With Bluetooth
finally hailed as a strong
buy, it's surprising how little detailed information
there is on actually using your new Bluetooth-enabled phone with Mac
OS X. When I went searching for instructions on setting up my Sony
Ericsson T68i to allow my Mac to connect to the Internet via
AT&T
Wireless Services GPRS (a.k.a. mMode) service, I
wasn't able to find anything comprehensive. I have
been able to piece together instructions from other sites to form a
working solution, though. This hack offers step-by-step instructions
for getting online via Bluetooth and AT&T mMode.
TIP
This hack assumes you are running Mac OS X 10.2 (aka Jaguar) and have
a Sony Ericsson T68i mobile phone and iSync via Bluetooth [Hack #32]. For the purposes at hand, make sure both Address
Book and Internet Access are checked and click OK.
Figure 1. Choosing services to use with the phone
Now that your phone and Mac are able to talk to each other,
we'll work on treating your phone as a Bluetooth
modem. Click the Bluetooth menu bar icon and select Open Network
Preferences, which will report New Port Detected. Click OK.
From the Location pop-up menu, select New Location . . . , name it
Bluetooth, and click OK. From the Show pop up,
select Network Port Configurations and uncheck all the boxes except
for USB Bluetooth Modem Adapter.
Figure 2. Configuring the Bluetooth location
Now we'll configure the Bluetooth
adapter's network/modem properties. From the Show
pop up, select USB Bluetooth Modem Adaptor. In the TCP/IP tab,
select Using PPP from the Configure pop up. Leave the DNS Servers and
Search Domains fields blank. Click the PPP tab. Type
AT&T GPRS into the Service Provider field and
proxy into Telephone Number, and leave the rest of
the fields alone.
Figure 3. Setting up Bluetooth PPP
Click the Bluetooth Modem tab. From the Modem pop up, select Ericsson
GPRS CID1, and click Apply Now. That's all for
System Preferences; close it using command-Q or System
Preferences → Quit System Preferences.
Ready to connect? From the Bluetooth menu bar icon, select Open
Internet Connect and click Connect. Your phone will display
Connecting and after a few seconds, Internet Connect should show you
as being connected to the Internet. To disconnect, click Disconnect.
