Cheap Mobile Internet for Your PowerBook

by Mystic

Are your fingers starting to cramp up from typing URLs on the keypad of your cell phone?

This article will explain how to get the same access your wireless phone has on your laptop whether you've paid for such a service or not.  If your cell phone has Internet access, in most cases your laptop can too.

The following procedure will work on almost any cell phone with WAP and/or GPRS access.

Although there is a similar way to do this on a PC, this article will cover how to do it on a Mac running OS X.

Cost

The service I'm using is T-Mobile.

They offer a $29.99 per month plan for GPRS access.  This plan is mostly used for Sidekicks and Treos.  The phone I'm using for this article is the Motorola T722i.  This phone only has a simple WAP browser.

T-Mobile offers a service called T-Zones for $4.99 a month.  This gives my browser access to news, weather, sports, etc.  It also gives the phone's modem all the access I need to use it with my laptop.

However, the T-Zones plan will only give you access to web and e-mail. There used to be a way around this, but not anymore.

USB Data Cable and Drivers

If your phone has Bluetooth you can skip this section.

If not you are going to need a USB data cable for your phone.  The best place to get one of these is eBay.  Just search for your phone model and "data kit" or "data cable".  I got mine for the T722i for $7.52 (with shipping).

Once you have your cable, hook it up, open "System Preferences", and go to "Network".

If your modem is already supported you should get a notice saying that a new port was detected and the modem should show up in the "Show" menu.

If your modem is not detected (the T722i is not) then you need a driver patch which you can download at: homepage.mac.com/jrc/contrib/mobile_office/AppleUSBCDCDriverPatch.pkg.tar

Note:  I did not write this patch.  The website says it is intended for Mac OS 10.1.3, 10.1.4, and 10.1.5 only.  However it seemed to work fine on 10.3.9.

Once the patch is installed restart your system and then go back to Network preferences.  Your phone should now show up.

Configuring the Modem

For Bluetooth phones the instructions at this site should work: homepage.mac.com/jrc/contrib/tzones

For a phone connected through the USB cable you are going to need a modem script.  These scripts can be obtained at: www.taniwha.org.uk

For my phone I downloaded the Motorola GPRS scripts.  Once you have the scripts copy them to the /Library/Modem Scripts/ directory.

Open Network preferences and select your phone's modem in the "Show" menu then select the "PPP" tab.

Here you need to enter your provider's Access Point Name (APN) in the "Telephone Number" field and a username and password if it's needed.

You can find this information for your provider here: www.taniwha.org.uk/gprs.html.

For T-Mobile there are three APN's: internet2.voicestream.com, internet3.voicestream.com, and wap.voicestream.com

The first two are used with the $29.99 Internet plan.  The last one works with the T-Zones plan.  No username or password is required.

For T-Mobile there is also a note that an HTTP proxy is needed (216.155.165.50, port 8080), so go to the "Proxies" tab and enter the proxy's IP and port number.

Now go to the "Modem" tab and select one of the modem scripts you installed.

Finally, go back to the "PPP" tab and click on "Dial Now..."

Once the Internet Connect application loads, select your phone's modem, and click on "Connect."

If it doesn't connect try a different modem script.  The "Motorola GPRS CID2 57k +CGQREQ" script worked fine for me.

Now whenever you are away from home and can't find an open Wi-Fi connection, just plug your phone into the USB port, go to your Network preferences, select the modem, and click on "Connect."  Now there is no excuse for missed email or Internet downtime.

I have personally gotten this to work using Mac OS X 10.3.9 and a Motorola T722i with T-Mobile.

If you have any questions about your setup specifically I would suggest checking out HowardForums or groups.yahoo.com/group/maccellphone.

Also, if you think he deserves it, buy Ross Barkman a pint (www.taniwha.org.uk).