[Anubis IV]

http://www.machall.com/index.php?strip_id=292

I was just looking through some of my favorite webcomics when I stumbled on that rant of Matt's from yesterday. While I don't have any ideas on how to fix it, I'm sure someone out there does, and I just thought it'd be kinda cool if we could show him just how friendly and helpful the Mac community actually is.

For those of you too lazy to go to the site, here's what he said in the rant:

Ok, time to throw myself on the mercy of the Internet for tech support.

I want to use my cellular phone as a modem for my laptop. I'm already signed up for the service with Cingular. In Mac OS X.3, there's a tab in the Internet Connect utility marked "Bluetooth." I have a bluetooth phone, so I select that. It gives me a window asking for a phone number, a login and a password. Seems simple. Time to call Cingular to get those.

Thing is, once I get on the phone with an actual human being, nobody has any goddamn idea what I'm talking about. They fumble around for a while, ask supervisors, and then give me information apparently beamed from the planet Bizzarro. The first time I called I managed to get a login and password. The second time I called, they told me I needed to get an Data Connect Kit, which appears to be a $35 USB cable. I ignore this advice, because my phone and my computer can already connect just fine over Bluetooth.

The third guy gives me a phone number. Now we're cooking. I enter all the information and hit the connect button. The phone tries to connect and displays a little progress bar, but says it can't find a carrier. Back to tech support.

The fourth guy tells me I need to call Sony Ericsson. I tell him I'm looking for a phone number, which I assume only Cingular would be able to provide. He fumbles around for a while and then informs me, in a tone reserved for idiots, that I need to buy a Data Connect Kit.

Are they right? Is there some software bundled with the cable that's going to make all this work? Is the window in OS X an elaborate ruse? Have I just become a tech support joke character who tries to put his coffee in the CD tray? I could use a hand.

You can reach him at: [email protected]

Oh, and for those of you that think the comic is related to Macs thanks to the word "Mac" in the name of the comic, good thought, but nope. It actually refers to the name of the dorm that they all supposedly stay in.

[Anubis IV]

Just in case anyone's paying attention, and I'm guessing some people are since there are quite a few views of this topic and no replies, he updated his rant...

For clarification, I'm not paying to use the phone to connect to another ISP. I'm paying for the Data Connect package and should be getting data right over GPRS. I've so far managed to connect to the server thanks to this page, but I'm getting turned down on login/pass.

I've been informed by a reader who is also a Cingular employee that the software with the cable does in fact make it pretty plug-and-play. But good luck getting the manual settings out of even the Tier III tech support people who might actually know these things, because they want people to buy the software, he said.

I guess I could pay $35 for a cable I don't need to get the software that comes with it, but one of the tech support people told me it doesn't support OS X. On the other hand, another tech support person told me it does, so I guess it's a toss-up.
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Ok, I think maybe now I understand. Being able to get Internet to the iBook is pretty much a loophole on the Cingular network. The only officially supported way to do that is with the Data Connect thingy, some kind of proprietary thingy which is in fact only accessable by Windows software. But if I go back to the package I had before ($20 a month for unlimited internet access over the phone itself, one of the techs told me I needed to change it), then I should be over to beam it over to the laptop. It shouldn't work, but apparently it does.

Tech support is asleep. Changing over tomorrow?

Sounds like some of you guys may have already lent him some aid, but it seems like he could use some more.

[Rosyna]

Check out: http://www.taniwha.org.uk/

Has all the answers.

http://www.taniwha.org.uk/gprs.html

Has all the settings you need...

[JKT]

Originally posted by Rosyna:
Check out: http://www.taniwha.org.uk/

Has all the answers.

http://www.taniwha.org.uk/gprs.html

Has all the settings you need...

Thanks for that - I've just set up my T68i with the info there. Nice one. Am I right in thinking that you can only get about 9600 bps speed with GPRS or is it even slower than that?

[waffffffle]

I went through a bit of a hassle when trying to set up data services using my T610 and my PowerBook with bluetooth. I got transferred to tech support in the UK and India. Those people definitely had the right answers but I had to wait on hold forever. I'm not sure if Mac OS X was officially supported, but they were able to give me all the information that I needed. Oh, and I was using T-Mobile.

[mikerally]

Orange UK are pretty helpful too, one of the data techs (level 3 support people) there (which I got through to after about 5 mins) introduced me to Ross Barkman's homepage and pretty much told me that everything I needed to know was there. The tech support guy seemed to be a bit of a Mac fanatic too!

I've tried GPRS on all the four major UK networks that support it, O2, Vodafone, Orange, and T-Mobile - and they all work fine following Ross Barkman's page (and with his scripts). You have to experiment with which CID script will work through trial and error - but you get there in the end.

Orange UK has been offering GPRS the longest however (since December 2002 - yes I have been using GPRS over Bluetooth as far back as then - believe it or not over Pay As You Go!).

FYI - GPRS can run up to 115kbps - GSM Dial Up runs at 9.6kbps (9600 Baud). Realistically with a good signal, I typically can download at 3 to 4 kilobytes a seconds over GPRS - near enough 56k modem speed - but just little slower.