How to Surf with Your Samsung a920

Grab your board, dude, because the ride of your internet life are about to get way rad! The nice thing about this kind of surfing is that there’s no water required. Just your laptop, the phone, the USB cable and some software. My Samsung came with it’s cable but just in case you need to get one try there. That link also supplies a driver software and a SAMSUNG manual which will help you through the basic installation.
I was able to secure a driver from another source for my a920 phone, but they all seem to work the same. I did download the Sprint PCS Connection Manager from the Sprint site. Choose your OS and get the correct software. Plug the cable into the USB port, plug the phone on the other end on the cable.

Turn on the phone – if it isn’t already on – and your system should see it. In fact the phone will show the words “USB Connected” on the screen. The phone has to be on the Sprint Power Vision with the “Phone as Modem Plan” to connect at high speeds. This all so painless I barely remember doing the first time. Start up the Connection Manager and as soon as it sees the phone connected, hit the GO button. The phone will Ring (into the web) and you are good to go!

The Connection Manager software lets you make several choices including how well images appear. Even with the images optimized to the highest level the surfing really does work quite fast. I’m accustomed to dsl and Opera (which works fast anyway). Once the phone connects to the web, I start Opera in the normal fashion. It really feels no different than normal dsl surfing. In fact I uploaded this article using my phone as a modem. I’ve tried this phone at my home and my brother’s place when I was visiting. I’m sure there are places that might not give me a good signal, but I haven’t found it yet. If someone wants to foot the bill, I’ll gladly take a trip into Scotland to test out the phone as modem in the wilds of the Highlands. Maybe even negotiate a Single Malt Scotch Distillery.

Hmmm? I can stay on for several hours before the phone battery starts to look slightly depleted. Of course, if I take the rounds in a distillery, it won’t take long before I look depleted.
By the way, the image above is what GadgetNutz looks like on Opera Mini and the Samsung a920. Obviously, when you are using this phone as a modem you can’t get calls or use any other of it’s functions, so that picture was taken when the phone was not being used as a modem. But ain’t it cute?