The Geek Brewery

Lately, I have been trying to amaze myself doing some weird stuff on Linux. Gladly, I thought of connecting my mobile phone to my Linux-running laptop for Internet.

I’d like to share it in case anyone might be concerned on how to do so.

Prerequisites

1. A Bluetooth, GPRS and/or 3G (but preferably with 3G) capable mobile phone.
2. A machine with a Bluetooth adapter.
3. Bluez Bluetooth GNOME applet (the Bluetooth icon on your system tray).
   1. If not installed, may be obtained by typing sudo apt-get bluez-gnome.

This works pretty well on my Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron and Linux Mint 5.0 installation.

Here’s how to do it:

1. First of all, enable Bluetooth for the mobile phone and workstation (laptop, desktop, etc). Make sure both devices are discoverable.
2. On your workstation’s terminal (on Ubuntu, go to Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal), type hcitool scan .
3. You should see your mobile phone’s name and address.
4. Now, let’s bind your device to rfcomm. Type sudo rfcomm bind /dev/rfcomm0 <replace_this_with_address_of_device> <replace_with_channel> .
   1. Replace <replace_this_with_address_of_device> with the address you obtained from hcitool scan (the ones on the left of your phone's name).
   2. Try the values 1, 2 or 3 for <replace_with_channel>. In case the whole process doesn’t work, just unbind your device to rfcomm by typing sudo rfcomm unbind rfcomm0 and repeating the whole process again with another value.
5. After doing so, click on the network icon in your system tray (near the clock) and choose manual configuration. Unlock it with your password. Change the settings of point-to-point connection by double-clicking the option.
6. Check “Enable this connection”.
7. Choose GPRS/UMTS as Connection Type. Change access point name to “internet” without the doublequotes. For account data, just enter any username and password.
8. On the second tab named “Modem”, type /dev/rfcomm0 to modem port field.
9. On the third tab, check “Set modem as default route to internet” and “Use the internet service providers’ nameservers”.
10. Hit OK.
11. Now, check the checkbox of point-to-point connection.
12. By this time, you should have an internet connection on your workstation. If it doesn’t work, repeat the process. Note to try other channels (described in the fourth step).

That’s all. Hope it works.