EVDO is OK

Instead of paying for the hotel’s network connection, I decided to give my brand new EVDO card a shot. I was talking to one of AOL’s VP’s about my presentation and trying to find the time to write demos and she asked what I would do if I had a budget. Of course, I told her I’d get an EVDO card so I wasn’t held hostage to crappy hotel networks. Well, here we are, and I’ve got one, and it works!\
I checked my mail at the airport, worked on my presentation and fixed a couple bugs in the demos last night in the hotel, am uploading pictures to Flickr and it’s going OK. It’s not as fast as a wired connection, or even a solid wi-fi connection, but it’s fast enough to get things done. E-mail’s no problem, and even uploading photos is going smoothly. Connecting using Verizon’s expresscard modem is pretty seamless as long as you remember that it’s more modem than wi-fi card (and remember to disconnect before you put your machine to sleep.\
If you can get work to pay for it, I’d do it. If you work for yourself and are on the road all the time, I’d do it. It made the flight delay bearable because I could get work done while sitting in the terminal, and it gave me an option when the hotel network was unacceptable. I would bet that I’ll probably use it to give a presentation here at some point (hopefully not today, my demos are kind of bandwidth intensive).\
I woke up at 4AM, probably because I didn’t eat dinner last night and I’m hungry. Unfortunately, the restaurant doesn’t open till 6. So, I took some pictures in the bathroom. Enjoy.

By Kevin Lawver

Web developer, Software Engineer @ Gusto, Co-founder @ TechSAV, husband, father, aspiring social capitalist and troublemaker.

1 comment

  1. I do this with my Sprint phone, which is EVDO capable. Um, that is, I use it as a bluetooth modem, not take stupid bathroom pictures with it. But it has a camera, so I guess I could do that, too.
    Sprint charges something like $40 or $50 a month for a phone-as-modem plan, but if you happen to be smart enough to have bought a Samsung A900 or A900M (a.k.a. Blade, a.k.a. RAZR KILR) and know how to get into the debug menu, you can turn off modem NAI and it will allow you to use your unlimited data PowerVision plan to dial-up (because with modem NAI turned off, Sprint doesn’t know you’re dialing up and not just using the phone’s built-in browser). I get DSL-like speeds with this setup.
    And yeah, clearly it’s against the rules, I know. But I have it on good authority that Sprint willingly looks the other way as long as you don’t overdo it (and if you do overdo it, you get a polite letter from Sprint reminding you that you can purchase an unlimited phone-as-modem plan).
    Personally, I use this only once in a great great while for very short periods when I really need it. I just can’t justify the cost of a plan for that. Maybe if they offered a low-cost low-usage plan I’d go for it, but unfortunately they don’t. So instead I break the rules now and then.
    I’m not proud.
    -Bill

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