Categories
Archive

Cingular GPRS Settings

I Live in Southern California (LA Area) and wanted to use my new Bluetooth phone (T68i) as a modem for my new 12″ PowerBook. I looked for any information I could find on the topic and found that there were plenty of sites that had info regarding setting up your T68i for use as a modem but none that had specific info pertaining to Cingular. To give credit where it is due I used these sites as a springboard to my trial and error approach to setting up my T68i as a modem, both through dial-up (CSD over GSM or TDMA) and GPRS in OS 10.2.4.


I Live in Southern California (LA Area) and wanted to use my new Bluetooth phone (T68i) as a modem for my new 12″ PowerBook. I looked for any information I could find on the topic and found that there were plenty of sites that had info regarding setting up your T68i for use as a modem but none that had specific info pertaining to Cingular. To give credit where it is due I used these sites as a springboard to my trial and error approach to setting up my T68i as a modem, both through dial-up (CSD over GSM or TDMA) and GPRS in OS 10.2.4.

First things first, I am assuming that you have a Cingular T68i that has all of the factory settings in place, If you bought an unlocked T68i and don’t have the Cingular factory settings, I’m not sure how much of this will work. You may want to check the message boards at http://www.esato.com for information on getting the factory settings into your phone.

Begin by paring up your phone and your computer over the Bluetooth connection.

1. Turn on your phone and turn on Bluetooth and make it discoverable by other devices.

Connect>>Bluetooth>>Options>>Operation Mode>>On
Connect>>Bluetooth>>Discoverable>>Yes
You will see the message: Phone Discoverable for 3 Minutes.

2. Open System Preferences and select Bluetooth.

3. Select the Devices tab and click Pair New Device.

 WIDTH=

4. Show all devices in all categories and select the T68i then click on Pair.

 WIDTH=

5. You will be prompted to enter a passkey be sure to use only numbers as that will be all you can enter on the phone. Then click OK (I used 0000, 4 zeros).

 WIDTH=

6. Enter the passkey in the handset and then select choice #2 pair with computername

7. On your computer select the services that you would like to use with your phone (I checked all of them) then click OK.

 WIDTH=

8. Your phone is now paired with your computer and should show up in the list of paired devices in Bluetooth System Preferences.

 WIDTH=

For the dial up approach:

This way of connecting requires a dial-up ISP such as Earthlink, AOL, or any of the many others out there. You will also need to have Wireless Internet activated on your Cingular account. This method is preferred by some because you are billed from your plan minutes and not by the KB or MB transferred.  The connection is slow and steady at 9600kb/s.

Here are the settings that I used in the Network Preferences for PPP:

 WIDTH=

Here are the PPP Options that I am using for Dial-up:

 WIDTH=

Notice I am using the Ericsson Infrared Modem script for Dial-up.

 WIDTH=

Select connect from the Modem icon in the control bar.

 WIDTH=
 WIDTH=

You can verify connection status in Internet Connect.

 WIDTH=

OK for GPRS things got a bit more difficult but after trying several combinations, I found a winner.  This method of connecting does not use your plan minutes but rather falls under the WAP portion of your contract which is billed by the KB or MB.

Thanks go out to Ross Barkman who has compiled a number of modem scripts including scripts for Ericsson GPRS phones. Download them from http://www.taniwha.org.uk/ download, unstuff then install the scripts in: HD/Library/Modem Scripts folder. Then restart your machine.

Do a Google search for: “Cingular Device Software Settings v1.1.071702.pdf” and download the document, it has invaluable information that will prove helpful in knowing which settings to use with different configurations.

From that document I found the following:

 WIDTH=

Which translates to the following Network Preferences:

 WIDTH=

Notice that the number is ISP.CINGULAR this is actually the APN and is not the number dialed, the Modem Script handles the dialing of *99# as stated in the Cingular Device Software Settings document and uses the Telephone Number field for input of the APN.

I used the following PPP Options:

 WIDTH=

Notice that for a GPRS connection I am using the Ericsson GPRS CID2 Modem Script.

 WIDTH=

This Modem Script dials the *99# needed to connect to the GPRS network as stated in the Cingular Device Software Settings document and uses the Telephone Number Field for input of the APN since there is no field for the APN.

Once these settings are in simply connect the same way as with dial-up.

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.