Thread: Free wireless internet for my car...

Originally posted by FALLENNITE
iF YOU WANT HIGH SPEED INTERNET BUT DON'T WANT TO SPEND MONEY FOR IT there are ways to get it. Of course it will not be able to get it everywhere but certain parts of the city even whole cities. 802.11b is everywhere and certain people are making it free for uses to everybody. This only works in the cities not out in the boones

Even big cities like Las Vegas and Los Angeles don't have access points everywhere. I was in LV a few weeks ago. I never locked on to any access point. Even when I was parked right next to CES. Same with LA. Same with SD. Even if you were able to pick up an access point, the signal is weak and it won't let you connect to the internet. By the time the computer recongize an access point, you have already pass it. We're/I'm looking for an internet access where ever, when ever and traveling at any speed we/I want. Not just when/where an access point is available and sitting still.

Originally posted by wysiwyg
I don't care what speed it is at, internet in your vehicle is awesome.

I used to think like you. I didnt care what the connection speed was. I just wanted internet in my truck and I don't want to spend alot of money as I will only be using it maybe once a week or so. I currently have Nokia 8290 with Cingular wireless. My phone transmits data through the IrDA port. I bought a MA620 USB IrDA B/C I know for a fact that it works with my phone and many many others as a modem. I tried it out and my phone displayed "CHECK OPERATOR SERVICES" and disconnects. I called Cingular and turned on the data connection for 3.99 a month. It uses my regular minutes instead of amount of data being transfered like almost every other services. Once I got it all hooked up, I did a test run. It connects at 9.6kbps every single time. From the time I hit connect on my PC to loading google.com as homepage took about 3 minutes. Then from that to the mp3car.com forum took another 3-4 minutes. It was painfully slow. I'm currently looking for other cell phone service that provides at least dial up speed and dirt cheap service.

Originally posted by ddt
Wow... here in Houston alone I've mapped out a few hundred AP's most I can connect to within a few seconds. I'm suprised LA doesn't have many...

BTW, what kind of antenna are you utilizing?

I live about 2 hours from LA. The times that I was there, I couldnt pick up any access point. I have a Linksys USB adapter mounted right under the top of the dash cap. If you've seen my install, it's right behind the monitor. The antenna on it is not extendable.

Ok. I was in jacksonville when I did the first test and now I'm in my home town of Tampa.

Well I tested the connection at a test FTP site and the results were amazing!!!

I maxed out at 3.75Mb/s!!!

That's right 3.75Mb and would bounce between 3.25 and 3.65Mb.

The odd thing about it is http doesn't seem to go nearly as fast nor does streaming audio from shoutcast...I'll have to look into this.

Wouldn't it be great to stream audio 24/7 to your car??!!!

UPDATE:

Broke my record!!!


Notice the size of the file and the amount of time it took to download...

Gotta love technology!

hmm I'm very interested. Do any Sprint phones have IrDA port? How did you connect your phone to your computer?

Originally posted by cproaudio
hmm I'm very interested. Do any Sprint phones have IrDA port? How did you connect your phone to your computer?

My phone does not have irda. I used a usb cable from raidioshack part # 17-781. Make sure when you buy it, it's the one with two USB heads on it. All of the old ones got recalled and the part number is the same for the single USB and the dual USB. Also, if you are only interested in internet access just get the cable and DL the SW from sprints website. That's what I did...

Ok, perhaps its just the geek in me, but I have to say, reguardless of speed... if its => modem speed, intranet in the car is really awesome...

Wireless 8021b or cell, I mean, it opens up an entirely new range of usefeullness to a car computer..

For me... heck, it would be great to walk out of work during lunch, vnc into my home comptuer, and start downloading a movie off kazaa. Or, even check on my current downoads to make sure they havent timed out.

Or, when Im on the road, be able to check my email...

Im sure there is a CD with all the information in yahoo yellow pages.. but until I get that cd.. access to the online yellow pages, well, that brings the usefullness of gps to an entirly new level

Heck,... If I had infinite time I suppose it would be possible to rig up my heater and lights so that when I got within 5 miles of my home the heat would turn on and so would the lights.

Originally posted by frodobaggins
They already got that, there's this thing they invented a few years ago, I thinks it's called like radio or something..

If you got thousands of songs that you personally like at your finger tips, why would you listen to the music on the radio? Half of them are Spanish stations and the other half are Christian stations. I've listen to the radio for years before I built my MP3 player and all those time, I've never once heard the theme song to Dark Wing Duck. There are 3 reasons why I listen to the radio: news, sports and talk shows like love line.