Tips: Treo600 / Use your Unlimited Nights&WE minutes to connect to the internet

My cellphone provider is Cingular, and I have to say that their data plans are plain too expensive. However, if you don't need to be connected all the time (exemple: for email-push), you should know that you can use the minutes of your plan to connect to the internet to: Check/send emails, do a google search, or sync with Avantgo. I have unlimited N&W minutes, so I want to take advantage of them to casualy go on the web.

You will need a dial-up access provided by an ISP. most DSL subscriptions comes with a dial-up one. In my case, I'm using SBC DSL. They have the dial-up numbers here. Here's how to proceed: 1/ Go to the preferences 2/ click on the upper-right and select "Network" 3/ In "Service", enter the name of your connection, for example: "Dialup". Enter the username and password that you use to log in your dial-up connection. Enter the (local) phone number that your ISP gave you. 4/ Press "Connect". You should see a "connecting" screen, then a "signing on" screen. 5/ Voila! the two arrows above the reception bars show that you are connected.

If this does not work, make sure that Cingular enables CSD (Circuit Swithed Data) on your plan. It should come at no charge, but ask the representative to be sure. Downside: you cannot receive calls while connected. This will consume the minutes of your plan the same way that it would if you were talking. If you're using all the minutes of your plan, don't blame me for the bill ;)

No need to subscribe to the expensive GPRS data plan... happy browsing!