Since I had gotten rid of my T-Mobile contract for my laptop data card, when I needed internet on the move I needed to either rely on the browser and applications on my N95, or connect it to my laptop. Connecting in windows turned out to be harder than I expected, as the Nokia PC Suite really didn’t like my cheap bluetooth dongle. Ubuntu, however turned out to be a lot simpler than I expected. Here is a quick guide to what I did in case I ever need to do it again, or in case it helps you. Use it at your own risk!

Step 1: Check that GPRS data connection works on your mobile phone using the web browser included on the phone

Step 2: Check that your bluetooth dongle works in linux. You might need to install bluetooth utils for this.

Step 3: Turn on bluetooth on your phone. I recommend leaving it off most of the time for security reasons, but now is a good time to turn it on.

Step 4: Pair the phone and the computer: From your phone, go to the bluetooth menu (use the left and right arrow keys to move between tabs at the top) and select ’setup new pairing’. Your phone will search for devices, and hopefully find your computer which will be called <hostname>-0. Click on ‘pair’ and enter a pass code which you can choose. Your computer should then ask you for this pass code which you can enter again in the popup box.

I think that KPPP is one of the best dial-up programs, or at least one of the ones which I know how to use. If you don’t have it installed, install it with

sudo apt-get install kppp

This will add a button in the Application > Internet menu named ‘KPPP’. Click on this, and then you need to add a connection and modem. Click on ‘Configure’ and then ‘New’ (under the Accounts tab). Select ‘Manual Setup’. Then under the ‘Dial’ Tab, enter a connection name. I call mine ‘Vodafone 3G’. Add a number (*99***1#) to this connection by clicking on the ‘Add’ next to the ‘Phone number’ box. Click on ‘OK’ to save the number, then click on ‘OK’ again to get back to the KPPP configuration page. Select the ‘modems’ tab and click on ‘new’. Give the modem a name, I call mine ‘Nokia-N95′. In the Modem device box, select ‘/dev/rfcomm0′, and change the connection speed to 115200. Select the ‘Modem’ tab, and then click on ‘Modem Commands’ Set the ‘Initialisation String 2′ to ‘ATM0′

Click ‘OK’ a few times to get back to ‘KPPP’, and then click on ‘Connect’. If all is well, it should start talking to your modem and connect to the internet.

This could perhaps be a lot clearer, but if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 3:59 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.