Thanks genome4hire.

I left the phone at my office, but I am pretty sure that I did all that earlier today when I tried.

One thing I did notice was that text messaging wasn't working either: it wasn't receiving messages, and it said "no service available" when I tried to send. Yet the voice service was working. Could that be it? Are there any settings on the phone I need to tweak before text messaging works?

That's exactly it... It either wasn't provisioned correctly (on their end, not yours) or if it is a recent activation (3 days or less), their data center hasn't gotten around to adding the service yet.

If I recall on the Boost handsets, if you hit menu, there should be an item for purchasing ring-tones and such. Hit that, if the phone is provisioned correctly it should take you to a site (using the phones browser) that lets you view ring-tones and wallpapers, etc.

If it does, then you should be able to connect as described. If it doesn't, call them back up and ask why you can't buy ring-tones. This should get their attention.

Thanks YoDude. I can now receive texts, but, as you predicted, I receive an "Error: Network not available" alert when I try choose "Downloads" from the i605's menu. I'll be able to call them later today to ask about this, and will report back. Maybe my problem was just impatience!

Thanks again.

SUCCESS!!

Following YoDude's advice, I called Boost and asked them why, when I select the "Downloads" menu option, I get "Error: Network Not Available." The operator said that there was a "restriction on the account" that should not be there. So she removed the restriction. I still could not access Downloads--she said it would take up to two hours--but now there was a world icon in the upper right of the phone's screen. When I tried to connect to n8x0 to the phone, it worked.

After three minutes of using this connection, I am SOOO glad I went this route. I already use skweezer.net for most of my browsing even when connected to wifi, since it is so fast. And this seems to work *almost* as fast even when connected to the Boost phone. Given this and the price--FREE!!--I'm a happy camper.

Thanks to YoDude for this innovation. Boost + Skweezer = free and truly mobile internet.

Yeah, the world icon means you have an IP address.

Cheap is good, free is better!

My N800 is not giving me a connections menu that has GPRS as an option, the screen gives a choice of packet data, Data call, or WLAN. Please help!

I got the N800 to recognize the i605 and vice versa, but when I am connected the green circle on the tablet flashes to the red slash, even though it says I am connected. Can anyone help me please?

It gets better! Following discussions about Boost on the howardforum.com, I managed to upload Opera Mini 4.01 to my i605. Now on my bus trip to work, I just turn the i605 on and go right to the CNN Mobile site (mind you I only have a basic account; internet access usually costs $10+ extra per month). For the 15 minute ride, I don't even bother to open my N800 any more. BTW I just came back from a two week vacation, during which I survived exclusively on the free iDEN network. I answered company emails using MS WOA, read rss feeds, surfed internet, etc., all free This has got to be the cheapest solution for a road warrier

I'm pretty sure these issues are not related. The accounts that are relevant to that blinking icon are not the same as the iDen/wifi accounts. So I'd just follow YoDude's guide and not worry about the blinking icon--at least not when your concern is the iDen connectivity.

Can you link to a helpful discussion of this, or post a guide to upload Opera Mini? Come to think of it, how do I determine the current browser version?

And are you saying that you surf on the i605 without any data plan at all--only the basic voice plan that happens to provide the free always on 19.9 stream we know and love?

Thanks!