PB/ibook connection with BT cell phone?

5r'driver · Jun 19, 2004

I just bought a Nokia 3650 cell phone with BT. I bought it with the anticipation of going wireless when I purchase the PB or ibook. The sales person at the TMobile store told me I do not need to install any software on my compter to set this up.

A friend of mine just bought a Motorola with BT and it came with software for his PC.

Calls to Nokia and TMobile have not been helpful because they just get freaked out when I mention MacIntosh and go from person to person, never really getting an answer.

Does anyone on this board us BT phone with TMoile service? Will you tell me how you connect without software?

jsw · Jun 19, 2004

It's been a while, so some of these steps might not be exact, but my 3650 is hooked up to my dual-2 G5, and I don't remember it being difficult. Something like:

* Open System Preferences->Bluetooth

* Make sure BT is on for your Mac (in 'Settings' tab)

* Click on 'Devices' tab

* Make sure 3650 BT is on (on your phone: Menu->Connectivity->Bluetooth->On)

* Click on 'Pair New Device' in the Mac BT panel

* Select on your phone - should be visible - from the list of BT devices

* Enter a PIN code ('1234' works just fine - it's temporary)

* Your phone will prompt you to enter that code

You're done.

Macs make it easy....

<Edit>Just tried it - these steps worked on my G5 and should work on your Mac, whatever it might be!</Edit>

5r'driver · Jun 19, 2004

Thank you very much! I knew Apple would not let me down. My PC friend said he can't believe it's that easy!

jsw · Jun 19, 2004

Gotta love Macs....

Plus, on the road, I use a Bluetooth dongle on my old G3 PB to connect to my 3650 and use it as a modem. Most excellent! I can get connected virtually anywhere - my favorite so far was while hiking in the Grand Canyon. No WiFi there, but I was online!

bmelon · Jun 19, 2004

what about deactivated BT phones

Does anyone know whether a deactivated BT phone would work as a BT remote (to control DVD player, itunes, etc)? Or does one need to have an active service plan in order to make the BT function? I was thinking of getting a BT phone on craigslist as a cheap remote control solution...

mkrishnan · Jun 19, 2004

5r'driver said:
Thank you very much! I knew Apple would not let me down. My PC friend said he can't believe it's that easy!

5r', are you just trying to sync your 3650 or are you trying to use it as GPRS modem to connect to the internet on your Apple via the cell phone? The instructions jsw gave are enough to do the former but, to my knowledge, not the latter. I have this phone (and T-Mobile) too but I've never really tried to get a GPRS connection set up. I'd appreciate a walkthrough too if anyone has this working. I know there are a number of people here who mentioned having such a setup working with T-Mobile, although I'm not sure if they're using this phone or not....

Finiksa · Jun 19, 2004

bmelon said:
Does anyone know whether a deactivated BT phone would work as a BT remote (to control DVD player, itunes, etc)?

It probably varies depending on the brand of phone. Some phones may only display an error message when switched on with out a SIM card installed, and not allow you to progress to the menu options etc. However with a dead SIM card installed I think it should work fine.

Yet it would vary depending on the brand and model of phone, Check it out before you decide to purchase. Also make sure the phone you get is network unlocked or you may have more troubles.

mkrishnan · Jun 20, 2004

bmelon said:
Does anyone know whether a deactivated BT phone would work as a BT remote (to control DVD player, itunes, etc)? Or does one need to have an active service plan in order to make the BT function? I was thinking of getting a BT phone on craigslist as a cheap remote control solution...

My T-Mobile Nokia 3650 boots to an error screen (Please insert SIM card) with no SIM card -- the only things you can do at the error screen are enter a code (not a listed option but it seems to accept certain keypress combinations and list them) or turn it off again. So unless you have some secrets to unlock it, for this specific phone, no.

jsw · Jun 20, 2004

mkrishnan said:
5r', are you just trying to sync your 3650 or are you trying to use it as GPRS modem to connect to the internet on your Apple via the cell phone? The instructions jsw gave are enough to do the former but, to my knowledge, not the latter. I have this phone (and T-Mobile) too but I've never really tried to get a GPRS connection set up. I'd appreciate a walkthrough too if anyone has this working. I know there are a number of people here who mentioned having such a setup working with T-Mobile, although I'm not sure if they're using this phone or not....

My bad. Of course, re-reading the post, it's obvious 5r'driver wants wireless GPRS connectivity. Duh.

I was able to get it to work using my 3650 and with just plain low-level GPRS service from T-Mobile (a tzones package) - no real internet-level GPRS package, so it was slow and spotty. It worked well enough for me, however.

In any event, getting it to work was a definite "road to enlightenment" in that it took far longer than I would have expected. In essence, I had to download one script and set up a couple of parameters. Had I known exactly what to do, it would have taken two minutes.

My PB is at a friend's house until tomorrow, and I need it to retrace my steps and verify that it all still works. Assuming a continued interest, I'll post the answer tomorrow.

Note that this will be the answer to using it with a Nokia 3650 accessing T-Mobile here in the States. However, the general steps might be useful to others.

mkrishnan · Jun 20, 2004

jsw said:
My bad. Of course, re-reading the post, it's obvious 5r'driver wants wireless GPRS connectivity. Duh.

My ears perked up when I saw in another thread that you had this working.

Actually I went back to one of the web pages I'd seen for how to do this and tried it again, and I was able to get it working too. I haven't tried any of the tricks that are supposed to bump your speed yet. So this gets billed as T-Zones use, right, just as if you were using WAP on your cell?

The guide I found was *not* written for Panther, or at least the menus don't match 10.3.4, so I think that was the reason I shied away from it earlier.

Anyway, just for comparison, this guide is here:

http://www.mobilewhack.com/handset/nokia/series60/nokia3650/osx_3650_bluetooth_gprs.html

And the link for the GPRS script is wrong; it should be:

http://www.taniwha.org.uk/files/NokiaGPRS2004-05.sit

JSW, if you wouldn't mind looking at how you did it to see if its the same, I'd much appreciate.

Anyway, I was able to log in though, Mail successfully checked all my mail accounts, Adium could acquire a connection, and I was able to (albeit slowly) load a web page.

jsw · Jun 25, 2004

mkrishnan said:
My ears perked up when I saw in another thread that you had this working.
....
Anyway, just for comparison, this guide is here:

http://www.mobilewhack.com/handset/nokia/series60/nokia3650/osx_3650_bluetooth_gprs.html

And the link for the GPRS script is wrong; it should be:

http://www.taniwha.org.uk/files/NokiaGPRS2004-05.sit

....

My apologies for taking so long to reply - the laptop was out on loan longer than expected. However, I've got it back now, and am using it - and Bluetooth, and my 3650 - to send this post.

mkrishnan, you've got it exactly right. That's the URL I used, and I appreciate the newer scripts - I didn't know of them. I got the older ones to work, and I'm not too sure of the differences in the new ones, but I'm using the new ones now (downloaded them when connected with the older ones). I use the "Nokia GPRS CID1" script typically, and I honestly haven't seen a big difference between any of the Nokia GPRS scripts in practice (but I haven't scrutinized them). I'd appreciate any tips as to which ones work best.

My experience is that connection speeds usually hover around 18-23kbps or so, which is fine with me for now. EDGE and other newer technologies will boost that significantly, but I'm happy with this for now. It's still new enough and cool enough for me.

What isn't cool is the random connection times. Sometimes, I stay connected for over a half hour. Sometimes, it's 2 minutes. Sometimes less. I assume it's T-Mobile's fault, since the script, the hardware, etc. stay the same on my end.

However, it doesn't count as usage on my bill (I have a t-zones pro $10/month package with SMS and internet access), and I've used it all across the country (well, specifically, Boston area, central Illinois, Arizona, and, where I am now for the weekend, central New York state). It's nice that I don't tie up a phone line when I visit relatives and friends without broadband (backward barbarians that they are

).

jsw · Jun 25, 2004

FYI, my current session has been open for 32 minutes (so far) and, when I checked my bandwidth, I was above 27kbps - and I checked twice a few minutes apart. This isn't typical for me, but it does show that you can connect wirelessly at about the same speed as many dialup users.

Pretty cool for an added feature that I didn't even realize I had when I got my phone and service plan (I knew about BT, just had no idea I could do data connections with it and my Mac on that particular service plan).

PS. My connection dropped while writing this. Still, 32+ minutes at 27+kbps... I'm happy. Best of luck to all the others trying this!

mkrishnan · Jun 25, 2004

Thanks! I get that too, where it sometimes drops connections randomly. And I haven't speed-tested it but it seems reasonably close to dialup. Should do that tomorrow.

As for the charging, its confusing...I had the $10 T-zones pro, and then I downgraded to T-zones for $3. Now neither are advertised on their website. When I called though, the CSR said I had unlimited data volume on the $3 plan, although if I change my minutes plan, I would have to reset to what's available now which is $5. All very confusing. But I thought I got a letter from them at some point saying that the $3 plan was basically upgraded to all the features of the $10 plan....

Anyway, for what it costs its pretty good.

jsw · Jun 26, 2004

Wow - that's great that you get it for $3/month! I use the $10 plan extensively (big SMS fan, send pics a lot, etc.), but $3 is a great deal for internet connectivity!

I've used it off and on for months (when out of the house and not within range of any free WiFi) and haven't seen any additional billing. And I usually check my bill online frequently if I've been surfing just to make sure they haven't changed their policy without notifying me (not that they'd ever do that, of course.

And one other thing - it sucks down the phone's battery! Not worse than talking, but it's easy to be surfing/mailing/etc. and lose track of time (esp. when connecting every three minutes when it gets bad). Something for those who are just starting to use it to keep in mind. It's not that data transfer takes a lot of power, it's simply that it's easy (for me) to forget that the phone is actually maintaining an over-the-air GPRS connection, and that takes power (as does the computation involved in the BT connection, esp. if you've got encryption enabled).

As far as mail goes, I haven't been able to get Mail set up to send (since T-Mobile isn't my ISP, Mail doesn't want to send mail), but web access to my ISP works for that. And receiving mail works fine.

Does anyone have a favored script to use? They all seem about the same to me, in terms of throughput and connection reliablity/durability.

5r'driver · Jun 27, 2004

Thanks for all the good information. So much to think about. I plan to buy my ibook next week, or should I say order it. I plan on have blue tooth and aiport extreme built in. Adding more ram and uping the hard drive.

I am still a little fuzzy on airport but I guess I'll get things figured out when I have my new book and am ready to get things up and running.

Problem is I won't have the forum to come to while I'm trying to do that.

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PB/ibook connection with BT cell phone?

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