Long before USB 3G modems and mobile broadband became ubiquitous, most phones can already be used as modems a few years back. It can either be by USB cable or Bluetooth. A good friend of mine even created a detailed guide on how to enable Bluetooth internet three years ago. It’s a series of steps, has a lot of manual tasks, but it’s the only option during that time.
Using a phone to connect to the internet via Bluetooth may not be practical in a sense, but the holiday season is here, a long vacation awaits for me, so I have to keep this option open. Besides, I’ll be out of the metro, so my Sun Broadband Wireless is quite useless.
So, I was revisiting the steps in how to enable Bluetooth internet in Karmic and it turned out to be a breeze… (proves the point things are improving in the Linux community)
Here’s how I did it in Ubuntu Karmic 9.10, using a Sony Ericsson K770i phone:
Note: Before anything else, I enabled Bluetooth in my K770i and made sure that it’s visible.
1. I made sure first that Bluetooth is enabled in my laptop (of course!).
2. I clicked on the Bluetooth icon, then clicked on Set up new device… It gave me this window, Bluetooth New Device Setup
3. I clicked on Forward, then, it searched for Bluetooth devices…
4. I selected my phone, jhayem-k770i, then clicked on Forward, then it gave me the PIN window.
5. The k770i detected that a device wants to pair, it asked for the PIN and I entered the PIN provided above. The phone inquired if I want to enable the following:
– add to pro-ubuntu-0 to my Devices? – Yes
– allow pro-ubuntu-0 to use the phone as modem? Yes, Allow always
– allow pro-ubuntu-0 to use your phone as remote control? – Yes
– start remote control now? – No
6. After all those inquiries, the Bluetooth New Device Setup has this last window
7. I checked Access the Internet using your mobile phone, then clicked on Close
That ends the set-up part, now, how to connect?
Once your done with the set up, If you click on the Network Manager icon, you now should have a PANU in your list of networks…
Just click on that to connect to the internet via Bluetooth through your phone :p
un-mundane idiosyncrasies 