t/x and wifi service

[ebrichter]

so i went into a verizon store today (this sounds like a bad joke...a customer walks into a bar....) and asked about how to get wifi service via a data plan on my verizon account (my cell is with verizon) and after much hemming and hawing the account person tells me that unless i buy a blackberry or treo from verizon, there's no way to provide a data plan for me. so this is obviously a bad joke. how do people who have tungstens' with wifi get their email?????

help.
:confused: :confused: :eek:

[applejosh]

Wi-fi is not available through verizon. They have a cellular network, which is not the same as a wi-fi network. (Both are wireless, but that's about all they have in common.) To access a wi-fi network, you need to find an access point. Places for these include some coffee houses, libraries, Panera, and people who don't know enough to lock down their home networks. The wifi card for the Tungstens connect to these types of networks (called wi-fi or 802.11 based networks). I'm trying to find a good introductory website to the various types of wireless networks, but I'm striking out. Hopefully, someone will jump in with one to clear up the confusion.

Cheers!

[ebrichter]

Wi-fi is not available through verizon. They have a cellular network, which is not the same as a wi-fi network. (Both are wireless, but that's about all they have in common.) To access a wi-fi network, you need to find an access point. Places for these include some coffee houses, libraries, Panera, and people who don't know enough to lock down their home networks. The wifi card for the Tungstens connect to these types of networks (called wi-fi or 802.11 based networks). I'm trying to find a good introductory website to the various types of wireless networks, but I'm striking out. Hopefully, someone will jump in with one to clear up the confusion.

Cheers!

so there's no way of having one service do dedicated wifi and connecting whereever one feels like it? sounds like i may be forced to go to the treo. :(

[Robyr]

Or you could go to sprint (best data plans available) or verizon and just get a blutooth enabled phone and use it to do a dial up connection to your PDA. That is how people usually do it. Dont tell the provider that is what you plan on doing though, most frown upon it (sprint, incidentally, can do anythign abotu it though lmao.)