I'm sure many of you like me are affected by the midwest Comcast internet outage tonight. This is a good time to make sure you have your plan B to get online to continue trading or to exit positions if needed in case of future outages. If you have an android phone you can tether your computer or laptop via the USB cable with a nifty little program called Pdanet. You can find it in the android market. Here is a link for more info: http://www.junefabrics.com/android/download.php It's free and allows you to use your phone's 3G/4G connection without paying anything extra. Good backup for your main connection or a mobile connection when traveling. Enjoy!
I tried that app and it worked great, I had a G2 on a trail but, I dunno, I was in the T-Mobile store and was told that I'd still be charged something... but how would they know whether the data was used in my Android phone or elsewhere?? T-Mobile charges $15 /mo for tethering..
IMO you should have a USB stick with a dedicated mobile contract as a backup internet. Phone should be used in extremis as an extra backup, rather than as your main one.
I have a G2 and they don't charge anything for tethering and they recently pushed native functionality for it, no third party app needed. You just have to install a driver on your PC. They also pushed UMA (phone calls over wi-fi in case of low network signal strength) out to the droid phones and you can use your phone as a wi-fi access point. It's pretty sweet.
I concur , great app worked great and fast. The dedicated stick may be a bit easier to run but if you are mildly tech savvy PDA net works perfect.
Thanks illinimatt81. I've been looking for a good backup solution and this sounds good. This may be out of scope for this thread but I'll ask anyway. I haven't kept up with the smart phone world. What would be a good Android phone and service for the primary objective of a low cost and reliable internet connection backup. And also perhaps for dipping my toe into the smart phone world. I'm not a big phone user and don't particularly want to be. thanks, cT
The Motorola Droid X with Verizon is good. Have heard good things about the HTC EVO also. I use the X personally. There are always quirks but overall I've been impressed.
I love that the UMA is out to the droid phones so you can use your phone as wifi access pt. ITS SO GREAT.
Thanks for resurrecting the thread.. I dl'd pdanet to the trading laptop and tethered it via the Vibrant phone and it works great. I have unlimited internet with the phone plan but they throttle back the bw if you go over some limit but for a backup internet connection it's a great thing. I could stream a movie at Hulu with the tether and it's only a 3G... plenty of bandwidth for manual trading...