STi Mobile Tethering

Here's another biggie: how to use your STi Mobile phone to get faster-than-dialup internet...for the price of the web package!

WARNING: If enough people abuse this STi may go wierd again and either raise rates or disable web or something even more wierd like maybe cancel service or go bankrupt. I use STi now as my only internet, and I surf a lot, but if a lot of people start to do that who knows what will happen. Please don't; everyone else employing this trick will appreciate it.

WARNING 2: This will not work (at least with the LG 225 phone) on any computer running or based on Windows XP Professional (Windows XP Media Center 2003 or 2004, also 2005 if upgraded from 2004). The computer will simply lock up as soon as it tries to access the phone. Trust me, I and others know. Windows XP Home and Windows 2000 work fine, and 98SE probably works, since it has drivers for the phone in the 3GCables zipfile. And yes, so does Windows ME.

WARNING 3: This has only been tested to my knowledge with the LG 225 camera phone ($129 with $100 in airtime at CheapPhoneCards.com). The Samsung a820 MAY work, and the LG 125 MAY work, but I honestly don't know as I haven't tried. If anyone has, email me. The LG 5225 doesn't seem to do anything with a cable connected to it, and the other STi phones (Sanyo 200, Samsung a460, LG 1200) aren't web-capable so they can't do it. In other words, this info only applies directly to the LG 225.

Now that the warnings are out of the way, here's how to get up and running over 1xRTT for 29 cents a day with STi (19 cents web + 10 cents fee-for-nothing)...

1. Buy a Cable
I got my cable from dwoodsz.com over eBay. I made a Best Offer for $15 and, since the normal price was $16, the seller accepted. Make sure you get the 3-groove LG 225 compatible cable (easy to find on the website). 3GCables also has an LG 225 compatible cable, and I have been told that it also works fine.

2. Get the Drivers
3GCables has the drivers you need for the LG 225, as well as other phones. You can get the zipfile for LG here:

http://www.3gcables.com/download/LG.zip

Once you have the files downloaded and extracted, connect your phone. When Windows asks for a driver point it to a file in thee appropriate folder (for Windows 2000 use Win2K for example). Yes, the drivers aren't signed or Windows Logo tested, but unless you have XP Pro (see warning 2) they will work fine. Once you have the hardware set up you can delete the driver download from where you put it; the files are already copied elsewhere.

3. Connect and Enjoy
Create a dialup connection (STi Mobile 1xRTT is a good name for it) with your new "LG CDMA USB Modem". The access number is #777. The password is blank. Then go into your modem options and set the modem speed as high as it will go (926100 bps on Windows XP Home, 115200 on other OSes as far as I know) to you can get the fastest data rates, as the computer won't otherwise communicate with the phone any faster. But once that's done, just plug in the phone, hit connect with your new dialup connection, and wait about 5 seconds. You are now online; have fun!

Some people have said that Sprint\STi automatically compresses images when using their connection. I have found this not to be the case. Also, STi Mobile 1x data does not use minutes, so you can stay online as long as you want, but you MUST have the 19 cents a day extra web package (or the web + pictures package) in order to do this. Oh, and while your phone is online (it will actually hang up the data call when there hasn't been any data sent or received for a little while so that's nice) it's just like you're on the phone in that all incoming calls go to voicemail. At least it's not your landline giving a busy signal though...

With the above warnings and instructions in mind, enjoy the higher-than-dialup speeds CDMA2000 1x allows you! As an added bonus, try Google Web Accelerator; it's free and may help speed up the web a little more. But anyway, hope this helps all the poor souls still on dialup go a step up for about $8.70 a month. Have fun everyone!