[Terri]

I've got a 17" Powerbook coming in the next week and I've thought of getting a Bluetooth enabled phone for use as a modem for when there are no T-mobile hot spots around, but I'm not sure which models I can get working without too much trouble.

Anyone have any advice?

[gorickey]

Off-topic (sorta)...but I cannot wait for Sprint to finally release their Bluetooth-enabled phone this month...I just hope the price is not ridiculous.

[gralem]

I don't think you need a bluetooth modem. I think what you want is a GSM/GPRS-enabled bluetooth phone. Basically, if the phone has internet service *AND* it has bluetooth, you're OK.

I've found that pretty much ANY phone with bluetooth will have the internet service as well. Then you do not MODEM-IN to a dial-up service, you SHARE the phone's internet service with your computer, effectively.

PLEASE NOTE: CHECK ON PRICES. Sharing the internet connection means that you have to pay what is often exhorbitant fees to cell-phone service provider for internet access. About 1 year ago I looked at going wireless just for email and slight surfing and it would have cost $80-$100 (US) / month. Fees with my service provider have dropped recently, but I'm not interested in 100% cell access until speeds are greater than 40kbps (give me at least 160k).

I do use it regularly when I absolutely have to connect to work. And I love it. I would recommend using a phone that syncs with iSync as well.

Check out this location: http://www.taniwha.org.uk/ for more info on specific phones.

I've never actually been able to use my cell phone (t68i) as either a true modem or fax, although it supposedly supports that stuff. Anyone have details on actually using it as a modem, if you wanted?

---gralem

[Terri]

Well the best that I can tell if you subscribe to the T-Mobile hot spot service, $29.95 a month, and also get your cell phone from T-mobile, about $39.95 a month, then you can use your T-mobile phone as a modem for when you are not around a hot spot if you get the correct phone. It is only going to be 56k, but that is better then no internet.

Also I think you get a price break if you get both the hot spot service and cell service from T-mobile.

Apple's page is of no help, just telling you about iSync, but not about using a phone as a modem.

Of course T-Mobile is of no help if you aren't using a PeeCee. From reading around it looks like the Sony Ericsson T610 will work, but they are out of stock on that one and anyway I would like to know what my options are.

Hopefully this thread is not too off topic, but after all it is about using Mac OS X.

Here are the phones that T-mobile offers,
http://www.t-mobile.com/products/def...one&nav=hm

[geekwagon]

I have personally used the T68i and the Nokia 3650 and they both worked with no problems. I am on T-Mobile.

[Terri]

Originally posted by geekwagon:
I am on T-Mobile.

Are you happy with the T-mobile service?

I just got back from the T-mobile store, I believe the sales help there just graduated from making french fries to go.

[geekwagon]

Originally posted by Terri:
Are you happy with the T-mobile service?

I just got back from the T-mobile store, I believe the sales help there just graduated from making french fries to go.

I haven't travelled with it yet, but here in the Portland OR area the service is pretty good. Much better than AT&Ts GSM network (which sucks pretty bad around here.)

None of the GSM/GPRS providers have anywhere near the coverage of say AT&Ts TDMA or even Sprint's CDMA networks though. But, as for GSM in the US, Tmo has by far the best coverage. They were the first GSM provider in the US (I first signed up with them in ~95 or so.. they started up about the same time as SprintPCS) and they have coverage in a lot of weird, out of the way areas. For example, they advertise that they are the only digital service available in the whole state of Montana.

As for the speed it is just OK. I get probably 2-3k per second (similar to dialup) but the latency is quite a bit higher than a land line. That makes surfing around a bit slow. AT&T wasn't any better though, and with AT&T you can count on your connection dropping every 5 minutes. I have been online for 2-3 hours straight on my TMo GPRS setup without a dropped connection.

The CDMA (Sprint PCS, Verizon, etc) guys are all rolling out 1xRTT which is one heck of a lot faster than GPRS. Unfortunately, they don't really have any decent phones yet.

BTW, as for the phone handsets, I recommend the Nokia 3650. Its Bluetooth is still a little wonky but it works great as a modem. And it has way better RF reception than the T68 (and the 610 from what I hear.)

[Macpilot]

I have a Powerbook 17, Ericsson T39, and T Mobile.

My plan includes the $20 per month unlimited internet access through my phone. It works great!

The T Mobile people tell you what to program into the phone. Then you do a simple setup in Internet Connect and Network Prefs and off you go! Internet access anywhere you have a T mobile signal.

The Bluetooth setup assistant walks you through everything for communicating with the phone.

The speed sucks for emails (large stuff, text is fine), but web browsing is repectable. You must use Camino or similar browsers. Safari and IE won't work.

I did not like all the new, colorful, cheesy, too-many-ringtones-that-I-don't need phones out there. None of them compare to the T39 which is no longer for sale. I got mine on eBay. Excellent phone....small, attractive, Bluetooth, iSync compatible, loud. Everything I wanted in a phone, and nothing I didn't. Lots of cool accessories for the T39 too.

Ever since Ericsson teamed up with Sony they have put out some weak phones.

[Xeo]

I can use my iBook running 10.2 with a Bluetooth USB dongle and my Nokia 3650 just fine to dial up with. Don't expect a 56K connection. Think lower, much lower. Best you can get is 9600. Better than nothing at all. My service is T-Mobile and they are A-OK with you using your phone as a modem. AT&T go out of their way to shut down that type of activity (so I hear... no experience personally with AT&T).

[geekwagon]

Originally posted by Macpilot:
The speed sucks for emails (large stuff, text is fine), but web browsing is repectable. You must use Camino or similar browsers. Safari and IE won't work.

You may already know this but this is because of the acceleration proxy server that Tmo uses to attempt to speed up web browsing. Safari under Jaguar doesn't support compressed streams (which is what the proxy server does.) You can turn that feature off by going to http://getmorespeed.tmobile.com and turning off the accelerator. It seems to work via a cookie so it will still work in your other devices (I use it with my PDA as well.) After you do that Safari will work.

[zadak]

I use a NEC 606 here in Sweden, with the provider "3". Its 3G, its pretty fast (like ISDN) and its very easy to use.

http://www.tre.se/

[Macpilot]

Originally posted by geekwagon:
You may already know this but this is because of the acceleration proxy server that Tmo uses to attempt to speed up web browsing. Safari under Jaguar doesn't support compressed streams (which is what the proxy server does.) You can turn that feature off by going to http://getmorespeed.tmobile.com and turning off the accelerator. It seems to work via a cookie so it will still work in your other devices (I use it with my PDA as well.) After you do that Safari will work.

Thanks for the tip. However, when I first got the internet plan with t mobile, I tried Safari, and it downloaded some file to the desktop, and would not work.

Other than going to that site, what do I have to do with Safari as far as Prefs to get this to work? I would really like to use Safari since all my bookmarks are in it.

Thanks again!

[midwinter]

Originally posted by gorickey:
Off-topic (sorta)...but I cannot wait for Sprint to finally release their Bluetooth-enabled phone this month...I just hope the price is not ridiculous.

Do you have a link to any information about this? A guy from Sprint told me that they were picking up motorola, but other than that, i've found nothing about this.

Cheers
Scott

[geekwagon]

Originally posted by Macpilot:
Thanks for the tip. However, when I first got the internet plan with t mobile, I tried Safari, and it downloaded some file to the desktop, and would not work.

Other than going to that site, what do I have to do with Safari as far as Prefs to get this to work? I would really like to use Safari since all my bookmarks are in it.

Thanks again!

You just have to go to that site and choose "Turn off acceleration". Oh, and that site is only available while you are connected to T-Mobile's network. It is what is known as a "transparent proxy." What that means is that they have their network setup so that any outbound http requests get routed through the proxy server without any configuration on the clients (the clients don't even know a proxy server is involved.)

The file that it downloaded was the .gzipped file that the proxy server gave you. Since Safari didn't know what it was it just downloaded it.

Let me know if you have any more trouble with it.

[michelangelo33]

I too have the SonyEricsson T68i and the Nokia 3650. I also had the T610, but quickly returned it. All 3 work flawlessly with my laptop at connecting me to the internet.

I've used the T68i and the 3650 in several big cities and rural areas with no problem.

I'm also with T-Mobile. Been with them for years and no complaints.

[Terri]

OK I got what might be a dumb question, why can't I just have a Bluetooth phone dial to the ISP that I already have, or can I? Is there a reason why I would have to have T-mobile be my ISP?

BTW, looks like I found a good deal the T610, $79 after rebate from Amazon.

[geekwagon]

Originally posted by Terri:
OK I got what might be a dumb question, why can't I just have a Bluetooth phone dial to the ISP that I already have, or can I? Is there a reason why I would have to have T-mobile be my ISP?

BTW, looks like I found a good deal the T610, $79 after rebate from Amazon.

Well, you can, on most carriers (T-mobile allows this, AT&T does not.) The problem though is that it uses your minutes, and you aren't going to get any faster than 9600 bps (which is quite a bit slower than GPRS.) And you aren't going to be able to get to the internet for email or browsing from your phone. Oh, and the connection is going to take a lot longer to establish too (GPRS takes about 2-3 seconds)

[Terri]

Ok now I understand, thanks.

I didn't realize that T-mobile uses GPRS, not that I am even real clear on what GPRS is, lol.

Is there any disadvantage using the non Bluetooth phones as a modem other then the fact that you need an over priced cable?

I like the phones that don't have Bluetooth more as I can get a smaller flip phone then.

[Amorya]

Originally posted by Xeo:
I can use my iBook running 10.2 with a Bluetooth USB dongle and my Nokia 3650 just fine to dial up with. Don't expect a 56K connection. Think lower, much lower. Best you can get is 9600. Better than nothing at all. My service is T-Mobile and they are A-OK with you using your phone as a modem. AT&T go out of their way to shut down that type of activity (so I hear... no experience personally with AT&T).

Speed depends on your connection...

normal GSM data speed (i.e. any phone from the year dot can do this speed) is 9600 bps.

GSM ISDN is 14.4 kbps. Phones have been able to do that for 4 years at least.

HSCSD can do 43 kbps. My phone can do this, and I've had it over 2 years.

GPRS can do 40 kbps (but it's always on). Most bluetooth phones available now can do this.

3G phones can go faster, but I don't know much about those. All the handsets are terrible - I think Motorola and NEC have some out. The coverage of 3G is very limited, but at least they drop back to GSM/GPRS when they're out of 3G range.


Amorya

[Amorya]

Originally posted by geekwagon:
Well, you can, on most carriers (T-mobile allows this, AT&T does not.) The problem though is that it uses your minutes, and you aren't going to get any faster than 9600 bps (which is quite a bit slower than GPRS.)

It's little known, but you can do this with HSCSD (high speed circuit switched data). On my contract, it'd cost me an extra £5/month, and then it'd come out of my minutes or be charged as a normal call to a landline.

HSCSD never really took off because GPRS came too soon after. But if you download huge volumes of data in one go fairly often, I think it could be a worthwhile alternative.

Amorya