question about my dongle

[kennydoe]

i know i put in a funny title, but i do have a dongle question...

I'm getting a (PC) laptop for my gigs - the primary purpose is to get rid of my 'paper' book and not have to flip thru to find lyrics, charts, etc.

There are occasions where I'll get a request for a song that I know, but only if i have lyrics. On those occasions, I look up the lyrics on Google thru my phone (i pay for access) and I'm off to the races - it's just really small and can be hard to read.

If i want to use that 'net connection from my phone on my laptop, what's the best way to go about connecting the two things?

Is it a bluetooth dongle (cheap)? Or do i just connect a USB cable directly between the USB port and my phone (free)?

Does anybody know?

[Eggy]

On mine it's just a case of a bluetooth dongle connected to my laptop, Once you do a wireless search your phones internet connection should come up (as long as your phone and your laptop recognise each other and your phone is on line).
You can probably do it with a USB cable too but I've never tried it. Mines a Toshiba laptop going through a Sony Ericsson phone if that helps any.

[scotte_za]

Rather use the usb cable, I connect to the net with my phone and laptop a lot, and I find the dongle to be quite unreliable (occasionally loses connection). the usb cable never fails me though

[jb4674]

It really depends on your phone and your provider. For example, my Samsung blackjack came with the usb cable so I could tether to my pc. Although it may seem like it would be a great benefit to have the internet on your laptop by sharing your cell phone, the fact is that it'll be significantly slower than if you were at home surfing.

With that being said, keep in mind that if your phone doesn't support tethering (or internet sharing) you won't be able to use your phone's internet connection on your pc.

Jimmy

[kennydoe]

hmmm....I'll use the cable to start, since i already have it - i sync my desktop and my phone (it's an HTC/AT&T 8525), but i haven't tried to do this 'tethering' you're speaking of - it may take some doing - i should have the laptop onhand by tomorrow to try stuff out.

I'm not expecting blazing speed - usually it's just a question of gooling lyrics and then calling up the page - nothing more than a few KB.

I'll have more insight tomrrow, i guess.
My dongle thanks you.

[Algiman]

Don't most laptops have bluetooth built in these days, so you wouldn't need the dongle?

[kennydoe]

I picked up an old one for $200 - probably doesn't have it built in.

[Algiman]

OK, you may well be right at $200!

[kennydoe]

it's definitely the day-before-yesterday's model. I just needed something to put lyrics and pdfs on.

Here's what i got...(from Craigslist.org)

a used IBM ThinkPad T21 laptop (model # 2647-8AU) with wireless, floppy & DVD drives, docking station and wireless router. Perfect physical & cosmetic condition - no scratches on the screen, no dead keys or any kind of damage. All software is freshly installed.

Hardware configuration:
Processor - Intel Pentium 3 800 MHz CPU
Memory - 256MB PC100 SDRAM memory
Video - S3 Graphics SavageIX AGP video card with 8MB dedicated video memory
Display - 14-inch 1024x768 LCD display
Hard drive - IBM 20GB hard drive
Floppy Drive - Internal floppy drive
DVD Drive - Internal DVD drive
Sound - Crystal SoundFusion 3D sound card + built-in speakers
Network card - Internal Intel 10/100 Mbps network card (for high-speed Internet access)
Wireless - Linksys WPC54G Wireless-G card (for high-speed Internet access)
Modem - Internal Xircom 56K V.92 Data/Fax modem (for dial-up Internet access)
Ports - One USB, VGA, serial, printer & infrared ports; one PS/2 port for external keyboard/mouse; one S-Video Out port (to connect to TV)
PCMCIA - 2 PCMCIA slots
Battery - Holds good charge

Comes with AC adapter/charger, docking station and D-Link DI-514 wireless router.

Installed software:
Windows XP Professional SP2 (with latest security updates)
Office 2003 Professional SP3 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, Outlook) (with latest security updates)
DivX Bundle v6.8.1 Professional (to play DivX movies)
InterVideo WinDVD Platinum 7.0 (to play DVDs)
WinZip Professional v11.1
Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE Professional v1.06r1 (to protect from spyware & adware)
Registry Mechanic v6.0 (to clean, repair & optimize Windows registry)
Foxit Reader v2.2 (to open Adobe PDF files; much faster than Acrobat Reader)
WinAmp Pro v5.51 (to play MP3 files)
QuickTime Pro v7.3.1
RealPlayer v8.0