One step closer to ubiquitous computing

On Thursday I finally got the time to sit down and try and get PPP connectivity working over my Kyocera 7135 cell phone.
I’m on the Verizon network, which has a data service referred to as ‘1xRTT’, a high speed transport for digital communications. Most of the modern Verizon phones support it, and the 7135 was no exception.
The problem I had been having was with the PPP authentication setup. I could get it to dial, but configurations just didn’t link. I had been using KPPP to set up the connection, thinking it was the more advanced of the clients, but alas, it turned out to be the actual problem.
Another fellow pointed me to pppconfig, a nice dialog-based configuration utility. After a few run-throughs, setting up CHAP authentication, using the magical ‘#777’ phone number and the s00p3r s33kr1t Verizon authentication password (‘VZW’), and my cell phone number as the account login name (xxxxxxxxxx@vzw3g.com), voila! I was online and chatting!
Throughput is “okay”. Better than dialup, but slower than DSL. 🙂 My totally off the cuff test (ran apt-get update) was showing about 6kb/sec. Enough to browse webpages with some delays, but plenty for IRC, Email, and cvs updates / commits, and blog updates from the road.
As I type, I’m sitting in my car, my cell phone is in its cradle running off the car battery (this sort of full-time communication can really drain a phone battery), my laptop is cabled to the cell phone, and I’m online and working fine. (no, I’m not driving 🙂
With a little more battery power, this comes close to the magical ‘Ubiquitous computing‘ goal – online all the time, no matter where you are.