Tethering my Blackberry to my Laptop

When I first got my blackberry one of the things that interested me was the fact that I could "Tether" myh blackberry to my laptop. Which means that I could use my blackberry to get high speed internet access from anywhere I could use my cell phone(blackberry) Well the software to allow that didn't work with Windows Vista, so I kind of forgot about it for a while. Until today. I figured out that the motel my wife had got from hotwire didn't have high speed internet(I always try to remind her how important that is for me).

Anyway I called verizon and had them add the $15 a month thing that I needed for this to work and got instructions on how to download the software that I needed. The told me to go to http://www.vzam.net/. After driving around for about an hour I finally found an open wireless connection and was able to download the VZAccess Manager that I needed.

Wow. Here I am sitting in the middle of a big parking lot at some factory stores near Park City Utah, checking email and doing other tasks. And it was fast. I had a full bar EVDO connection and it screamed. The connection back at the motel is only 2 bars and it is bearable for email and surfing, although noticeably slower.

Turns out this "Motel" is actually condos and there was a DSL modem sitting on the floor unplugged. I plugged it in and I have DSL so I didn't even really need to set up the Broadband access with verizon, but hey I will be getting stuff done while the family is school shopping so I am going to stick with it for at least this month. Where I live, we don't have the EVDO towers. I wish verizon would get that rolled out to all their towers.

David Mineer

Mcafee Security Suite Blocks Hotel Internet Access

I have blogged about my new Dell laptop before. I love it. I figured out running programs in windows xp compatibility mode and my only problem (not being able to run some programs) is not as bad anymore.

Anyway, over Easter the family went to Phoenix for the weekend. We left thursday night because the kids were out of school. First stop, Flagstaff. After a ruckus at the hotel we had reservations at, we ended up at the days inn.

Booted up the old laptop at 5:00 A.M. the next morning. NO INTERNET ACCESS! I tried everything. Got dell tech support on the line(North American Based). Nothing. Well I was ticked, but figured it was the motel. Next night, Super 8 in Gilbert AZ. Same thing. Finally, saturday morning I took a shot and uninstalled 3 of 4 components of the Mcafee security suite that came on the computer. Spam(I use gmail anyway), privacy control, and one other I can't remember. I left only virus scanning. BINGO. It worked. I don't know why I didn't try this in the first place. I have never used the "Security Suites" cause I have problems with clients who use them all the time. Something about the security suite and the internet access at the hotels didn't jive. I assume it was something to do with that redirection that happens when you first login. You go to the motel web site and have to click the agreement or whatever.

I should send Mcafee and email. Maybe I will