Internet Connection Sharing

[Ed Hansberry]

<p>I am sitting at the airport and decided to plug my TyTN II in&nbsp;to guarantee that 100% charge before I board so I can watch movies on the flight and then I think of all of those emails in my outbox in Outlook 2007 on my laptop. I don't have a WiFi account here and can't justify $8 to send them now as opposed to 1am when i get home, but then I remember the &quot;Internet Connection Sharing&quot; icon in WM6 on my TyTN II. I have never played with it before and thought now would be as good of a time as any.</p><br /><p>I started the connection on the device, it told me to go to my PC and connect to the bluetooth PAN. I opened Vista's network settings, clicked on &quot;create a new connection&quot; then scrolled down to the PAN setting. Clicked it and within 10 seconds I was online. I was absolutely floored it was that easy, and those that know me know that I hate bluetooth. I've never had a bluetooth connection work so flawlessly.</p><br /><p>So, my EDGE connection was surprisingly fast, my emails are sent, and this post got posted all on that little connection. If you have it on your device, do you use it often, or ever?</p>

[JonnoB]

Whoah... is that Ed spouting that Bluetooth actually is working?

Yes, I have used BT PAN and ICS. It does work well and for those like me with a TyTN II on T-Mobile, find that EDGE is pretty fast for basic internet usage such as email and web browsing. I remember about a decade ago entering the world of broadband with an IDSL connection (DSL over ISDN) and EDGE is certainly faster than that.

Speaking of connectivity in an airport. I once used a Pocket PC (HP Jornada) that was tethered to a Nextel phone for internet access on the way back from a few events during the 2002 winter olympics and got about 9k speed. It was fast enough to send email.

[jgrnt1]

I have a TyTN (AT&T 8525). I rarely use the BT connection, since I keep my BT earpiece connected when I'm out of town at hotels and the like, but whether it's with BT or a USB cable, I find ICS to be great. Before ICS, the Cingular Connection Manager was hit or miss. I justified the unlimited data plan to my company by showing them the hotel connection charges I save. Most of the places I visit are in 3G areas, so I can surf at will when I'm out of town.

One advantage of tethering with a cable is that you can charge your phone while tethered.

[Rocco Augusto]

You know, I have thought about using it several times - not surprisingly it was always in an airport waiting for departure - and each time I have always thought it would be more trouble than it was worth. Back when I had my Cingular 2125, setting up ICS on it with Windows XP was always such a pain for some reason and I just assumed it would be be just as painful in Vista.

I guess this is what I get for assuming, huh? :)

Thanks for the tip Ed and have a safe flight!

[freddiemac]

Having migrated from a Samsung i730 and Verizon to an ATT Tilt (aka Kaiser aka TyTN II), I am floored and tickled each time I use Internet Sharing Connect via bluetooth. It makes a pseudo-WIFI connection possible almost anywhere. I use it a lot and most often, like you, for a quick send or download of email, or to do something briefly on the web that is easier on the computer than on the device itself.

[davea0288]

First the hardware: T-Mobile Edge system in USA Alabama working with my SDA(upgraded to WM6)
I tried ICS via a USB Cable and used "www.DSLreports.com/mspeed" and got an average of 57 Kbits per second connected to my Dell Windows XP laptop. Using the SDA and it's internal IE browser I averaged 64 Kbits per second. This is compared to an average of 45 Kbits/sec at the same location and speed test with a Sony Ericsson GC79 (no EDGE service just GPRS). There was very wide variation on these trials so averages were used. For instance I had a high of 85 and a low of 46 Kbits/sec. when the average above was 57 Kbits/sec for the USB ICS connection to my laptop.

[SteveHoward999]

I've used various forms of ICN for years - not just for my laptop but for my PDA too. What a lifesaver.

It blew me away when I first hooked up my Nokia phone to my Toshiba PDA with infra-red while riding a train between London and Preston, England so I could check email, catch up with news etc. Talk about 'high speed internet' :-)

[Jawis]

Yep! I was also amazed how easy it was to hook up internet sharing with BT and HSDPA. I did not notice any slowdown in speed either. I felt like I was using a broadband connection. If only I could charge over BT as well :)

[heliod]

I also use this very much when outside.

Most amazing use was when I was in a trip to a customer, on a motorcycle, through one of the Israeli farming areas in the north of the country, and another customer, from Tel Aviv, called me with an emergency that needed me to connect to his server and act.

I stopped the bike at the side of the road, took my UMPC, connected via ICS with Bluetooth to my Samsung Blackjack (actually the European i600, wich is called Blackjack here), and in a question of seconds I had Remote Desktop with the customer's server. I was myself amazed by the slow time to get it going. Here we have UMTS and HSDPA, so the connection speed was amazingly fast, just like in a broadband connection.

Helio

[Arne Hess]

<p>I was absolutely floored it was that easy, and those that know me know that I hate bluetooth. I've never had a bluetooth connection work so flawlessly.</p>
Ed, is it you or has someone taken oven your account? Don't tell me you and Bluetooth are becoming friends after years? ;)
No, seriously - WM ICS is great. While I still think Dial-up Networking is the better option for power-user, ICS is a great little utility which does what it is designed for. I've used it since I got my first WM6 device (even if I switched back to a PC card lately for some reasons). But it's good to know that it allows you to go online wherever you are.

[Ed Hansberry]

Ed, is it you or has someone taken oven your account? Don't tell me you and Bluetooth are becoming friends after years? ;)
HA! Not quite. I still have to restart the BT service on my device or try up to 3 times to connect to my laptop for a basic BT WMDC session. I've even had to soft reset the device to get it to take and restart the BT service on my laptop. So far, have never had to reboot the laptop, but the year is still young....

[rlobrecht]

I've used it a few times over USB, but I haven't been able to get it to work over bluetooth. Lately I've been using WMWiFiRouter, because I picked up a MacBook for my primary personal laptop.

BTW, I have an AT&T 8525 with the official WM6 rom.

update: I had a reason to fire up my connection, so thought I would grab a speed test. Its running pretty slow today, but then again, I am on the 21st floor of an office building (which isn't the best place for a GSM signal.) Here are the speedtest.net results
http://www.speedtest.net/result/251673421.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

I've seen download speeds of over 1000 using this same setup.

[ddwire]

Been doing this for years wirh Sprint. Started with the Motorla Timeport in late 2000 cabled to the serial port with the wireless web at 14.4 speed. Then when they launched vision services I used a usb cable from a Sanyo 4900 at speeds faster than edge.
Then on to the Hitachi G1000. First BT was with my PPC6601 in 2004. Now i connect via BT to my Treo 700wx.

[SteveHoward999]

Ahhh - geeks. Aren't we precious? :-D

[kathleen]

I've been using Internet Sharing -- Tethering -- forever.

Both USB and Bluetooth PAN (with an Nokia internet tablet).

At dog shows, air ports, even in my classroom when the internet down.

It rocks. Especially at 3g.

[MitchellO]

I used BT PAN to connect my laptop through my BlackJack last year, and I am back to using it with my new BlackJack II. I get decent speeds, but they are less than half what I get using my SIM in my datacard.

http://www.geardiary.com/2007/05/14/bluetooth-pan-tethering-was-never-so-easy/

http://www.speedtest.net/result/252342694.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Does mean I can still receive calls whilst online though ;)

[jadesse]

No luck with BT Pan. WMWifi Router works great!