Hack 77 Using Your Cell Phone as a Bluetooth Modem

figs/expert.giffigs/hack77.gif

Get online via your Bluetooth-enabled cellphone and AT&T's GPRS service with these comprehensive instructions.

With Bluetooth finally hailed as a strong buy, it's surprising how little detailed information there is on actually using your new Bluetooth-enabled phone with Mac OS X. When I went searching for instructions on setting up my Sony Ericsson T68i to allow my Mac to connect to the Internet via AT&T Wireless Services GPRS (a.k.a. mMode) service, I wasn't able to find anything comprehensive. I have been able to piece together instructions from other sites to form a working solution, though. This hack offers step-by-step instructions for getting online via Bluetooth and AT&T mMode.

This hack assumes you are running Mac OS X 10.2 (aka Jaguar) and have a Sony Ericsson T68i mobile phone and iSync via Bluetooth [Hack #32]. For the purposes at hand, make sure both Address Book and Internet Access are checked (as shown in Figure 6-43) and click OK.

Figure 6-43. Choosing services to use with the phone
figs/xh_0643.gif

Now that your phone and Mac are able to talk to each other, we'll work on treating your phone as a Bluetooth modem. Click the Bluetooth menu bar icon and select Open Network Preferences, which will report New Port Detected. Click OK.

From the Location pop-up menu, select New Location . . . , name it Bluetooth, and click OK. From the Show pop up, select Network Port Configurations and uncheck all the boxes except for USB Bluetooth Modem Adapter, as shown in Figure 6-44.

Figure 6-44. Configuring the Bluetooth location
figs/xh_0644.gif

Now we'll configure the Bluetooth adapter's network/modem properties. From the Show pop up, select USB Bluetooth Modem Adaptor. In the TCP/IP tab, select Using PPP from the Configure pop up. Leave the DNS Servers and Search Domains fields blank. Click the PPP tab. Type AT&T GPRS into the Service Provider field and proxy into Telephone Number, and leave the rest of the fields alone, as shown in Figure 6-45.

Figure 6-45. Setting up Bluetooth PPP
figs/xh_0645.gif

Click the Bluetooth Modem tab. From the Modem pop up, select Ericsson GPRS CID1, and click Apply Now. That's all for System Preferences; close it using figs/command.gif-Q or System Preferences Quit System Preferences.

Ready to connect? From the Bluetooth menu bar icon, select Open Internet Connect and click Connect. Your phone will display Connecting and after a few seconds, Internet Connect should show you as being connected to the Internet. To disconnect, click Disconnect.

77.1 See Also

  • Ross Barkman's Mobile Phone Scripts (http://www.taniwha.org.uk/)

  • GPRS, WAP Over Voicestream's iStream Service Using Bluetooth (http://www.powerpage.org/story.lasso?newsID=9249)

Matthew Sparby



Mac OS X Hacks
Mac OS X Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tricks
ISBN: 0596004605
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 161

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net