[leecarlson]

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!!!!

[xymotic]

In the interest of full disclosure, I am selling an aircard on ebay: Linky


I can;t speak to AT&T's service on the east coast. Here in CA, it was pretty good. the card worked good at Catalina, and in every Marina I tried it in. I've used it WAY out in the stix in Oregon, BUT I was on the I5 freeway corrider.

Speed is usually pretty good, from 300-600 Kbs.

Cost is a flat $60 a month. I bought the card because I desperately needed internet about 2 months before iphone 3g came out, and I wanted iPhone for iNavX. I thought I could tether the iPhone to my mac. WRONG.

I can't afford 60 for this card and 70 for the iPhone. I may still jailbreak the phone and tether it, but I find that I just use the iphone more than the laptop lately.

AT&T does support Macs for this card, they helped me get it setup. The only thing you really have to do is put the password in. Apple supports the 881 natively, so there's no software or modem strings.

[jagasail]

One thing to look at is the coverage maps. I was real excited about taking the cell phone approach for wireless until I looked at the coverage maps and realized both ATT & Verizon (my two options) only had coverage with their older, slower, networks in the area I'm cruising.

Xymotic - did you use the aircard with your Mac? If so, which Mac? How did it work? I'm still thinking about this approach as ATT upgrades their network.

Scot
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