Does this new cable permit PDA to use Sprint phone as modem?

I asked this question before, but the cable in question has only just
been released and cleared back-orders.

Will the cable found on SupplyNet's site at
http://www.thesupplynet.com/productD...fm?prodID=7006 permit the
Sanyo 4900 to be used as a modem with the Tungsten PDAs? If so, how?
Where's the USB driver? Anyone bought one? Any details?

E.J. Bleendreeble
http://www.casualsailor.com

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› See More: Does this new cable permit PDA to use Sprint phone as modem?

Sprint officially does not allow its phones to be used as modems, and bad
things may happen if you are discovered. Apparently however, their Network
Management is so poor that yes, you can use a phone as a modem, and if you just
do some email checking and light web surfing, they'll likely never be the
wiser.

The change in policy may be related to giving everyone unlimited night and
weekend minutes now a days.

It has nothing to do with network management, a IP address is an IP address,
the only thing different on the network side is the volume of traffic
exceeding what is possible through just the phone browser and downloads.
Most phones have less than 700K memory in them so if you are downloading 3-4
MB MP3s they will know you are abusing your service plan.
"Loving Moonlight" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Sprint officially does not allow its phones to be used as modems, and bad
> things may happen if you are discovered. Apparently however, their Network
> Management is so poor that yes, you can use a phone as a modem, and if you
just
> do some email checking and light web surfing, they'll likely never be the
> wiser.
>
> The change in policy may be related to giving everyone unlimited night and
> weekend minutes now a days.

It has nothing to do with network management, a IP address is an IP address,
the only thing different on the network side is the volume of traffic
exceeding what is possible through just the phone browser and downloads.
Most phones have less than 700K memory in them so if you are downloading 3-4
MB MP3s they will know you are abusing your service plan.
"Loving Moonlight" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Sprint officially does not allow its phones to be used as modems, and bad
> things may happen if you are discovered. Apparently however, their Network
> Management is so poor that yes, you can use a phone as a modem, and if you
just
> do some email checking and light web surfing, they'll likely never be the
> wiser.
>
> The change in policy may be related to giving everyone unlimited night and
> weekend minutes now a days.


It has everything to do with Network management.
Guess you were never a network manger. Sprint doesnt detect whether its MP3s,
they just lamely go by byte total. A Network manager can surely tell whether
the IP was leased by Vision or by dialup.

[email protected] (Loving Moonlight) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Sprint officially does not allow its phones to be used as modems, and bad
> things may happen if you are discovered. Apparently however, their Network
> Management is so poor that yes, you can use a phone as a modem, and if you just
> do some email checking and light web surfing, they'll likely never be the
> wiser.
>
> The change in policy may be related to giving everyone unlimited night and
> weekend minutes now a days.

You really *do* have this fundamental inability to speak out honestly,
don't you?

No one said it was poor management. You've invented that without any
basis whatsoever in reality. I said the network people are apparently
only enforcing against users going through massive amounts of data
every month. Whom they choose to act against means *nothing* as a
measure of their competence.

And unlimited night & weekend hours were made available before the
prohibition, and remain available after it, so that, too, is pure
fabrication. Deliberate falsehood.

I work with the vision network every day. If you understand how it works you
would know what I mean. The phone still connects to vision when used as a
modem, to the network it looks exactly the same.
"Loving Moonlight" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> It has nothing to do with network management, a IP address is an IP
address,
> the only thing different on the network side is the volume of traffic
> exceeding what is possible through just the phone browser and downloads.
> Most phones have less than 700K memory in them so if you are downloading
3-4
> MB MP3s they will know you are abusing your service plan.
> "Loving Moonlight" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Sprint officially does not allow its phones to be used as modems, and
bad
> > things may happen if you are discovered. Apparently however, their
Network
> > Management is so poor that yes, you can use a phone as a modem, and if
you
> just
> > do some email checking and light web surfing, they'll likely never be
the
> > wiser.
> >
> > The change in policy may be related to giving everyone unlimited night
and
> > weekend minutes now a days.
>
>
> It has everything to do with Network management.
> Guess you were never a network manger. Sprint doesnt detect whether its
MP3s,
> they just lamely go by byte total. A Network manager can surely tell
whether
> the IP was leased by Vision or by dialup.
>

Loving Moonlight wrote:
> The change in policy may be related to giving everyone unlimited night and
> weekend minutes now a days.

WTF are you rambling about? Unlimited nights and weekends were around
a LONG time before around June 1st when they changed the TOS.

[email protected] (Loving Moonlight) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
>
> It has everything to do with Network management.
> Guess you were never a network manger. Sprint doesnt detect whether its MP3s,
> they just lamely go by byte total. A Network manager can surely tell whether
> the IP was leased by Vision or by dialup.

Go ahead, Almighty Prophet of All Things Wrong with SPCS, prove that's
how they do it.

>the only thing different on the network side is the volume of traffic
>exceeding what is possible through just the phone browser and downloads.
>Most phones have less than 700K memory in them so if you are downloading 3-4 MB MP3s they will
>know you are abusing your service plan.


Even on Palm Phones 16+ Megs of Memory?? SD slots give you up to a Gb of memory right on the phone.
And phone web-browsers and email clients don't just accululate all of the data. Snap lots of
pictures, upload them, rinse/repeat. The phone web browsers have a set cache which they dynamically
clear. Even if you only have 8Mb of memory on the handset, you can do more than 100Mb of web
surfing without manually deleting any data.

No, Sprint needs to figure out another yardstick for abuse than bandwidth. Or they at least need
to exempt Palm/Pocket PC users from scrunity.

If they can't tell a PC cable connection from a regular handset connection, then they need to
figure out a way to do so. I don't understand how they can prove "abuse" otherwise, and using data
on your handset is not "abuse".

In article <[email protected]>,=20
[email protected] says...
> No, Sprint needs to figure out another yardstick for abuse than bandwidth=
.. Or they at least need=20
> to exempt Palm/Pocket PC users from scrunity.
>=20

No, amount of use is only the trigger to attention. Not the final criterio=
n of=20
abuse.

--=20
-+-
R=D8=DF
O/Siris
I work for SprintPCS
I *don't* speak for them.

>No, amount of use is only the trigger to attention. Not the final criterion of abuse.

How does that work?

After the "attention" is triggered, do you contact the user, or do you start running a packet
sniffer to look into the data that is being transferred? Suppose someone sends/received tons of
email with attachments from the phone (I myself do 20-50Mb email, picture sending, and maybe 30Mb
web surfing per week, Instant Messaging, even IRC and Telnet from the phone). I don't even own a
phone-modem cable. I'm just a very heavy PDA user and I use my Smartphone like a laptop during the
day. I'm sure this looks like "abuse" to Sprint, but seriously, it's all on the phone and it's all
for a legit purpose.

Does Sprint look at my data and stare at what I do all day? How will they weed me out from the
people who use the Data Cable? I don't like the thought of being watched all day, I just want to
be left alone to use my PDA handset and Vision service. If they contact me, how do I prove that
i'm not using a cable. I'm sure I use more than 98% of other Vision users, but I bought tons of
software to do so ... because I actually use it.

The lack of being able to discern abuse from heavy use concerns me a bit. What am I supposed to do
if they contact me? Do the people who monitor these types of things look at the handset attached
to the account and realize that 100Mb week on a modern Smartphone is not all that hard to do right
on the handset?

>>No, amount of use is only the trigger to attention. >>Not the final
criterion of abuse.

>How does that work?

> After the "attention" is triggered, do you contact > the user, or do you
start running a packet
> sniffer to look into the data that is being
> transferred?

If the device's IP # has been "Leased" from Vision it ought to be in a totally
different range than an IP# leased from dialing #777. Then you just compare
IP#s so leased with users and whether they have cell phones or PC Card modems,
and Bingo, you got your offender. Ought to be trivial if Sprint is organized,
whoops, we know they're not.

In article <[email protected]>, Nomen=20
[email protected] says...
> Does Sprint look at my data and stare at what I do all day? How will the=
y weed me out from the=20
> people who use the Data Cable? I don't like the thought of being watched=
all day, I just want to=20
> be left alone to use my PDA handset and Vision service. If they contact =
me, how do I prove that=20
> i'm not using a cable. I'm sure I use more than 98% of other Vision user=
s, but I bought tons of=20
> software to do so ... because I actually use it.
>=20

That is going farther than what the Net Mgmt folks are willing to say. Hea=
vy=20
usage triggers a look into the kind of usage. They analyze from there, and=
if=20
they determine you're using your phone as a modem, then you lose the Vision=
=20
pack on your plan. There *are* allowances for PDA usage. That's part of t=
he=20
reason the PocketPC PDA's pay a premium for Vision service packs.

--=20
-+-
R=D8=DF
O/Siris
I work for SprintPCS
I *don't* speak for them.

In article <[email protected]>,=20
[email protected] says...
> If the device's IP # has been "Leased" from Vision it ought to be in a to=
tally
> different range than an IP# leased from dialing #777.
>=20

How so, Phill? Why would manually dialing #777 result in a different IP=20
range?

No challenge, just asking.

--=20
-+-
R=D8=DF
O/Siris
I work for SprintPCS
I *don't* speak for them.

>That is going farther than what the Net Mgmt folks are willing to say. Hea=
>vy usage triggers a look into the kind of usage. They analyze from there, and=
> if they determine you're using your phone as a modem, then you lose the Vision
>pack on your plan. There *are* allowances for PDA usage. That's part of t=
>he=20
>reason the PocketPC PDA's pay a premium for Vision service packs.

Yikes. There seem to be various privacy "concerns" with Sprint that have been brought to light as of
late. This type of monitoring seems a little sketchy, but i'm sure it's written into the contract that
they can do it.

I'll assume that they cannot take Vision away from his plan unless they can PROVE it was done via a cable.
If he buys something expensive that only works on SPCS, pays the fees for Vision, and signs a contract
... there would seem to be some liability for just yanking Vision with no other evidence than bandwidth
usage. That's an actual financial damage to the customer.

Again, I hope that they can "determine" phone modem usage in ways other than raw bandwidth usage and
watching all of the data (some which might be personal) go back and forth on the account. With Telnet,
you would be able to capture the passwords fairly easily. Again I say ... yikes.

Please tell me that these "determiners" are not the same people telling others to take the battery out of
the Treo's. If so, we're all in trouble.

Wouldn't it make more sense to get rid of #777 than going Big Brother on the customers, who are already
showing signs of concerns with giving Spring their business if we are to believe the latest subsciber
numbers.