Laptop wireless via mobile GPRS over bluetooth
I’ve been using Vodafone Ireland as my mobile operator since my first mobile phone – so probably for the last 7 or 8 years now. I’m tied into a damned contract with them until early Jan 2008. I’ll hopefully be switching to 3 Ireland then because of their groovy mobile phone data plans – 100mb for €6 a month or unlimited for €20.
Now couple the “3 Ireland” data price plan with the Linux + Bluetooth + Mobile + GPRS tutorial below and I’ll be laughing.
1. Turn on bluetooth on your mobile phone (ensure visibility is enabled)
2. Find out your mobile phone mac address is:
sean@viper:~$ hcitool scan
Scanning ...
00:19:2D:43:00:D9 button
3. Find out what channel DUN (dial up networking) is running on your device:
sean@viper:~$ sdptool search DUN
Inquiring ...
Searching for DUN on 00:19:2D:43:00:D9 ...
Service Name: Dial-Up Networking
Service RecHandle: 0x10002
Service Class ID List:
"Dialup Networking" (0x1103)
Protocol Descriptor List:
"L2CAP" (0x0100)
"RFCOMM" (0x0003)
Channel: 2
Language Base Attr List:
code_ISO639: 0x454e
encoding: 0x6a
base_offset: 0x100
Profile Descriptor List:
"Dialup Networking" (0x1103)
Version: 0x0100
4. Establish a connection with your mobile’s DUN. With Ubuntu Feisty this will trigger an automatic pairing of your device if you haven’t already done so. Also this will automagically create a /dev/rfcomm0 device if all goes well.
sean@viper:~$ sudo rfcomm connect 0 00:19:2D:43:00:D9 2
5. Configure wvdial (this is how I do it at the moment – should be trivial to configure Ubuntu’s swish NetworkManager applet to do the same with a similar configuration). I’ve included both Vodafone and 3 Ireland settings below for completeness – both have been tested and work well.
sean@viper:~$ sudo vi /etc/wvdial.conf [Modem0] Modem = /dev/rfcomm0 Baud = 115200 SetVolume = 0 Dial Command = ATDT Init1 = ATZ Init3 = ATM0 FlowControl = CRTSCTS [Dialer vodafone] Username = "vodafone" Password = "vodafone" Phone = *99# Stupid Mode = 1 Init1 = ATZ Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 Init3 = AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","isp.vodafone.ie","",0,0 Inherits = Modem0 [Dialer three] Username = "none" Password = "none" Phone = *99# Stupid Mode = 1 Init1 = ATZ Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 Init3 = AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","3ireland.ie","",0,0 Inherits = Modem0
6. Launch wvdial
sean@viper:~$ wvdial vodafone
7. Ping google.com and shout “I am so wireless right now”
With all of the above in mind – why would one want the USB/PCMCIA GPRS modems these operators offer – which in some cases are more expensive?
June 21st, 2007 at 7:45 pm
The unlimited data plan sounds wonderful – the only one bad thing; the slow GPRS speed can be a real pain, if you ever used broadband before.
Also the speed depends on the weather and can be chaotic; it’s like “Ripwave light” – but, of course, sometimes can save lifes also (especially highly internet addicted people’s life . 
June 21st, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Hehe – It’s not *too* bad. The 3G Vodafone connection is supposed to be 384kbit. I haven’t clocked it while online yet – but it’s definitely close.
I last used it in the Bad Ass cafe Monday night – quickly whipped out the laptop and went online to book cinema tickets… It did save the day
(of course I could have just rang up!)
March 8th, 2008 at 12:10 am
I am not sure what happend in Three network, but it is no longer possible to use mobile phone as a modem. It has been confirmed by many calls to tech support on Three, many e-mails and really many tries to make it work…
I have Nokia N810 and I am trying to make SE W910i on Three network to work as modem. I can really say that it is not possible.
June 29th, 2008 at 8:02 am
3 Ireland now supports using a phone as a modem – 10GB for €20 a month. I just canned my X-Series Silver subscription (€15/month) and added the Mobile Broadband 10GB add-on – now I have data I can actually use!
Just got this working on my Nokia E65 using instructions above – thanks Sean!
I changed the baud to 460800 (why not?) and ADSLGuide reported:
Date 29/06/08 08:36:03
Speed Down 138.44 Kbps ( 0.1 Mbps )
Speed Up 51.92 Kbps ( 0.1 Mbps )
Port 8095
Server speedtest2.adslguide.org.uk
These speeds are usable, but still crappy compared to what an HSDPA connection is capable of. Would be interesting to compare speeds to 3’s USB dongle (which I don’t have).
Now trying to get this working with less CLI, using:
http://litljay.com/howtos/tether/kppp.html
I will probably now retire my Vodafone USB dongle (using the unofficial Vodafone Mobile Connect for Linux) as it’s too slow to startup and generally a bit flaky (was great under windows).