Monday, January 24, 2005
Your Smartphone as a Bluetooth Modem for Your Laptop
Posted by Kris Kumar in "ARTICLE" @ 12:30 PM
Final Step: Connecting to the Internet using the Bluetooth Smartphone
Once the above mentioned configuration steps are carried out, the laptop is ready to connect to the Internet using the Bluetooth Smartphone. From here onwards you need to carry out only the following instructions to connect to the Internet.
Figure 30: Ensure that Bluetooth is turned "On" on your Smartphone and your laptop. On your laptop, launch the shortcut for the dial-up connection. It can be found in the Control Panel->Networking Connections.
Figure 31: Click on the "Properties" button to verify that the Bluetooth modem is selected. Click the "Cancel" button and then click the "Dial" button.
Before dialing, always verify that the modem being used is the Bluetooth one. I have noticed that Windows does sometimes deselect the Bluetooth modem and select the IR modem or regular telephone modem. :? I believe this happens more when you are using a Bluetooth USB dongle, because the dongle may not always be connected, forcing Windows to reset the modem selection.
In case you are connecting to an ISP like Earthlink or AOL, verify the dial-up number, area code and dialing rules. You may also need to tweak some of the options. Since I do not have an ISP number and account handy, I cannot lay down the exact steps. But I was able to dial my home phone using the dial-up connection over Bluetooth.
Figure 32: When you click the "Dial" button, you will see a "Connecting to..." screen.
Figure 33: Followed by this screen.
Figure 34: And finally when the connection is established, you will see this screen.
Figure 35: Windows will minimize the connection dialog to the system taskbar. Don't be fooled by the connection speed displayed in the popup, it is showing the connection speed between the laptop and the Smartphone over Bluetooth. It is not showing the actual Internet download speed.
Figure 36: On your Smartphone, when you are connected to the Internet on your laptop, the iconbar will show the special bi-directional arrow icon [top right corner] to show that a dial-up connection has been established.
Figure 37: When you are done using the Internet on your laptop. Click on the Dial-up connection icon in the system taskbar and click on the "Disconnect" button.
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