupported software I went out and found on my own.
The answer was no, I just wouldn't have Alltel's support if I ran into
difficulties.

Lastly I requested the CSR put a note in my customer records stating I
planned to use PDANet, obtained independently from Alltel, to tether my
cell phone to my laptop, and that I was doing so at the current $30
rate.

So far, so good.  I offered to pay the extra $30 per month, but Alltel
declined.  I am proceeding with a go-ahead from a CSR, and if I'm
challenged in the future I'll have a supporting note in my customer
records.

It's a different story, a bit lengthy to tack on here, but a long time
ago I had the go-ahead from Sprint to use free cell phone call
forwarding to bypass long distance.  They cut my phone off, and when I
called transferred me to somebody in their fraud department.

The similar note in my Sprint files about my intentions restored
courtesy to the fraud guy, and I continued using call forwarding, just
at a reduced pace.

I think I'm behaving ethically with my tethering. I've kept no secrets
from Alltel, and I'm not doing anything they didn't tell me was OK.

Unsupported, that I can live with.

Regards, all,


Carl