July 25, 2006

T-Mobile, Mac OS X, Bluetooth GPRS connectivity

I have a Powerbook G4 laptop. From time to time I can't connect to an Ethernet landline, or a Wi-Fi access point and need to get on the Internet. During those times, it is very convenient to be able to connect using my Nokia 6600 phone. This is accomplished by forming a Bluetooth connection to the phone and then connecting to T-Mobile's GPRS network. It is not a very fast connection, like a 56K modem, but a dribble is better than nothing. Setting up this connection can be tricky though. So here are some instructions for how I did it:

For starters, this is for an Apple PowerBook G4 running Mac OS X 10.4.7 to connect to the internet using the T-Mobile GPRS network through a Nokia 6600 phone and a Bluetooth connection in Southern California. When in Southern California, T-Mobile actually connects to the Cingular network. This article has nothing to do with WAP. T-mobile has good instructions for doing this with different combinations of technologies here. That said, the instructions didn't work for me.

Requirements:
Nokia 6600 handset with service from T-Mobile.
T-Mobile Internet service. The business name for this changes from time to time, but it isn't WAP

Basic tasks without explicit details:
1. Make sure Bluetooth is turned on on the phone.
2. Make sure the Mac has Bluetooth set up to be discoverable.
3. Make sure the devices are paired using the Bluetooth tab in Systems Preferences on the Mac.

Setting up the connection:
1. Set up a new Location under "Network" in System Preferences
2. In the Show: drop-down menu select Bluetooth Modem Adapter.
6. Click the TCP/IP tab. Select Using PPP in the Configure: drop-down menu.
7. Click the PPP tab. T-mobile says to type *99# in the Telephone Number: field. Leave the Account Name: and Password: fields blank. This didn't work for me. Instead I typed in "internet2.voicestream.com" for the telephone number and left the account name and password blank.
8. Click the PPP Options button and un-tick Send PPP Echo Packets and click OK.
9. Click the Bluetooth Modem tab.
10. T-Mobile says to select "Nokia Infrared" in the Modem: drop down menu. That didn't work for me. Instead I downloaded the "Nokia GPRS CID1" script from Ross Barkman's site, and followed instructions for installing it in /Library/Modem Scripts and then I selected it.
11. Untick the Enable error correction and compression in modem and the Wait for dial tone options.
12. Make sure that the Show Bluetooth status in menu bar and Show modem status in menu bar options are ticked. Click the Apply Now button.
13. Select Quit System Preferences from the System Preferences menu to exit.

Making the connection
1. On the PC, click the modem status icon on the top right corner of the menu bar and click Connect.

Posted by djp3 at 7:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)