LG VX5200 with Verizon as a cel modem

I recently went through a bit of a roller coaster on getting my new LG VX5200 to work as a usb cel modem with my laptop using Verizon wireless.

End result - pretty darn cool!

I first bought a cheap cable on ebay.
I then got the drivers from this site
I plugged it in and my laptop picked it up and installed it with seemingly no problem.
I then configured a new dial-up connection (manually) with the following settings.

Set it to dial #777
User Name: "phone#"@vzw3g.com
Password: vzw

It connected, but VERY slowly.
I thought this was something to do with my service but it turned out to be a bad cable.

I tried using bitpim with the cheap cable and it could never detect the phone.

I finally got frustrated, went to BestBuy and picked up Pix'n Tunes for $30. This is actually a pretty cool package especially if you have friends and family that have different phones. It comes with 6 partial cables that fit different phones. I was able to use one for me and one for my mom (with another usb female to male extension cable).

With this new cable, everything works fine. The service through Verizon just uses minutes so for me it is great for nights and weekends especially. It connects at 115k and is very useable for email and light surfing. It is also pretty useable for remote control apps like logmein, especially if you crank down the color depth to black and white.

I hope someone out there finds this write-up useful. It kept me from buying an expensive smartphone like a Treo 700, Treo 650, Samsung SCH-i730 or Verizon XV6700.

I think this was a good solution considering the price and I already had a laptop. $30 for the LG VX5200 after rebate and just the cheapest phone plan they offer.