Written for and published in Issue #18 (“Connect to the Internet with your Cellphone, PlayStation Portable”; April 4th, 2005) of Small Dog Electronics’ Best In Showroom email newsletter.

With built-in AirPort Extreme on all of the current portables and BlueTooth on all the new PowerBooks, wireless has never been easier or more accessible for Mac users. Here in Vermont where we’re a little behind on technical advances, WIFI hotspots (access points, wireless networks, or whatever you’d like to call them this week) have popped up all over the place during the last few years. I have one at home, we have one in the Small Dog showroom, there are some up and down Church Street in Burlington and in the center of Montpelier, but it can still be tens of miles between hotspots in many cases. Most people can’t even access their own wireless network from the end of their driveway due to the limited range of the technology (usually about 150 feet).

One alternative which we often get asked about is using a cell phone as modem to connect to the Internet. It had been a couple years since I had done this, so I figured I’d take a crack at it again in the hopes that it’d help some of you out. This article may be a bit more appropriate for Tech Tails, but we like to do a bit of everything here in the showroom.

I’m currently using a Motorola T730 with (if you hadn’t guessed by the title) Verizon Wireless (http://www.verizonwireless.com/). As I signed up for this service nearly two years ago, there may be better options available for you, so take your time and do a lot of research if you’re looking for a new service. I picked the T730 as it’s compatible with Mac OS X’s iSync (http://www.apple.com/isync/devices.html), which makes backup of my contacts and transferring of important events immensely easier, and it supports both analog and digital signals (often important here in Vermont). Verizon Wireless was picked as it had competitive rates, extra minutes, and had the largest coverage area at the time. Again, this may have all changed by now.

Before going ahead with this kind of thing, realize that you’ll be using your regular minutes while online, that you’ll have to have a reasonable digital signal, and that you’ll have to buy a proprietary USB cable (in most cases) to connect the phone to the computer. I had bought a generic “2-in-1 Hotsync & Charging Cable for Motorola” from an online retailer (the same linked to in one of the resources I’ll mention below), but I’d suggest getting the Motorola-brand USB Data cable for your Motorola phone as it’s guaranteed, the generic sometimes has an intermittent connection, and the merchant I bought it the generic from sells your information to advertisers (yes, I read privacy policies). Also, this is the ONLY generic I was able to find which even worked, I went through quite a few from places such as RadioShack with no luck at all.

The first thing I did to get started was to consult my trusty sidekick, Google. I quickly found two resources that were quite helpful: John R. Chang’s “How To Use Your CDMA Cell Phone as a USB Modem on Mac OS X (a.k.a. the Wireless Internet you already have)” (http://homepage.mac.com/jrc/contrib/mobile_office/) and Sugam Jain’s “Motorola t730/t720, iSync, Mac OS X, Verizon Wireless National Access/Express Network instructions” (http://sugamjain.com/blog_archive/000051.html), but both are a little outdated.

I knew right off the bat that many of the steps suggested by John would be unnecessary in Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) and also noted his comment that Verizon Wireless has since changed their services a bit. Sugam’s instructions are newer and really straightforward, but his his link to the Verizon Wireless Modem Script is dead due to Verizon’s service changes (luckily John keeps a mirror of it here: http://homepage.mac.com/jrc/contrib/mobile_office/Verizon_Wireless_STD_Driver.hqx).

As both John and Sugam suggest, and I wouldn’t attempt this without updating your phone to the lastest firmware (dial ‘*288’ and do both option #1 and option #2). I did so, plugged my phone into my Mac, and downloaded John’s mirror of the modem script into “/Library/Modem Scripts”. Opening up the “Network” pane in my System Preferences resulted in a dialog box informing me that it had found a new device called “Motorola T720c” (although it’s actually a T730).

Following Sugam’s instructions, I switched to the “Modem” tab, selected the “Verizon_Wireless_STD_Driver” model script and unchecked the “Wait for dialtone” box as cell phones don’t have dialtones.

Next, I switched to the “PPP” tab and starting filling in my account information. Both Sugam and John (via linked e-mail) explain to enter “xxxxxxxxxx@vzw3g.com” (‘xxxxxxxxxx’ being your 10-digit cell phone number) as the username, “vzw” as the password, and “#777” as the telephone number. For convenience, I also checked off the “Save password” box.

I opened the dialup menu (the little telephone handset icon) in the menu bar, made sure “Motorola T720c” was checked off”, and clicked “Connect”. I watched it go through connecting and authenticating without any problem while my phone showed it’s status as “Packet Data”. Internet Connect listed my connection at 14400 bps, so I browsed for about ten minutes and tested my connection as well. I did a traceroute to my web server (hosted off my Adelphia cable) and watched it hop around through Verizon Wireless’s New York networks over to Adelphia’s Williston network and up to my connection in Burlington. Works like a charm!

Having noted a Sugam’s question as to whether there were additional charges if using your cell phone as a modem on your computer, I decided to call Verizon Wireless. The representative I spoke with assured me that all I had to do was order the Motorola Data Connection Kit from their web site and I’d be able to use it as a modem using only my regular minutes. I won’t mind being charged for 15 minutes of usage if that turns out to be incorrect, but I’d suggest contacting them yourself if you set this up as it’s possible it’s dependent on the calling plan.

I’m now able to hop on the Internet nearly anytime I want (a lot closer to that goal than before) although I restrict me cell phone usage to nights and weekends as they’re free. It’ll be a big plus the next time I take a long trip and don’t feel like hunting for WIFI just to check my e-mail.

A couple customers have their Motorola V710’s working with Verizon Wireless via BlueTooth, so that’s my next step in a couple of months when I can finally switch cell phone service providers or atleast get a reduced rate on a new phone. I have a feeling that the process of configuring that is very similar to John’s “How To Use Your GSM Cell Phone as a BlueTooth Modem on Mac OS X” (http://homepage.mac.com/jrc/contrib/tzones/), but that’s a bridge to cross when I come to it (I think there may only be one cell phone service provider in Vermont which supports GSM). I just can’t wait to hop online via my cell phone while it’s still in my pocket or on my dashboard.

Good luck to those who take a crack at this and let me know how it goes!