[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Motorola Montana PC Card Experience
I've got both the Montana also and a MicroTAC cell phone too but haven't
had a reason/chance to use a cell hookup. BTW, I'm using a 755C w/ W95 and
have used the HD and pc cards in a 750C also.
The PC card docs included a listing of the accessory cables for various
cell phones. All were listed at $29.95 (USD) with the only exceptions
being for pager cables. I tried to get the cable from Cellular One but
apparently they supported a different PC Card. Was your $60 cost w/
overnight shipping from 1-800-4A-PCMCIA?
I just installed the QuickFax Mobile software which came with the Montana.
The software has a button that handles either land line or cellular
connections (switches betw modem setup strings). The only reason I loaded
this software was because I got rid of PCPlus/Win 3.0 and wanted simple fax
capabilities back.
Using the Montana over land lines has been OK (work, home, travelling). A
*major* caution to all laptop/portable users: beware of the phone lines
you plug into! A co-worker w/ 760CD fried his built-in modem by plugging
into either a digital phone or network jack (thank goodness for corp
maintenance agreements). Anyway, we've since gotten a phone line device
which you can virtually connect to any phone system as well as protect your
modem. It was from Global and it was around $130. It's called an Office
Konnector by Konexx.
Joe
----------
From: Mark Rees <markrees@mindspring.com>
To: 'thinkpad@cs.utk.edu'
Subject: Motorola Montana PC Card Experience
Date: Sunday, September 22, 1996 1:58 PM
Here are some experiences getting the Thinkpad Cellular capable...
I very recently purchased on of the new IBM Thinkpad 560's (120mhz), with a
Motorola Montana 28.8 modem (cellular ready) and 10baseT net card. As I
was trying to get totally self-sufficient, I went out and bought a Motorola
MicroTAC Elite cell phone. After I got both, I discovered that I had to
buy another cable to hook the "cellular ready" modem to the "modem ready"
cell phone. No one at any local store had any clue what I needed to hook
the two up. They tried to sell me a "box"-like thing to do it. Finally I
go the number of Motorola direct PCCard sales and ordered the required
cable $60, overnight. Overnight, turned into being two-day air. At the
end of the second day, I called back and asked where the cable was, they
had no idea. They have recently gone to an automated fulfillment system,
and it was having "difficulty". They could not tell me if it even shipped,
much less give me a tracking number. They suggested I order another one
Fed-x priority overnight to ensure that I got it before my out-of-town
trip. They promised to hand deliver it to the warehouse, hand-pick it from
inventory, and put it in overnight guaranteed. I let them do this and got
it the next morning.
The next morning, a few hours before my plane left, I wanted to try
everything out. I opened the cable, installed the software, then
discovered that the PC Card that I bought the week before had a serial
number which was 100,000's less than that required to operate correctly.
What the instructions told me to do was fax in a new order for an exchange.
The problem, I was told, was one of FCC compliance, and that it would
still work-provided I did three things: Loaded the new software included
with the cable, downloaded a newer patch from their site, and followed a
complicated and lengthy and manual installation-correction sheet. After
doing all three, I was unable to get anything working. I then proceeded to
spend the next 3 hours on the phone with Motorola, then vendor where I
purchased the Thinkpad, IBM, and Microsoft. Motorola eventually got the
modem working again, but during the process I lost the ability of the card
to communicate on the network. Motorola was totally unable to get this
problem resolved. IBM wanted about $120 to fix it. Only Microsoft (for
$35) was able to solve this problem.
Now, after the fact, I have also learned that I can only get speeds up to
9600 baud, and I have to have separate modem settings for land-lines and
cellular connections. I don't know if I would try this again. Why is
everything so complicated?
FYI
----------