Do You Use Your Mobile Phone to Access the Internet?

How much do you use your mobile phone to access the Internet?

Vote and Discuss!!

Rarely. That's what aircrack is for :wink:

I don't think aircrack works with GPRS.... :wink:

No, but with access points that are almost, but not completely, unprotected. I mean, who still ships out APs using WEP as the default "encryption"? (Whoever it is, thank you for hours, nay days and weeks, of free internet access)

Most people use GPRS to access the Internet from their mobile, so you are being a bit "alarmist" over nothing. WEP is a wireless LAN protocol, not a GPRS protocol.

Talking WEP is not germane to mobile phones and most WEP users are laptop users.

Let's not turn this into a security "frighten everyone" discussion, please.

PS: This year so far I have had more car accidents than people hacking into my mobile phone Internet access, so if, as pludi says, we need to be so afraid of mobile phone Internet access, then I should never drive a car. In addition, drinking in discos I have had a least two drunk guys want to start a fight this year (over smiling, beautiful women), which is two more than anyone has hacked into my Internet mobile access, so I better not drive a car or go do any discos, since the risk is higher.

In other words, let's do don't go down this path of "let's be afraid"..... thanks so much.

I'm sorry if I weren't clear on the subject. I'm not talking about hacking into someones phone. I was talking about accessing the internet when not working on a desktop PC, but "on the road". Since I'm living and working in a densely populated area, there's an abundance of "open" access points to use, which is cheaper by far than any mobile access plan I know.
Thus my answer above "Rarely", since it's only in rare cases that I have to use my mobile to go online (as opposed to "want to"). Mobile phones, IMO, are for calling someone, and the odd text message.

Thanks for clarifying (Whewww.. I feel better now :eek: )

For me, I don't have "religion" about phones and computers. I easily use the Internet from my (old but trusty) Nokia E61 and I can call and talk to friends using Skype at my desk.

I read news, check server status, read email, use GoogleMaps and set GPS waypoints, downloading new maps from the Internet. I sometimes reply to forum messages, especially admin messages, using my mobile, I search for prices when shopping using my mobile (recently a golf bag from Ping), and much more.

For me, mobile phone GPRS (in the future 3G) is almost as important as a desktop computer or notebook. When in my favorite riverside restaurant eating I use their free wireless LAN instead of using my GPRS minutes to save money :slight_smile:

Soon I will install PuTTY on my mobile so I can ssh into the server and tweak something when on the road...... in other words, for my Internet mobile access is not a luxury, it is critical :slight_smile:

Sorry if I scared anyone, never was my intent.
For me, it's less of a religion thing than usability. I like to have both the overview and some detail when I look at a screen, without having to zoom around, most mobile keyboards are either crippled or too small, and the iPhones touchscreen keyboard is just too slow. Thus, for truly mobile access, I'd rather have a nice, little netbook and a GPRS adapter, than just a mobile phone.

I agree with you, but I can't carry those mini-notebooks in my back pocket or browse with one hand in a bar with a friend having a beer, so I opt for a mobile phone, more stylish, less geeky :cool: Mini-notebook are too big for my mobile style (and use less battery power 'cause they are smaller). I have been very happy with my E61. I have dropped it at least 30 times and it works great. I installed the Opera Mini browser recently and have been really impressed with the speed of GPRS downloads - highly recommended.

You may have the Nintendo DS to thank for your free internet. It's an ubiquitous wireless client device that supports nothing but WEP.

iPhone browser works well for most sites.

Wow! I am really surprised to learn that, so far, 75% of our poll replies do either never or rarely access the net with their mobile phone.

I feel like a real techie geek now!! :eek:

I don't use my phone to access the net. I have a standard issue mobile phone (not the Iphone or a PDA) and I find the screen to be too small...

I want to, but I don't want to pay the extra bills for cellular net access, and WIFI access is not quite well covered here.

Actually my phone is dumb enough not to support any Internet function anyway and I can't see why to spend extra bucks to get another one. :smiley:

I have had very good luck with the older model Nokia E61. I can search and select for WiFi or GPRS (and other access protocols) seamlessly: the full keyboard is great, the screen is just about the right size for a phone and I have dropped it countless times and it has never broke. I am typing on it now in a coffee shop. I think you can buy used E61s quite cheap. I may get another one!

This is one thing that the whole world is admiring Nokia about.

This is from my experience.

I dropped my Nokia phone in water ( rain water storage ) which is atleast 2 feets depth unknowingly. Then I asked my friend to give call to my mobile continuously after half an hour 'search' I was able to spot it out. My goodness it was still ringing.

Disassembled it, dried it in sunlight and in another 15 minutes started working again. Wow ! Wow !

I was surprised and astonished like anything and I was praising the whole Nokia team like anything ...

Nothing off topic or anything .. just wanted to share this ...

:slight_smile:

Yesterday I installed PuTTY on my Nokia E61 and was running top on my phone. It was really cool. Then I ran some MySQL tuning scripts to see how the database was doing.

It is comforting to know that I could do an emergency reboot from just about anywhere in the world.

Basic command line tasks worked just fine over GPRS.

Interesting.

I did once thought about getting a smartphone some months ago. I was neither thinking about working nor surfing on the road. Rather, I have bought some ebooks (PDF) in the past that I appreciate a handy reader so that I can read on the road. However, even the model with the largest screen (3.8" is the largest I know of - a bit larger than iphone 3G) still would not allow optimal viewing of conventional A4-sized PDF pages, and so did not justify the ~USD$900 price tag for me. So I dropped the idea.

Probably a netbook is more suitable for me. My laptop is simply too big to carry everywhere. Except missing cellular phone functionality, I think netbook is more "malleable" especially when WIFI and GPRS modules are now builtin in newer models.

I also need to read books and documents in digital format,
so I think I'll buy a BeBook. In any case there are many other e-book devices.

well, i have dropped my Sony Ericsson Z550i countless times in the last three years, once from third floor in my office - it came tumbling down to ground floor. it was switched off in the process, and started working when i switched it on

i guess if your cellphone has a metal casing and is a sturdy model, it has better chances of surving free falls etc.

edit: pardon me for the off topic post, and let's not start a nokia vs sony ericsson war :slight_smile: