Haha!  I almost forgot, I can use my smartphone as a wireless modem for my carPC.  Sweet!

It's simple really....well...sort of.  First, I have unlimited Internet access through my cell phone.  That means, anywhere I get a digital signal from my carrier (Cingular), I can connect and access the Internet through Pocket Internet Explorer.  Now my carPC does have a wireless card installed, but I have to be within range of a wireless network in order to access the Internet.  And since my cell phone carrier has vast coverage over any open wireless networks, I can now let my carPC access the Internet from virtually anywhere.

Windows based phones have a program on them called Modem Link.  With this program I can connect my smartphone to my computer using Bluetooth, iR port, or USB cable.  My phone then acts like an external, wireless modem that my computer can use to access the Internet, although at slow, slow dial-up speeds.  But it's better than no Internet connection at all.

Setting it up took a little research and work, but I got it.  The smartphone didn't come with any instructions on how to set this up, but I knew it could be done.  The phone did come with a CD-ROM that did include a few programs, like ActiveSync and ClearVue.  Exploring the disc did reveal the USB modem drivers (E:OEMAPPSDriversUSB Modem).  Now that I had the drivers, I just had to install them.

Now normally when you plug your smartphone into a computer, ActiveSync will kick in and syncronize your phone and computer automatically.  Obviously I didn't want that.  I wanted to plug the phone into the PC and have the PC recognize it as a USB modem.  In order to do that you have to active the Modem Link program on your phone.  Simply open the Modem Link program on your phone (Start -> Accessories), set the connection type (USB, iRComm, or Bluetooth - I set it for USB in this case), and then click the Activate button.  This will enable the Modem Link and now when I plug the phone into my carPC, Windows sees it as an unknown device.  Finally, I manually installed the drivers (from the CD-ROM) for this unknown device and Windows now installed it as a USB modem.  Hello Internet access!

I now open Internet Explorer on my carPC and have Internet access.  Very, very cool.