Friday, September 11, 2009

AT&T Windows Mobile Phones & Internet Connection Sharing (Working on BlackJack II)

With Windows Mobile 6.1 and even with WinMo 6, Internet Connection Sharing using a mobile phone and 3G network, surfing the internet where ever there is a cell phone connection, couldn't be easier. The carriers how ever try to bind you to there data plans for tethering etc but atleast for AT&T, below is the process to use the 3G connection on your computer. I am mentioning two different ways below. One uses the seeded Microsoft Internet Connection Sharing application and the other one uses the phone as a modem for dialup and uses the 3G connection without using your anytime minutes etc. I have tried both the option on my BlackJack II without issues. So this approach works on any phone which has Internet Connection Sharing app or you can find the Modem Drivers for your Phone.

Internet Connection Sharing

  1. Download the CeRegEditor from http://ceregeditor.mdsoft.pl/
  2. Connect your phone to your computer in ActiveSync mode and Unlock the Registry using the tool mentioned above. I have another post on this blog on how to use the tool.
  3. Now navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\InternetSharing\settings and make it NULL. If CeRegEditor doesn't take a null, enter one blank space and it will automatically take it as NULL value.
  4. You can do the same thing using Resco Registry Editor on the phone if it will let you do it without giving you permission issues or without reverting it back to what it was. In my case it was set to "AT&T ISP" for which you need to signup for an additional tethering plan with AT&T.. What a rip off.. i must say..
  5. Next you have to unlock the GPRS profiles already setup on your phone by the carrier.
  6. Search my blog for "UAPMgr" and you will find any article on how to unlock the GPRS Profiles.
  7. Once Unlocked modify the "MEdia Net" & "AT&T ISP" settings by making the access point as "wap.congular", user name as "WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM" and password as "CINGULAR1".
  8. Reboot the phone.
  9. Once the above steps are done, make sure that the USB Connection Settings are set to ACTIVESYNC and not MODEM or MASS STORAGE.
  10. You might have to restart the phone and then again connect to your computer.
  11. Once the ActiveSync partnership is setup, open the "Internet Connection Sharing" application on the Phone.
  12. Select the "PC Connection" as "USB" and "Network Connection" as "MEdia Net" and press the Connect Button on the left soft key. You will see that the computer basically sets up a new dialup kind of network connection and automatically connect to the internet.
  13. Just open up a browser and make sure your proxy settings are correct and you will be able to connect to the internet without any issues.
Using Cell Phone As A Modem And Setting Up A New Dial-Up Connection
  1. Follow steps 5, 6 & 7 as above to setup the GPRS profiles correctly.
  2. Download the Modem Drivers for your phone and setup the Phone USB Connection Settings as "MODEM" and not "ACTIVESYNC" or "MASS STORAGE". When you change this to modem, you might get a warning about activesync will not work, but you can ignore that as long as you don't wanna sync your phone while you access internet on your computer.
  3. Now connect your phone to the computer and you will see that your computer will try to install the modem drivers for your phone. instead of wasting time and having Microsoft find the best driver, point it to the downloaded drivers and let it setup your Phone as a Modem.
  4. Now go to your network settings and create a New Dial Up connection with the following options
  5. Phone number to dial is *99#, User Name & Password for AT&T are the same as mentioned in step 7 above.
  6. Make sure that the Dial Up Connection is setup to use your Phone Modem and not the Internal PC modem if you have one.
  7. Now press DIAL and you will see a window showing the status of the connection like "Registering On The Network". Once connected, the dial-up networking will minimize to your system tray and you are now connected to the internet and can use your browser and other applications to connect to the internet.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Nitesh,
    Thank you. I am using Ubuntu and LG GR500. I did all the setup. Bluetooth gets connected. My mobile says, "Network connected". Then when I ping yahoo.com, google.com from the command line, I get 100% connection. But, when I try to browse using the browser, I get offline. Is there any browser settings to be done?

    Thank you
    Jo

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Jo,

    Did you check your browser proxy settings in case they are st to anything. The only other thing i can think of is that you might have a firewall blocking the traffic. Use a traffic sniffer or disable the firewall and see if it works.

    Thanks

    Nitesh

    ReplyDelete