Hi Wade,
There are actually several options, many of which depend on the type of cell phone and connections on your laptop.

1. You can get a connector (usually supercheap on eBay) that connects from your phone to the serial port of the laptop. Then, a) configure a modem and b) a network connection with that modem on your laptop. Dial your access number and you're in. If you're using Verizon, they have a free access number, and you don't need an ISP. The connection is 14.4, but adequate for email and light, image-free, browsing. There's a lot of resources to help you with the details on Verizon's website and Google searches (in groups).
2. You can do the same as 1) above using a connector that goes from the phone to the USB port on the laptop. This configuration is harder, since you have to redirect the com port to the USB.
3. You can buy the connector in 2) above WITH the software that the phone company provides and connect at higher speeds using a pure data connection. Again, for Verizon, it's pretty straightforward. You can get the software and connector on eBay for $20. Install the software and connect at 40-60 which is like a 56 modem line. Verizon offers a few "National Access(NA)" plans, but if you call customer service, you can tell them to add NA to your existing Minutes of Use(MOU). That way, you pay nothing extra! (Although, connect time is added to your minutes used).
4. Get an air card (pcmcia) from eBay (unsupported) or from your carrier. Connect like 3) above, but without your phone. You will have to pay for a plan on this solution.

Lastly, I recommend going to Verizon. They're scheduled to go wireless broadband this summer '04. With this, you'll get 2Mbit speeds, which is faster than some cable modems. If you do 4) above, than be careful of the card you buy, since some cards are not compatible in both formats.

Follow this link:

 

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_periph&message.id=5615

i have a samsung n-200 sprint pcs cell phone through sprint...i ordered the data cable through sprint...had to get a serial to usb adapter pigtail from usbgear.com...install sprints software,plug in cable to bottom of phone and usb to laptop....14.4k connect speed (modem speeds of a decade ago) and it works...slower than heck,though...my phone is considered a 2G phone and sprint supports that...the newest is 3G and sprint does not support it if you try to do the same thing with the newer phones,there's data cables and software out there that allow you to do some kind of internet connection...a co-worker is going to explore that option and i'm hoping for better results than 14.4 connect

the experiment pretty much failed...friend got the future dial software and cable for his sanyo 5300 and could not connect to my netzero account on my laptop...the software seems to be buggy, it's version was 2.8.8 and there's an update to 3.0 on their website... his next step, will be to update to 3.0 and see...was able to transfer his address book over to the laptop, but that's the only thing that worked out of the internet dial up,image transfer and address book feature he tried..1 out of 3 features is not good

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@theung wrote:
Hi Wade,
There are actually several options, many of which depend on the type of cell phone and connections on your laptop.

1. You can get a connector (usually supercheap on eBay) that connects from your phone to the serial port of the laptop. Then, a) configure a modem and b) a network connection with that modem on your laptop. Dial your access number and you're in. If you're using Verizon, they have a free access number, and you don't need an ISP. The connection is 14.4, but adequate for email and light, image-free, browsing. There's a lot of resources to help you with the details on Verizon's website and Google searches (in groups).
2. You can do the same as 1) above using a connector that goes from the phone to the USB port on the laptop. This configuration is harder, since you have to redirect the com port to the USB.
3. You can buy the connector in 2) above WITH the software that the phone company provides and connect at higher speeds using a pure data connection. Again, for Verizon, it's pretty straightforward. You can get the software and connector on eBay for $20. Install the software and connect at 40-60 which is like a 56 modem line. Verizon offers a few "National Access(NA)" plans, but if you call customer service, you can tell them to add NA to your existing Minutes of Use(MOU). That way, you pay nothing extra! (Although, connect time is added to your minutes used).
4. Get an air card (pcmcia) from eBay (unsupported) or from your carrier. Connect like 3) above, but without your phone. You will have to pay for a plan on this solution.

Lastly, I recommend going to Verizon. They're scheduled to go wireless broadband this summer '04. With this, you'll get 2Mbit speeds, which is faster than some cable modems. If you do 4) above, than be careful of the card you buy, since some cards are not compatible in both formats.

Any experience synching the phone with Outlook?  Specifically, I want to be able to pick and choose which contacts to add to cell phonebook, or not having that option be able to make a subset in Outlook and add the whole subset.  Also want to be able to backup the cellphone setup to the PC.

the data cable i got from sprint works with Future Dial's SnapSync software...i only tinkered with that for a little bit...will do more with it soon...it does provide interaction with outlook...i just haven't got that far yet...you can edit your phones address book via computer

Rick,

Again, I'm not sure about the others, but Verizon has free Truesync software that you can download of the Internet to sync Outlook with your phone. There's also tons of other software that you can find in Google groups to download ringtones, wallpapers, etc.

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@theung wrote:
Rick,

Again, I'm not sure about the others, but Verizon has free Truesync software that you can download of the Internet to sync Outlook with your phone. There's also tons of other software that you can find in Google groups to download ringtones, wallpapers, etc.

Thanks.  I looked through VerizonWireless' site quite a bit and never found anything to download, even used their search.

What I'm trying to figure out is whether to buy their Mobile Office Software/cable package (via eBay of course), or just get a cable from Radio Shack, and then what software to use to be able to send phone listings to the phone and back, potentially add calendar appointments from Outlook to the phone, and then use the phone to dial in via VZW to connect my laptop to the internet.

It's been sometime since I downloaded the software, and I see that you're right; the software is no where on their current website. I'll look around for it today if I get a chance and post it if I find it.

Rick,

I found the site:
http://www.motorola.com/mdirect/software/motorola_ss_downloads.htm

As you can see, it's Motorola, not Verizon. It's been so long that I forgot where I got it. In any event, I don't see why this should not work for non-Motorola phones, but that experimentation is up to you.

Good luck!