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Networking (Apple) Businesses Apple Hardware

Net Access Using an iBook, Bluetooth Adaptor and a Mac? 62

Posted by Cliff from the getting-online-anywhere dept.
davesag asks: "How are people connecting to the net using Mac OS X and a Bluetooth phone, such as an Ericsson T68i? I have to buy a new mobile phone today or tommorrow and so far have not been able to find any details on how i would use a mobile phone as a modem with Mac OS X. I have seen plenty of people use their phones with computers running Windows XP but from what i can see no-one makes Mac drivers for the phones. I have seen plenty of apps for synching phones' address books etc, including Apple's own iSync, but none of these options seem to allow the Mac to take advantage of the GPRS Internet connectivity. I am keen to hear other's experiences, or lack thereof with Mac OS X, Bluetooth and mobile net access before I shell out my money."
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Net Access Using an iBook, Bluetooth Adaptor and a Mac? More

Net Access Using an iBook, Bluetooth Adaptor and a Mac?

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  • good ole versiontracker (Score:5, Informative)

    by SlamMan ( 221834 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @10:25AM (#4555363)
    Head on over to version tracker

    http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=135 76&db=mac

    Says it works with GPRS, and "Mobile High Speed for Mac OS X supports all major countries and network operators worldwide and most compatible phones from Motorola, Nokia, Siemens and SonyEricsson. "

    Hope tthat helps

  • Modem scripts for a pint (Score:5, Informative)

    by roxeteer ( 232754 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @10:31AM (#4555395) Homepage

    Check out Ross Barkman's site [taniwha.org.uk]. He has modem scripts for Ericsson and Nokia GPRS phones - and much more. I have Nokia 6310 and D-Link's Bluetooth USB adapter and I can tell you that setting up an Internet connection with them was very easy. At least the Nokia scripts had step-by-step instructions included.

    The scripts are released as "pintware". If you like them, by the man a pint of beer.

  • Works fine for me (Score:5, Informative)

    by jos3000 ( 202805 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @10:34AM (#4555411) Homepage
    I've been using my iBook, a pci (the company name) USB bluetooth adapter and a T68.

    I've been connecting over plain old GSM as opposed to GPRS so I have a very slow connection speed (9.6kbps) but it's fine if I want to just check my email headers now and then.

    I live in the UK and have a contract with Orange. I haven't had to use any software additional to plain Jaguar.

    Using iSync with iCal and Address Book works with no problems at all.

  • It's pretty simple... (Score:5, Informative)

    by dhardman ( 613726 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @10:42AM (#4555497) Homepage
    I was in the same boat about a week ago. It took me about 10min of searching and I found the following info...

    First, get the modem scripts Here [taniwha.org.uk]. The one I used was the first one in the list...the GPRS one for the t68i.

    Next get the D-Link Bluetooth USB do-dad.

    Make a new "Location" and call it Bluetooth.

    Choose "Bluetooth Modem" as your connection.

    Under PPP Leave everything blank except the phone number and type "Proxy"

    Next, pair the phone with the laptop, and choose "Connect".

    The phone should say "Connecting" and you'll get a 10.x.x.x IP address.

    You are in bidnes...

    • Re:It's pretty simple... (Score:5, Informative)

      by roxeteer ( 232754 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @10:52AM (#4555593) Homepage

      Under PPP Leave everything blank except the phone number and type "Proxy"

      Wrong.

      When using Ross Barkman's modem scripts, the phone number must be the Access Point Name (APN) provided by your GPRS operator. You can find a list of them here [taniwha.org.uk].

      • Re:It's pretty simple... (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Nope, actually you are wrong.
        The t68i / Ti-book combo, all you need is the word "Proxy" and select CID2 (for AT&T) and you're off. Works for me, use it all the time.

  • iBook and Motorola v66 (Score:4, Informative)

    by hoggy ( 10971 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @10:43AM (#4555506) Homepage Journal
    I've been successfully connecting via GSM and GPRS from my iBook since Jaguar arrived with drivers for the Motorola v66. The phone just plugs into the USB port via the supplied cable. I had to hunt around for some modem scripts for the phone, but you should be able to get hold of them via Google.

    GPRS is the cat's ass.

    • Re:iBook and Motorola v66 (Score:5, Informative)

      by hoggy ( 10971 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @10:47AM (#4555550) Homepage Journal
      Heck!, I meant to point out that GPRS isn't anything special in terms of driver support. Normally the modem software in the phone makes GPRS available as a special telephone number. If you can find appropriate GPRS modem scripts, then you're laughing.

      Also, if the phone does bluetooth, then you can make it work with a Mac - pretty much that simple. You might not always get the fancy stuff, but you'll be able to setup a virtual serial device through bluetooth to the modem in the phone. Then, as I say, you just need to get some scripts.

  • Works for me (Score:5, Informative)

    by simoncoles ( 31429 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @10:51AM (#4555578) Homepage
    I have a PowerBook (DVI) with the USB Bluetooth adaptor and a T68i connected to Orange here in the UK and it works OK. I downloaded some scripts for the modem (sorry can't remember the URL), and currently its setup as a "Ericson GPRS CID2".

    Performance wise, latency feels quite low. I was sitting in a field in Orkney (islands North of Scotland) reading my mail from work using IMAP, and it felt almost as if I was on my cable modem at home.

    The only problem I have at the moment is the Orange GPRS network is a little flakey. It seems quite easy at the moment to "Fall off" the GPRS network, which in some cases can be fixed by removing the phone battery with the phone on, and in other cases you need to call tech support to get them to remove and re-add you to the network.

    Overall, I'm very impressed. Would be nice if the network was a little more reliable, but I guess its just teething trouble.
    • GPRS in the UK is really too expensive for me at the moment.

      What really pisses me off that with an Orange UK contract you can have roaming GPRS with 50MB a month in France for free while at home you have to pay £60 a month for the same.

      http://www.orange.co.uk/talkplans/gprs/faq.html

      Orange France pay E6 a month for 10MB of GPRS:

      http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/25460.htm l

  • how about dialup? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by sammy.lost-angel.com ( 316593 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @11:09AM (#4555744) Homepage
    Can I use my t68i to dial up my already existing ISP? I know it will be slower, but under my plan it would be more cost effective.
    • Yes you can, a friend of mine did it with his Nokia 9290. I don't remember how he did it, but you might wanna check into it more.

    • Re:how about dialup? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by matts.nu ( 94472 )
      Can I use my t68i to dial up my already existing ISP? I know it will be slower, but under my plan it would be more cost effective.

      Yes, that's how you connect while you're not in a GPRS covered area. The phone would be rather useless if it didn't have GSM Data, because few people have GPRS subscriptions and a very small part of Earth have GPRS coverage. Roaming is more or less non-existant.

      But to determine the cost effectivness you have to consider how much data you will send, because GPRS doesn't have a time charge, only data charge.
    • So is it possible to send data as though it were voice, for lack of a better way of putting it, on my T68i? I have an AT&T plan and data, e-mail, etc. on the phone costs me $$$. But voice is unlimited ($99/mo for unlimited hours). Can I transfer data in the unlimited mode of my connection?

      Thanks.

      blakespot

  • SyncML (Score:3, Informative)

    by mbkkelsey ( 581343 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @11:21AM (#4555848)
    If you want to sync your phone using iSync, make sure it's SyncML compliant - not all bluetooth phones are SyncML compliant, ie the Nokia 8910.

  • Simply (Score:5, Informative)

    by matthew.thompson ( 44814 ) <matt&actuality,co,uk> on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @11:33AM (#4555927) Journal
    I have a Nokia 6310i, Mitsumi Bluetooth adaptor and an iBook 600. IT helps to be running Jaguar.

    I put the adaptor into the iBook, I paired the phone. I selected the Nokia mode script. I enetered a phone number of *99# into the dialler and a username of "orange" with a password of Internet.

    I then just click connect in the modem drop down menu item. 10 seconds later I am connected. It even keeps the connection going between the handset and iBook going whilst travelling through tunnels.

    It's definately the easiest bluetooth implementation I have ever used.
    • I just got this working with a Palm Vx via Infrared. The *99# access works perfectly with AT&T Wireless. It may not work if you're already connected to the GPRS network on the phone. I had to disconnect before it would connect.
  • Last time I checked...an iBook *was* a Mac :)

    I'm using an iBook right now, via Airport, and though I've heard of other people connecting to the Net via their Bluetooth T68i phones, I've never actually seen it done.

  • GPRS configuration and sharing over AirPort (Score:3, Informative)

    by nickovs ( 115935 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @02:33PM (#4557477)
    I have been happily connecting to GPRS service from Vodafone in the UK using the scripts from Ross Barkman [taniwha.org.uk] ever since I got my (Apple/D-Link) Bluetooth adaptor. My only hint is to make jolly sure that the GRPS settings on the phone are correctly set up before you start trying to connect from the computer. An easy way to sort this out if you have an Ericsson is to go to Sony/Ericsson's WAP Configurator [mouse2mobile.com] and they will send the right settings to your phone via SMS.

    One neat thing I've found is that, despite the claims otherwise, you can get Bluetooth and 802.11 to work on the same machine at the same time. You need to have the phone pretty close (a meter or so) to the computer and the 802.11 service is somewhat degraded but the WLAN still works over 20 meters or so. This means that you can share out your GPRS conncetion to other people if you have an airport card in your machine; just go to System Preferences->Sharing, select the Internet tab and tick the box to share with AirPort equiped computers. Handy when two of you want to check your email on the train but you only have one GPRS phone :-)

  • Email on T68i (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    If all you want to do is check email, the T68i can do that by itself. The WAP service also has some "standard" web services you can get to without using the Mac.

    You can also take a look at the user manual at http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?template=SP1_1 7_1&B=ns&PID=9932&FID=1517&LM=SB_V&FileCatID=16&MN =&noredir=1

  • Bluetooth, GSM/GPRS and the Mac (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    You can find a good step by step article at http://www.powerpage.org/story.lasso?newsID=9249

    It is network specific for voicestream (T-mobile) but by just plugging in your network providers info it should work.

    I have a T68i using the t-mobile service and it works great.

  • Don't try this with Cingular (Score:3, Informative)

    by MDMurphy ( 208495 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @06:00PM (#4559342)
    If you're in the US and have Cingular for GSM/GPRS service this probably won't work. Currently Cingular doesn't support GPRS connections to your PC / PDA, only for WAP type things on the phone itself.

    T-Mobile will support it though, and people have found they can get unlimited GPRS from Fido.ca out of Candada. With them you can get unlimited GPRS data service for $50 Canadian ( 30-something in $US )
    • Great, been watching / waiting for them to do this. I've been using Voicestream( T-mobile ) for the last year while Cingular's been dragging their feet with WAP only service up until recently.

      Knowing the term "isp.cingular" was what I needed to find more info.

      Thanks
  • it seems like most of the people posting here are using the d-link or some other usb bluetooth adapter... however, owning a powerbook, i would very much prefer some kind of internal adapter, namely a pcmcia bluetooth interface.
    since [one of] the point[s] of bluetooth is reducing the hassle of physically conneting two devices, it strikes me as rather annoying that i have to connect the usb adapter to the back of my tibook evertime i want to access a phone or pda. it is better than using a cable, but i still have to plug things into things.
    so, does anybody know about pcmcia bluetooth devices which are supported by os x?

    thnx, strangeloop
  • I had a similar problem with my old BatBook (G3 PowerBook). But the problem was solved with a correct modem script + reading the instructions (VERY important).

    http://www.taniwha.org.uk/

    That is a very good site for modem scripts for all phones. Of course I used IrDA, but if your Mac can see the phone via Bluetooth, it should work exactly like with IrDA (only better). Anyway, after installing the proper scripts and reading the help-file of how to use the script, I had no problem with Nokia 6310 or Ericsson T39 to have a good GPRS connection.

    Actually I could use the T39 even without the scripts, once I figured out how to set the GPRS settings into the phone. Something I couldn't do with the Nokia. Then I just dialed (from my Mac ofcourse) *98*2# instead of the phone number. The *98 stands for dial GPRS, and the *2 for which GPRS set to use - the # is just to terminate the string.

    PS. Don't worry about some of the scripts being OS 9, they work with OS X too...
  • ...and a T68i.

    The only trick was getting the APN right in both the phone and Powerbook. It actually worked first try, then somehow the phone lost the settings and it took me three days to get it to work again...

    I wrote my own script while troubleshooting it, but the pintware scripts people are pointing out work great.
  • There's a good walkthrough here: http://www.macuser.co.uk/features/features_story.p hp?id=33763

  • Got it to work (Score:3, Informative)

    by wchin ( 6284 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2002 @12:05PM (#4564791)

    I got it to work with my PowerBook G4 (DVI), D-Link USB Bluetooth adapter (any USB Bluetooth adapter should work), Sony Ericsson T68i, and T-Mobile service.

    It wasn't as straightforward as it should have been - however, it might be a settings/firmware problem with the phone. Apparently T-Mobile presets certain settings in the phone which you as an end user can't change. Phones sold by Amazon recently have a problem with WAP access. I also could not use the built in T-Mobile Internet Access Data Account (using CID=2).

    I ended up calling T-Mobile's Data Support Service at 1-800-256-9991 and they walked me through using CID=5. I did have to modify Ross Barkman's Ericsson GPRS Script to call using CID=5 instead of 3. Here's the mod:

    where it says write "AT+CGDCONT=3", change it to "AT+CGDCONT=5".

    I was doing this with the T-Mobile tech on the other side, so I don't know if he had to fiddle with your T-Mobile account settings. Best to call them if you're having difficulties. Everything else was the same as you could easily find in the recipes that other people have posted.

    I have also helped a client get it to work with AT&T's mMode service - the toughest part is usually getting the right APN, or knowing to use none.

    It was refreshing to be able to contact a service (T-Mobile) and they didn't immediately give up when they learned that you are using a non-Windows platform. AT&T, however, was pretty much "we can't help you since you're not running a supported platform" and even that was narrowly defined.

  • My 2 year old samsung phone has an infra red port which I can use with my x86 Celeron Laptop and Palm Vx. It works great with any ISP, and most phones already have IR and built in modem.

    Can you not get a Infra Red adaptor for your iBook and just use that ?? I have seen several PC versions but nothing for the Mac yet.
    • it is possible to get IRDa recievers for the mac (as in the keyspan digital media remote) but transmitters i am not sure. someone i know uses a phone that uses a serial cable and then a serial to usb adapter to get on the net. there is also a cable from belkin that will turn certain phones into a normal phone jack for which you could use the iBook's internal modem.

  • Tutorial and User Experiences (Score:5, Informative)

    by cloudscout ( 104011 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2002 @09:39PM (#4570084) Homepage
    I have a tutorial [obzorg.org] on my site for setting up the T68i with AT&T Wireless Services for GPRS Internet access on Mac OS X via Bluetooth.

    There are also a number of reader comments [obzorg.org] on their experiences with the technology.

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