getting better at phone tethering

for about a month now i've been tethering my phone to my macbook for on-the-train development/basic web browsing. so-far i'd give it a 6/10. there's 2 major downfalls: speed & consistent connection.

for me it's still worth it if i can get an extra hour of development in during the day, but if i ever stop taking the train i'm going to get rid of it. it's about as fast as dial-up, and you are always losing and regaining the connection. if i'm in a coffee shop and turn off images in the browser it can be decently fast and reliable, but on the train it takes some getting used too.

for using aim on the train it's perfect. i almost never get messed up communication. for ssh access it's iffy. you can really tell when the connection is solid or not, but the communication is normally < 50k when saving files so it's fast when the connection is solid at least.

i really would not suggest this for non-geeks. for basic web browsing it's not worth the extra $30 it cost. but for someone wasting ~2 hours a day sitting on a train, it might be worth it to try for a month and see what you think.