September 29, 2008 11:35
I posted this to the SSCA communication forum, and someone wisely suggested I also post here. Glad they did because I wasn't aware of macsailing.net, and it looks great. Anyway....
We just moved aboard our boat full time. Wife and I are both writers and need good regular reliable internet/email. Sometimes we are in marinas where we can get wifi, but other times we are anchored out and need to tether our MacBook Pro and iBook to our cell phones. We are both at point where our service agreements have expired, and want to get one family plan, with best price/options/support for unlimited data usage tethering our laptops to our cell phones, either bluetooth or USB (bluetooth would be slicker - no cables) or using laptop card for data and getting less fancy cell phones. I have a Palm Treo 700p on Verizon, which works great tethering via bluetooth, but it is almost $170/month with taxes, etc., or more than $2,000/year! Just got her a Blackberry Pearl 8110 on AT&T, figuring if it worked was much less expensive (and can check email on phone without having to fire up laptop), but no Mac support from AT&T and finding third-party modem strings, possible settings, etc. online that actually work has been difficult, to say the least (finally got tethering working this morning, but it is slow....). Any advice on carriers, plans, phones, settings that work best for Macs, Blackberry, etc. greatly appreciated! (we have 30 days to return Blackberry, if it isn't the right answer...) Will be mostly cruising East Coast, with possibly winter months in Caribbean. Thanks!!!!
We just moved aboard our boat full time. Wife and I are both writers and need good regular reliable internet/email. Sometimes we are in marinas where we can get wifi, but other times we are anchored out and need to tether our MacBook Pro and iBook to our cell phones. We are both at point where our service agreements have expired, and want to get one family plan, with best price/options/support for unlimited data usage tethering our laptops to our cell phones, either bluetooth or USB (bluetooth would be slicker - no cables) or using laptop card for data and getting less fancy cell phones. I have a Palm Treo 700p on Verizon, which works great tethering via bluetooth, but it is almost $170/month with taxes, etc., or more than $2,000/year! Just got her a Blackberry Pearl 8110 on AT&T, figuring if it worked was much less expensive (and can check email on phone without having to fire up laptop), but no Mac support from AT&T and finding third-party modem strings, possible settings, etc. online that actually work has been difficult, to say the least (finally got tethering working this morning, but it is slow....). Any advice on carriers, plans, phones, settings that work best for Macs, Blackberry, etc. greatly appreciated! (we have 30 days to return Blackberry, if it isn't the right answer...) Will be mostly cruising East Coast, with possibly winter months in Caribbean. Thanks!!!!