Free Internet Anywhere (cell reception required)

Today, I present to you, in it’s entirety, the quick and easy (mild case of nerdiness required) way to rock the free internet scene with your cell phone.

And now, after building up your hopes… I shall cruelly dash them against the sharp rocks below! Here’s what you’ll need to get this to work.

• Phone: Motorola E815, Razr v3, V710*,
• Computer: Any Mac running OS X 10.4 with Bluetooth
• Provider: Alltel (although rumor has it that a Verizon account/phone with mobile web service does the trick as well)

Note: Verizon ships its phones with dial-up networking disabled, due to the fact they are jerks. To enable it, enter ##DIALUP on your phone. That’s ##342587. You’ll need to type it in as quickly as possible for it to work. The phone will show a confirmation once you’ve successfully enabled dial-up networking. As logic would dictate, doing this again will disable your new found dial-up networking. This only works with older versions of the firmware, so if you have a newer phone with current firmware you’re out of luck (unless you want to downgrade your firmware).

1. If you have Alltel and pay for Picture Messaging, you should be good.

2. Click Apple > System Preferences > Bluetooth to open Bluetooth settings.

3. Click the settings tab and ensure these checkboxes are selected:
– Discoverable
– Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this computer
– Show Bluetooth status in the menu bar

4. Click the devices tab.

5. Click Set up new device. This will open the Bluetooth Setup Assistant. If you don’t already have Bluetooth enabled, click the button to turn it on when you’re asked. Then click Continue.

6. Select Mobile phone as the device type and click Continue.

7. The Setup Assistant will now try to locate and connect to your phone. Make sure you have your phone nearby and it’s set to discoverable. To make it discoverable, open the main menu on your phone and select Settings > Connection > Bluetooth Link > Setup > Find Me. Once your phone appears in the list, click Continue.

8. Next, your phone will ask if you want it to bond with your computer. Select Yes. Then enter the passkey shown into your phone. Once connected, your computer will “sync” some settings with your phone. This could take 30 seconds or so. When it’s finished, click Continue.

9. Check the box to Access the Internet with your phone’s data connection and select “Use a direct, higher speed connection”. If you have the latest version of iSync (or version 2.1 or greater), you could also check the box to set up iSync if you want to transfer contacts and your calendar to your phone. Then click Continue.

10. Enter yourphonenumber@message.alltel.com for your Username (I’ve also used yourphonenumber@alltel.net). That’s your cell phone number, including your area code and without dashes. Enter “alltel” into the password box, sans the quotes of course. Enter #777 for the GPRS CID String. Set it to use Verizon Support for the modem script (even though it’s an Alltel phone), although others may work. Click Continue.

– 10b. Verzion users, rock the scene with your-phone-number@vzw3g.com for your Username. Enter anything into the password box, it doesn’t matter what. Enter #777 for the GPRS CID String. Use Verizon Support for the modem script, although others may work. Click Continue.

11. You should see a screen telling you that your phone has been set up. Click Quit to exit the Setup Assistant.

12. Now select Network from the System Preferences screen. If you still have the Bluetooth devices window open, you can just click Show All to return to the System Preferences screen. Otherwise select Apple > System Preferences > Network. On the Network screen, be sure Bluetooth is selected and then click Configure.

13. By default it should open to the PPP tab. Click the PPP Options button.

14. The only change I made on this screen was to select Use TCP header compression, however, if you experience problems, you can disable this option. When you’ve made the necessary changes, click OK.

15. Click the Bluetooth modem tab. Select Show modem status in menu bar.

16. Now close the Network window. If you’re asked whether to apply configuration changes, click Apply.

17. To connect, click the Internet Connect icon on the menu bar and select Connect.

Does this cost anything?
– Aside from a few moments of your time and the cost of your cell plan. No. For your general edification though, there has be some debate as to whether this incurs charges other than air time. Normally for this privilege you’d be paying Alltel $24.99 a month for unlimited data transfer, however, as of writing this I have not been charged for anything except air time. Which is fantastic, because after 9pm I have free internet where ever I go.
– This is just my experience with Alltel, I don’t know how Verizon handles it. So use this tutorial at your own risk.

How fast is the connection?
– During my tests I averaged around 250Kbps, with a peak of 400Kbps

I’m confused… help me
– This is the quick and dirty version. I’ll add screen shots later if it’s really that confusing.

* Some V710 ship with the Bluetooth services required to run this disabled. Not having a V710 I don’t know if ##DIALUP enables the dial-up networking, like with Verizon phones, I would tend to think that with the proper firmware version it would work the same.