setting up a mobile phone as GPRS modem

[Screwdriver0815]

Hi,

the title may be a little bit missleading because I already have set up my mobile phone as a GPRS modem in my Laptop, running Ubuntu Jaunty.

This was done 2 days ago and it took me 5 Minutes.

I have a Sony Ericsson C702 and I have plugged it via USB into the Laptop. The first thing, the mobile was asking: Telephone-mode or Data-Transfer? I choosed Telephone-mode.

Then in the computer the assistant for transfering the photos came up and I cancelled it. Then the assistant for setting up a mobile broadband connection came up and I clicked "OK" for 3 times. Thats it.

After 5 Minutes I could surf in the internet via Mobile Phone, which makes it possible for me now to even surf in the internet when I am somewhere without DSL or anything without having to buy a UMTS stick. Okay, the GPRS is a little bit slow but it works.

So now I wonder: what should one have to do to get this working in Windows? How many time would it cost?

anyway: this was a great experience about the usability and userfriendlyness of Linux and specially Ubuntu again. Seems like I am lucky or I just have a good operating system!

cheers
Steffen

[RaZe42]

In my experience, it would have been a *major* hassle without software provided by the manufacturer(SE, in your case), but I only have experience with Nokia devices.

In practice, you had to set up the connection with Nokia PC Suite, but after that you can use Windows' inbuilt tool to connect.

So yes, Ubuntu is better at this

And if we'd have Blueman by default we could connect (arguably) even easier through bluetooth.

EDIT: PS. This post was made while connected with bluetooth to my 3G phone

Oh, and if you have bluetooth on your phone, do try out Blueman. It's really good! (There's a PPA on launchpad)

[Screwdriver0815]

In my experience, it would have been a *major* hassle without software provided by the manufacturer(SE, in your case), but I only have experience with Nokia devices.

In practice, you had to set up the connection with Nokia PC Suite, but after that you can use Windows' inbuilt tool to connect.

So yes, Ubuntu is better at this

And if we'd have Blueman by default we could connect (arguably) even easier through bluetooth.

EDIT: PS. This post was made while connected with bluetooth to my 3G phone

Oh, and if you have bluetooth on your phone, do try out Blueman. It's really good! (There's a PPA on launchpad)

thanks for your reply.

Unfortunatly I don't have Bluetooth in the Laptop. I think I need a bluetooth dongle... until then the USB cable does the job too.

So I'd make an estimate for the setup time in windows:

10 minutes for installing the software, 5 Minutes for establishing connection? Would this be realistic?
Would there be a reboot required?

[RaZe42]

With Nokia PC Suite, yes you had to reboot, but as I said I have no experience with other brands.

With Nokias I'd say more like:
15 min installing (Nokia PC Suite is a huge bloated piece of cr*p), 1,5-5 min reboot, 15 sec to connect, 5+ min more if it doesn't work and you have to fiddle with settings and so on.