Using smartphone as bluetooth modem for PPC

[PR.]

Arghh :evil:

Wasted hours trying to get this to work!

I paired the PPC (HP4705 WM2003SE) and C500 smartphone (running WM2003SE) establish the services then adjust the dialup information to *99# and then click connect... and nothing happens! The PPC times out and the Smartphone shows no signs of any activity whats so ever.

I can't even seem to get it to work with my TabletPCs bluetooth, via ActiveSync or Dialup networking both just time out again with the Smartphone showing absolutely no activity.

Help!

Thanks

[Jason Dunn]

Hmm - I got this working ok, though it's not exactly "simple".

First, have you bonded them? You need to put the C500 into Bluetooth discoverable mode. Then search for and bond with the C500 from your Pocket PC - you'll need to enter the passkey, blah blah. Then go into connection manager and create a new Bluetooth modem connection, and use the #99* or whatever it needs to be (this is often different depending on the device and the phone). And that SHOULD be it...did you miss any of those steps?

[Menneisyys]

Hmm - I got this working ok, though it's not exactly "simple".

First, have you bonded them? You need to put the C500 into Bluetooth discoverable mode. Then search for and bond with the C500 from your Pocket PC - you'll need to enter the passkey, blah blah. Then go into connection manager and create a new Bluetooth modem connection, and use the #99* or whatever it needs to be (this is often different depending on the device and the phone). And that SHOULD be it...did you miss any of those steps?

Or, alternatively, when you Explore (BT Manager / New / Explore a Bluetoth Device) the services of the C500, choose Dial-up Networking (DUN) and press Finish. After this, tap the newly created C500 DUN icon, choose Connect, and click (the then only available) New Conection... Now, you can fill in the most important fields - *99# (NOT #99*!) will do for the number.

Also make sure that the C500 has the default data account setting, and its APN contains the GPRS internet APN name of your particular GSM provider. If there're several (e.g., pre-defined, GPRS WAP, GPRS MMS etc.) data accounts, you can use the dial string *99***<data account number># to choose the right one.

I've also written about all this (and a lot more) a looooooooooong article ( http://menneisyys.freeweb.hu/gprs ), but it's, unfortunately, not English.

[PR.]

How do I know what the CID number is?

I've done a full reset of the phone and set it up again and it still has the same problem on both my PPC and TabletPC

With *99# it does nothing
With ATDT*99# the data connection symbol changes on the phone then goes back and the connection says the server did not respond
With *99***1# it does nothing.

Great to see the tight integration between these three MS products :roll:

[Jason Dunn]

Great to see the tight integration between these three MS products :roll:

I'm not sure, but I think this is controlled by the carrier, not MS. Call your carrier and be vague, tell them you just need to know the code required to get your phone to talk to your laptop or something. Or, if these devices are really supported by your carrier, call and ask for tech support.

Oh, in the Pocket PC dialing string patterns, have you taken out everything except the "G"? And I think there's a setting you need to change in the connection manager saying that it should not wait for a dial tone.

[Menneisyys]

How do I know what the CID number is?

I've done a full reset of the phone and set it up again and it still has the same problem on both my PPC and TabletPC

With *99# it does nothing
With ATDT*99# the data connection symbol changes on the phone then goes back and the connection says the server did not respond
With *99***1# it does nothing.

Great to see the tight integration between these three MS products :roll:

Well, first, check out what data accounts are created on the smartphone. I don't know where it's accessible, but must be at a pretty logical place, as with almost all brands of GPRS-capable phones.

The data account manager will also have a menu, or, at least, an entry called "CID".

BTW, it can't cause harm if you play around with the (virtual) dial-in number, by increasing the CID it refers to and testing whether the actual CID results in a connection establishment: *99***1# , *99***2# , *99***10# etc.

[Menneisyys]

With ATDT*99# the data connection symbol changes on the phone then goes back and the connection says the server did not respond

Any phone number you supply to the PPC is automatically prefixed by ATDT so you shoulnd't enter it explicitly.

The * numbers are virtual (not real) numbers so they are not prefixed; this one, for example, just tell the (smart)phone to build up a GPRS connection.

[Jason Dunn]

Wait, dumb question, but do you have a fully working GPRS connection on the phone right now? i.e.: you can get your email, access the Web, etc? Because you keep talking about the phone, but I thought we were talking about configuring your Pocket PC...

[Menneisyys]

And I think there's a setting you need to change in the connection manager saying that it should not wait for a dial tone.

Under all WinCE versions it's unchecked by default, so it needn't be explicitly unchecked.

[Menneisyys]

Great to see the tight integration between these three MS products :roll:

Actually, no more should be expected. Neither Palms nor Mac's are better 'integrated' with cell phones. Unfortunately, configuring GPRS connections is not the easiest task and it requires a some knowledge of how the data accounts (in the mobile / smartphone) are created / administered and how the actual GPRS-compliant virtual number can be sent from the client (a PPC now).

BTW, if you don't want to fuss around with the built-in data accounts in the modem (the smartphone), you can avoid configuring them altogether by hand if you supply the so-called "init string" to the PPC, so that it's the PPC that sets the APN in the modem, and not you. This also makes sure you use the same data account at both configuring the APN and dialing, so you don't even have to look up the correct CID of the data account you've (or the GSM provider) set. You can do this in the Advanced... section of the PPC Connectivity menu, when you edit a particular connection. Enter the following in the "Extra dial-string modem commands" field on the first, General page of the Advaced... menu:

+CGDCONT=1,"IP","<APN name>"

and use

*99***1#

as the dial-in number.

(Incidentally, if it works, you can also give a try to +CGDCONT=1,"IP","<APN name>","",1,1 too because it also switches on V.42bis data compression, resulting in a slightly - about 40% - faster (textual) data transmission)

[Jason Dunn]

BTW, if you don't want to fuss around with the built-in data accounts in the modem (the smartphone), you can avoid configuring them altogether by hand if you supply the so-called "init string" to the PPC, so that it's the PPC that sets the APN in the modem, and not you.

I thought that's what he WAS doing. 8O The Smartphone has all the GPRS data strings, the Pocket PC should just have a Bluetooth connection and the basic init string to kick off the modem...

[Menneisyys]

BTW, if you don't want to fuss around with the built-in data accounts in the modem (the smartphone), you can avoid configuring them altogether by hand if you supply the so-called "init string" to the PPC, so that it's the PPC that sets the APN in the modem, and not you.

I thought that's what he WAS doing. 8O The Smartphone has all the GPRS data strings, the Pocket PC should just have a Bluetooth connection and the basic init string to kick off the modem...

Yeah, it it WAS pre-configured. It all depends on whether he has bought it from a GSM provider who did pre-configure the smartphone. Which configuration, IMHO, is destroyed after a hard reset (if it's a RAM-based solution). I think it's far easier for GSM providers to modify/set up phones (e.g., the t610) to keep pre-configured data accounts untouched during hard resets than MS Smartphones, but I may be wrong.

[PR.]

How do I know what the CID number is?

I've done a full reset of the phone and set it up again and it still has the same problem on both my PPC and TabletPC

With *99# it does nothing
With ATDT*99# the data connection symbol changes on the phone then goes back and the connection says the server did not respond
With *99***1# it does nothing.

Great to see the tight integration between these three MS products :roll:

Well, first, check out what data accounts are created on the smartphone. I don't know where it's accessible, but must be at a pretty logical place, as with almost all brands of GPRS-capable phones.

The data account manager will also have a menu, or, at least, an entry called "CID".

BTW, it can't cause harm if you play around with the (virtual) dial-in number, by increasing the CID it refers to and testing whether the actual CID results in a connection establishment: *99***1# , *99***2# , *99***10# etc.

In the smart-phone the only settings that show are the 3 connections:

Orange GPRS
Orange MMS
Orange WAP

Under Orange GPRS is the settings for the GPRS connection, but no information about the CID number just the APN address

I have tried several codes in the PPC and all end is the same, the Smatphone shows no sign that it is hearing the PPC

[Menneisyys]

Oh, in the Pocket PC dialing string patterns, have you taken out everything except the "G"?

That's, fortunately, not needed in WM2003+ PPC's because, by default, they don't use dialing rules at all, unlike previous WinCE versions.

[Menneisyys]

In the smart-phone the only settings that show are the 3 connections:

Orange GPRS
Orange MMS
Orange WAP

Under Orange GPRS is the settings for the GPRS connection, but no information about the CID number just the APN address

I have tried several codes in the PPC and all end is the same, the Smatphone shows no sign that it is hearing the PPC

OIC. Did you try to explicitly pass the APN name to the phone in order to avoid guessing CID's, as I suggested in the 9:25 am message ?

And, yes, as Jason asked, are you ABSOLUTELY sure that you've ordered and paid for true GPRS (and not just GPRS WAP?) and it has been activated? It even takes some days for some GSM firms to activate GPRS subscriptions...

[carphead]

For the orange network (uk)...

Dial number *99#
Extra dial string (case sensitive) +cgdcont=1,"IP","orangeinternet","",0,0

[PR.]

For the orange network (uk)...

Dial number *99#
Extra dial string (case sensitive) +cgdcont=1,"IP","orangeinternet","",0,0

Ragh! I don't know what the two zeros at the end meant but it is now working great!

Both my tablet PC and my PPC accepted those settings first time

Thanks to you all for your help!

Have a nice Christmas everyone :)

[Menneisyys]

Ragh! I don't know what the two zeros at the end meant but it is now working great!


Try to change the two 0's to 1's. They switch on V.42bis, which considerably (max. 40%) speed up trasmission of (run-length) compressable stuff, e.g. texts. If they doesn't work, you can imply switch back to 0's.

[carphead]

PR,

No problems. Enjoy the phone. I love mine.

Regards,
Daniel