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< Esato Forum Index > Sony Ericsson / Sony > GPRS, WAP, MMS and Email setup > using gprs phone as modem for internet on a computer Bookmark topic

I've just spent the last month or so running my pc's internet through the gprs modem in my phone. It works brilliantly - although using gsm gprs is about as fast as a good dial-up connection. It also costs a lot - in my case 2c per KB - which works out at about $5-6 to view a predominately text based website or check webmail and banking.

But I'm very impressed with the reliability of the connection. Can't wait to get a 3G handset to try those 384Kbps speeds!!

Now I'm back on cable (top end 10Mbits per second), but it was an interesting experience using a phone as a modem for my most important internet needs. Now that I'm back on cable at home, I'll be using the phone and gprs with my laptop for mobile internet where-ever I am.

To use the gprs on your phone is quite simple - you set up a dial-up connection but use the bluetooth connected gprs modem in your phone as the modem for the connection. You do need to know the username and password and phone number of you provider. For example with optus the phone number is *99***1# and the username is your phone number, and the password is blank. Note: if you use a traditional "dialup" phone number it won't work - you need to use the funny number provided by the service provider.

If you don't have a bluetooth dongle for the pc you can use the usb cable itself (which also sets up a gprs modem). But I love the wirelessness of bluetooth personally
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Posted: 2006-05-23 01:36:34
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I've got a big problem!!! I've been doing the same connection with my laptop but I dont have access to secure sites like yahoo or hotmail (or thier messengers). If ried tweeking my internet settings, tried dropping my firewall, to no avail. can the problem be from my Service provider or is there something I've over looked?
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Posted: 2006-05-23 12:51:12
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@Max

Tried that recently too, with K700i and Z600 as modem. Works great.
Data was too expensive though so now back on 3.5 Mbps ADSL.
And I agree, BT rules, cables sux.
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Posted: 2006-05-23 13:02:35
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@abubakar, if you can access such sites on normal dialup or cable, but on the same PC those sites are not accessable, then its very likely to be an issue with your service provider though I personally have never seen a restriction like that

@max_wedge, just a bit of extra info as I've been doing GPRS (and 3G) dialup for years now. The *99***1# is not an optus phone number, its a standard GSM code for dialling a GPRS data account.

Indeed you could quite equally use *99# becaus the parameter 1 is the default and simply specified the first data account defined in the phone (CID=1)

if you had setup 2 data accounts, the first for GPRS/wap and the second for GPRS/internet and you wanted to use the second from your laptop then the dialling string would be *99***2# etc etc

btw, if your phone does not have the data account setup you can actually specify the data account details on your PC in the modem init string settings using the following syntax

+CGDCONT=1,"IP","apn"

where "apn" is the APN of the provider and 1 (after CGDCONT) is the CID or data account number which you then use in your *99***n# dialling string

Indeed this seems to be the only way I can get my V3 and k-jam to dial GPRS successfully whereas I don't need to specifiy that on my K750

I remember having alot of, er, fun with all this in the early days of GPRS!

edit: btw, since 3g is access in the same way as GPRS, the procedure is exactly the same

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[ This Message was edited by: masseur on 2006-05-23 12:38 ]
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Posted: 2006-05-23 13:37:56
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I connected to VF GPRS using *99# and internet via wap using a 9-digit (landline type) number provided by ISP. Wap was rediculously expensive, charged by the minute and sloooooooooow too.

Biggest problem is getting low-tech friends and relatives to grasp the concept of ditching the landline in favour of mobiles. It doesn't work when they're all on PAYG not free-minute plans. Otherwise I'd be landline-free and using 3G mobile connect card right now.
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Posted: 2006-05-23 13:57:07
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I once tried to dial in with gsm, not even gprs, and that worked. Fast enough to get e-mails in & out.
Unfortunatelt it is billed as an regular call, so next to slow it is very expensive. But the idea of having a real 'backup' is nice.
And it was very simple to set up.
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Posted: 2006-05-23 14:05:48
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yeah, GSM dialup is usually at 9.6kbps, though some opeators do support 14.4kbps and it is fast enough to quickly send and receive emails. Depending on the ISP you connect to with normal dialup the call can actually be taken from your free minutes and so cost you nothing.

Its certainly no speed to be trynig to access current graphic intensive web sites though.
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Posted: 2006-05-23 14:25:54
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On Wap connection (GSM Dialup) I got 9.6 from Z600 and 14.4 from K700i.
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Posted: 2006-05-23 14:33:18
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Quote:
On 2006-05-23 13:37:56, masseur wrote:
@max_wedge, just a bit of extra info as I've been doing GPRS (and 3G) dialup for years now. The *99***1# is not an optus phone number, its a standard GSM code for dialling a GPRS data account.

Indeed you could quite equally use *99# becaus the parameter 1 is the default and simply specified the first data account defined in the phone (CID=1)

if you had setup 2 data accounts, the first for GPRS/wap and the second for GPRS/internet and you wanted to use the second from your laptop then the dialling string would be *99***2# etc etc

btw, if your phone does not have the data account setup you can actually specify the data account details on your PC in the modem init string settings using the following syntax

+CGDCONT=1,"IP","apn"

where "apn" is the APN of the provider and 1 (after CGDCONT) is the CID or data account number which you then use in your *99***n# dialling string

[ This Message was edited by: masseur on 2006-05-23 12:38 ]


Thanks for that clarification - very useful info. I remember now using the same number with vodafone in the past. Happily, the automatic driver installation of both cable and bluetooth works a treat and if one's phone has a viable internet connection it's all sweet.

init strings are a powerful way to take control of the phone's capabilites though (from the pc perspective). I'd like to play around with that a bit.
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Posted: 2006-05-23 16:56:43
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@masseur: its real funny. I can access yahoo and hotmail from my phone's browser but not when linked to my laptop. thanks anyhow.
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Posted: 2006-05-26 01:00:40
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