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02/05/2005, 05:02 PM
#829
 Originally Posted by MisterEd
All I can say is "YMMV" and make sure you check you bills after using tethered data. You will have no problem with HTTP or POP3 or IMAP but as soon as you get into VNC or SSH or anything that uses other then those non-standard ports WHILE TETHERING you are flying in very questionable territory. While I can't personally attest to those issues in Cingular Orange I can on Cingular Blue.
With all due respect to your local store manager (or any for that matter)many of them have 1/200th the "actual life experience" knowledge of some of the folks here or on the other boards. These managers usually just spout what they think they hear at their meetings, and at times 17 diiferent variations of the same theme. You can't take as "gospel" what many of them say just as you get 20 different variations of the same theme when you call the "knowledgeable" B2B reps on the phone. Did he UNDERSTAND what the specific types of data use you planned on using are or did he just say .... yea, it's unlimited PDA data so you can do unlimited things with it? I'd bet he never even read the exclusions of each various plan but heard ... Yes, a $39 unlimited PDA plan.
As for the plans. The $39 PDA PLAN is just that. A PDA PLAN and has the same data exclusions as the lower price MediaNet plans but it's for PDA's and not plain handsets. The difference (if I remember from what I read) is the APN it uses. It's for PDA use and not tethering (modem use) or any client/server application. Their "data connect" plan ($79) is meant for laptops with PC Card data devices and is also used where someone wants to use any other device as a modem. The fact he isn't aware of that plan is itself a warning (ask him what the "plan" is for the PC card he has on display next to his old Treo 600 in the back of the store).
In any case, it is very possible you may never get charged for any tethering (beyond http and pop3 and imap), or they may suddenly enforce it and you may in the future. My experience is on the BLUE side and from my experience there (and others as well) you are swimming in dangerous territory as to possible being billed doing the stuff you're planning on doing. They do look at port use. Plus, since he said tethering is DEFINATELY included you have some recourse (or not).
Just keep an eye on your billing online and you'll be OK. The PDA plan is only 3 or so months old so there is still unfamiliarity with it.
ok, this has discourse in this thread got me worried as i perused the forums today, so i decided to go back in to the Cingular store and talk w/ the manager some more about this... he reiterated the same though, that what i had purchased was indeed 'unlimited data', and i would not incur any further charges on my billing statements in regards to data. on any port usage, he did seem to know what i was refering to when i brought up ports and such, but claimed that those restrictions applied to the mMode plan, and not my $39.99 deal.
i actually left my Treo running and online all night, connected to an SSH session where i wanted to monitor the CRON jobs being performed on a certain box... it was still connected when i woke up, and i had quite a bit of terminal logs waiting for me to page through... under the assumption that 10+ hours of SSH usage should have incurred an extra charge to my bill, it didn't. they pulled up my usage statements and showed them to me, there was nothing extra tacked on, and in the data fields was only the acronym 'UNL'... i don't know if this is a difference between offerings from Orange and Blue, but this is what i have...
for what its worth, i now have *in writing* from the manager that i will not incur any additional data charges on my account, he had no problem writing it up for me either, and signed it w/ his name, employee code and store number. i don't know what thats worth, but he seemed very confident that he was telling me the right thing... the fact that my usage doesn't reflect anything additional from my constant SSH usage seems telling to me though..
http://twash.com/iku/itsfullofstars.gif
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