getting needed drivers when no internet available

martyta

martyta

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Hi all,
I know you can use a cell phone as a portable modem in the field, but my provider wants to charge monthly for this and i just dont think it is worth it so I was wondering if anyone would know if it is possible to use my i phone to go to the dell site as an example and download the drivers i need and just transfer them to the computer that needs them via usb?

Thanks in advance for the help:D

Thomas Martyn
 
Thanks Housecalls

I do have several CD's with nothing but drivers that I take with me, but I seem to always run into ones that i just dont have. Just thought if I had the capability to do this expecially where there is no way to get internet connectivity it would help. If not I guess Ill just pay to do the tethering thing with laptop and cell phone I just hate having to pay a monthly fee for something I might only use very rarely.

Thanks for the help,
Thomas Martyn
 
My suggestion would be ask your cell provider about an internet stick and plug this in via usb grab ur network drivers and bam done on the network charges for an initernet stick are minimal for the cheap plans and usually unlimited is like $30

idealcomputers
www.facebook.com/idealcomputers
 
You might want to bring a netbook with you on calls and use that for troubleshooting internet connectivity issues, and use it to download drivers. Alternatively, you could just use a bootable linux CD and download them using the included browser. These presume your client has an internet connection, which is normally the case.
 
t-mobile unlimited internet is $19.95 a month.

i have a nokia communicator phone the most recent is the e90. They have cards in them you can take out and stick in a computer and access the data just like a hard disk. Just carry an adaptor. This way you can quickly download any drive you need in the field.

I like the communicator series b/c they are more like a computer than an iphone. the 9300 was originally around $1000.00 u.s.d. but you can get them for 1/10 that on ebay now.

You can use it on a laptop as a bluetooth modem. I browse the web on it, irc on it, message on it, email on it, movies and music, etc. lol. But... for $19.95 t-mobile provides really fast internet and even with bluetooth to my laptop it's fast as being on a cable modem.

they just add it to your existing phone plan. :) another cool thing about the communicators, is that can sync via bluetooth so your appointments, schedule, contacts, word docs, excel sheets, powerpoints, everything just perfectly synch's. So you can work on your business budget, or billing info on the go. you can even print to an infrared or bluetooth printer without wires. it also lets you control lcd projectors for powerpoint presentations remotely. you can even vnc into a pc from the beach and fix issues. ;) so anyway. It's really cool. the newer ones are even better. but this line of phones is so powerful it's like having your office in your pocket. the 9300 which cost originall $1175 i think is now about $100 on ebay, it can only use a 1 gig mmc card though, but the newer ones can use much larger. but for me a couple of 1 gig cards can carry plenty of info. i actually keep a few smaller mmc's for downloading drivers, and just use a mmc to pc adaptor to solve the "i need a driver in the field issue".

 
Last edited:
mkeathley said:
This site says its driver to add to a XP cd and such. How do you just install an individual driver from this set? and how do you know which one to install?
Click to expand...
When a driver is needed, you point the driver wizard to the CD and wait. It's got tons (thousands?) of drivers on there and most of the time will find one.

Plus, let's face it, once you've got a NIC identified, you can always go online for the more obscure peripherals.
 
i use a Virgin Mobile Broadband usb stick. it's pre-paid so i just buy the minimum 20.00 300MB for 30days or the 60.00 card for 5GB monthly. no contracts, you would need to check for your coverage.
 
Thanks Guys!

I guess housecalls has the best point with the Driver packs. I am downloading them all now. I just recently had an older lady that used her computer for nothing other than word processing purposes no interest in the internet at all and no recovery CD's to boot of course. I ended up having to make multiple trip home to get what I needed. It kind of made me feel unprofessional hopefully these CD's will help.

I really appreciate all the ideas.

Thanks
Thomas Martyn
 
martyta said:
I guess housecalls has the best point with the Driver packs. I am downloading them all now. I just recently had an older lady that used her computer for nothing other than word processing purposes no interest in the internet at all and no recovery CD's to boot of course. I ended up having to make multiple trip home to get what I needed. It kind of made me feel unprofessional hopefully these CD's will help.

I really appreciate all the ideas.

Thanks
Thomas Martyn
Click to expand...
Why didn't you take her machine back with you and download the drivers from your own connection, it would only have required a single trip then?
 
martyta said:
I ended up having to make multiple trip home to get what I needed. It kind of made me feel unprofessional hopefully these CD's will help. Thomas Martyn
Click to expand...

I have a Mi-Fi which is a cellular data connection with a built in wireless router that allows up to 5 con-current computers to access the internet.
I carry a Linksys USB wifi adapter, I keep the drivers for it on my flash drive with my other tools.

This works great and would have enabled you to get online quickly from the clients desktop.
 
ATTech said:
If you have a smartphone, such as an iPhone, Palm, Android or Blackberry, you can use PDANet to tether your phone. It's free and requires no subscription from your provider.

http://junefabrics.com/
Click to expand...

This was going to be my sugestion.

I have PDAnet on my netbook that I use for just this reason. I have it running with Linux, OSX, and Windows 7 on my dell mini. It works very well.
 
PcTek9 said:
I like the communicator series b/c they are more like a computer than an iphone. the 9300 was originally around $1000.00 u.s.d. but you can get them for 1/10 that on ebay now.

You can use it on a laptop as a bluetooth modem. I browse the web on it, irc on it, message on it, email on it, movies and music, etc. lol. But... for $19.95 t-mobile provides really fast internet and even with bluetooth to my laptop it's fast as being on a cable modem.
Click to expand...

I used to have 2nd hand Nokia 9000's (9210 and 9500), but I much prefer my 2nd hand G1. Got it a year ago on eBAY for about $240, but they currently average about $300 (here in the UK). I bet there's more and cheaper in the 'States :)
 
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