Using Your Powerbook to Connect to the Internet
with Your Sony Ericsson Bluetooth Phone
(Browse the Internet and check your email)

For Motorola RAZR V3xx phone click here

March 26 , 2005 by Rich Love What if you could use your Mac Powerbook to check your email and get on the Internet wirelessly? Yea sure, you can drive around looking for wireless hotspots, or pay to use the wireless service at Starbucks. But what if you could connect no matter where you were? That would be great! You could check your email while waiting for your lunch to be served at your favorite restaurant or coffee bar. Well, you can do it by using your Bluetooth phone and a Mac Powerbook with Bluetooth. If your Bluetooth phone is within 30 feet of your Powerbook (or iBook), you can get on the Internet. It is not as fast as high speed wireless (it connects at modem speeds) but it sure is convenient. Bluetooth cell phones are evolving quickly. Within the next year, most Bluetooth phones will connect at ISDN speeds (128K) and much faster. The Sony Ericsson T637 cell phone connects to the internet at approximately 30k speed. If you have a newer phone, the procedure to get it working with your Mac will be similar except that the modem script might be different. You will need: A Powerbook with Mac OS X Bluetooth hardware (built-in or dongle) Sony Ericsson T637 GPRS enabled on your mobile network   You may need: Ross Barkman's Sony Ericsson GPRS modem scripts (available here)

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Pairing your Powerbook with your Bluetooth phone.

First, you need to pair your phone with your Powerbook using Bluetooth Preferences. Make sure that Bluetooth is turned on in your phone and that Bluetooth is "Discoverable".
Select "Set up Bluetooth Device..." from the Bluetooth Menu on your Powerbook. If this menu is not visible, look in your Application Utilities folder for "Bluetooth Setup Assistant". Follow the instructions for pairing your phone.

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Setting up your Network Preferences

Select System Preferences from the Apple Menu and click on the Network icon.

Click to highlight Bluetooth and then click on the Configure button.

 

With the TCP/IP tab selected, choose "Using PPP" from the Configure IPv4 menu.

 

With the PPP tab highlighted, Enter your account information. The above example works for Cingular Wireless. The password is CINGULAR1 . It will work for the Sony T637 and will also work with Cingular's faster EDGE network phones. If you are not on the Cingular Wireless plan, ask your carrier what information to enter here.
On Ross Barkman's web site, there is information about many GPRS networks and what each uses for account names, passwords, telephone numbers, etc...

 

Send PPP echo packets
To prevent your calls from being dropped intermittently,
uncheck the "Send PPP echo packets" option in PPP Options.

With the Bluetooth Modem tab selected, check both boxes:
"Show Bluetooth status in menu bar" and "Show modem status in menu bar"

Choose "Ericsson Infrared V110" from the Modem pop-up menu. This Ericsson Infrared V110 script is included with OS X 10.3. Even though it was designed to work with an infrared connection, it also works with GPRS Bluetooth.

NOTE: If this script does not work for your phone (something other than the T637), try any of the modem selections for your brand of phone that are for Infrared or IR.
You may need to get a modem script from Ross Barkman's site. You should read the instructions with the .sit file, but for the impatient just copy all the files into your Library:Modem Scripts folder.The "Account Name " is what Barkman's page refers to as the User Name. In the Modem pop-up menu, you should be able to find the scripts that you have just installed. Ericsson GPRS CID1 should work fine, but if that doesn't work for you try some of the other Ericsson GPRS scripts.

Now you're done. Just hit "Apply Now" and try out your new connection.

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Making the Connection

Select "Connect" from the Phone Menu at the top of your screen. You are now on the Internet and can check your email or use your browser. You can connect to the Internet anywhere you can use your phone.

A note about email...
You will need to find out what the SMTP address is for your carrier if you want to use Apple's Mail program to send mail. For Cingular, the address is photo.mycingular.com.
SMTP server information is available at Ross Barkmans GPRS page.
Enter the SMTP address into your Mail program (Preferences / Accounts).
You don't need to worry about the SMTP address if you are using Yahoo Mail or Google Mail.

Other Bluetooth Phone Links...

Using Your Mac Powerbook to Connect to the Internet with your Motorola RAZR V3xx Bluetooth Phone

Using Your Blootooth Phone with Mac iSync and Your BMW

Using MacWise and Your Mac Laptop to Dial Into Your Host Computer with a Bluetooth Phone