Think your phone is good for nothing more than making calls and sending text message? Well think again. There's a whole world of capabilities out there that can really kick your "inner geek" up a notch.
Just today, I setup my cellphone to act like a modem for my laptop - no wires required!
I've got the Cingular (now AT&T) 8125. A decent device (crappy phone) but it has all of the 'extras' I need like wireless internet, wifi and bluetooth.
Here's how I accomplished it -
Turn on bluetooth on the 8125 and set it to discoverable mode. Turn on bluetooth on your laptop and pair with the phone. You'll end up with a bluetooth modem available.
Open your network connections and create a new dialup connection using the bluetooth modem.
IMPORTANT: Use phone number *99#
Anything else will cause the call to fail. Type in the username of ISPDA@CINGULARGPRS.COM and CINGULAR1 for the password. If the first username does not work, try WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM which means your phone is using the WAP gateway at AT&T to connect to the Internet.
IMPORTANT: Don't use the Cingular (or AT&T) Communication Manager to setup the connection. It sets the phone number to *99****1# and sets the Advanced Command string to AT+CDG. Both will cause the tethering to fail.
Now, the connection is not blazing fast, but it's way better than being stuck somewhere with no internet connection. Also, you can perform the above procedure with your phone plugged into the laptop via USB which will keep the phone charged while you're off updating your facebook status. This post was uploaded using the tethered connection and it was plenty fast.
Here's the result of my speed test. As you can see, not blazing. But then the 8125 I'm running is on the old GPRS connection, not the newer faster 3G lines.
There you go, happy surfing!
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