Gavin’s Digital Diner

I was recently doing some background research on the costs and affordability of using 3G for internet connectivity in South Africa.  Well, as these things tend to happen, that research got me thinking about similar options in the U.S. And, that reminded me that I’ve always meant to try using EDGE now that I have an EDGE Blackberry (T-Mobile).

As it happens, the U.S is sparse when it comes to true 3G options.   Instead we have “almost-3G” services with such catchy names as EDGE (Cingular/T-Mobile) and EVDO (Sprint/Verizon).  Wikipedia classifies them as 2.75G – meaning they’re not  quite “Third Generation.” 

I’ve a couple of friends at other organizations that use either the Sprint or Verizon services. And, depending on coverage, they seem quite happy with the service. The idea of a connection anytime, anywhere, without muss or fuss, is very attractive.  However, the pricing on such services is not.

As it stands now, T-mobile is already getting my (and twenty-some other colleagues) monthly Blackberry fees. To give them another $50, $60, or $70 a month seems, well, too much.   Fact is, considering my organization has 20-some-odd users [some odder than others], that would translate into about $100 a month each, or, what… somewhere around $2,000 a month.  Whew.  Ubiquitous (cheap) wireless is “just around the corner”… [right?]. Well, at these prices, it can’t get here too soon. [i] 

For me, a fixed $2000 a month — even for twenty people — is not worth it given the intermittent travel and usage patterns, and the increasing availability of broadband (wireless or wired) in hotels, motels, and cafés. Even paying outrageous hotel rates of $10 a day (what bozos), given our travel schedules, it would be tough to consume $24,000 a year in $10 a day hotel charges.

[Let’s see, at $10 a day, $24,000 buys me 2400 days at a pay-as-you-use hotel.  With 20 people, that can buy 120 days a year for each person.  Humm.. I don’t think we travel that much. ]

That’s why I was once again curious about using the Blackberry I was already paying for.

As I recalled, it was possible to use a Blackberry as a “modem” and ride the Blackberry connection from one’s laptop.  Perhaps with EDGE and EVDO the speed was finally “acceptable.”

I had tried it with some of the first generation GSM phones, and later with earlier editions of the Blackberry (8200 series and 7100 series).   They only supported GPRS (sometimes referred to as “3G-lite”).  The experience was not satisfying. GPRS was not fast enough for much of anything, IMHO.   

But [so far as I understand it] the pricing is attractive.  At least domestically, one can ride the Blackberry network as part of the “all you can eat” data plan.  I’m paying about $40 a month for that as is.  Voice minutes are extra.

[There appears to be some discussion about pricing on the various BB forums. Depending on who you ask, the carrier, and apparently the phases of the moon, you’ll get sixteen different answers from ten different people. So, don’t trust me here, ask your provider.  My experience is that – at least in the US – the “all-you-can-eat” Blackberry data plans are just that, “all-you-can-eat” including piggy-backing my laptop off the connection.  I’ll find out for sure next month when the bills arrive.]

Now that I’m happily using my 8700g, it was time to test the waters again. 

Requirements and Setup:   

It took a little scrounging around to remember all the machinations and obscure settings, but once I had them all, the process was surprisingly simple.  Of course, I had to complicate it a bit by switching my laptop over to Vista(Business)  at the same time, just for the fun of it.

Turns out that Vista made it easier.  Trying to duplicate the settings on, first, Win2K3 and, second, WinXP, took some tweaking.  Even now, I’m not sure exactly what I did to make it work on Win2K3, and the couple of experiments with WinXP worked on some machines and not others.  I can’t explain what the difference is.

Requirements (for Vista, WinXP, and Win2K3):

o   The latest Blackberry Desktop software (with the BB Device Manager ) (version 4.2 is required for Vista). You can find it here.  I’m pretty sure you probably only need the Device Manager, but never got it to work that way.

o   Administrative rights (so you can install and configure the modem, mess with the serial ports, and modem settings).

o   USB cable (Laptop to Blackberry – I’ve heard if you have Bluetooth, you can eschew the tether , but my laptop does not have the blues.)

That’s it. Now you need to tweak a few things, modify some modem settings, and set up a dialup networking (DUN) connection.

Installation -  The Blackberry Device Manager:

If it’s not already installed, install the Blackberry Desktop Software with the BB Device Manager.   This is the secret, by the way.  The Blackberry Device Manager must be running. It fools the laptop into thinking you’ve two “virtual serial ports” and it manages the connection between your laptop and the BB.  You don’t need the Blackberry Desktop for this, just the device manager. It has to be running before you connect up the Blackberry.

Once installed and running, plug in your BB, and you should see something like this:

               

If you plan on using this a lot, I’d consider checking that little box that starts the device manager at system startup.

Installation – Modem Driver & Modem Configuration:

Now comes the tough part – (re)installing the modem.  I’ve had to tweak and twiddle this part to make things work.   When you install the BB Desktop/ Device Manager it creates two virtual serial ports, and a “standard” modem.    Take a look at the Windows Device Manager.  You can see the beasts below:

While it installs the two ports and a “Standard Modem,” sometimes the modem seems a bit funky.  I’ve had to un-install and re-install a couple of times.  Even then, the “Diagnostics” screen sometimes refuses to show the query results from a connected Blackberry.  Sometimes it works nevertheless; sometimes it doesn’t.  So, if you don’t get a query result, don’t be totally discouraged.  It still may work. Keep going.

In Vista, by the way, it worked out of the box. In Win2K3 the DUN connection worked, despite the fact that the query did not work. Go figure.  In WinXP, I had to uninstall and reinstall the modem,  move the COM port around on the virtual ports, etc.  On one box it never worked – never saw the ports as available when installing a standard modem.

Assuming you do get this far, you need to set a custom “init” string for the modem. Open the modem properties – either from the device manager or from the control panel – and click the “Advanced” tab on the modem properties page.  Enter the following (exactly):

AT+cgdcont=1,”IP”,”wap.voicestream.com”

Note: this init string works for T-Mobile.  For other carriers, you need other strings, and other dialing properties to the DUN settings (below).  Here are some that supposedly work:

TMOBILE USA:  AT+cgdcont=1,”IP”,”wap.voicestream.com”
Cingular/AT&T: AT+cgdcont=1,”IP”,”proxy”
UK Vodafone:   AT +cgdcont=1,”IP”,”internet”

Installation – Dial Up Networking (DUN)

Finally, we need to add a new dialup (DUN) connection:

1.    Open “My Network Places” and choose “View Network Connections” from the left hand menu.

2.    Once in Network Connections, choose the option to “Create a New Connection”

3.    Press a couple of “Next” buttons, until you are asked to select the “Network Connection Type.” 

4.    Choose “Connect to the Internet” and then choose “Connect using a Dial-up Modem.”

5.    You’re asked to name the connection.  I give is something simple like:  “T-Mobile via Blackberry”

6.    Then you are asked for a phone number. 

For T-Mobile/Cingular use this: *99#

For others – Check with your carrier.

(That’s an asterisk, two nines and a pound-sign)

Press a few more “Next” buttons, until you’re prompted for a user name and password. Use two spaces (press the space bar twice) like the following

                   Username = space space

                   Password = space space

And, then, I’d uncheck the “make this the default Internet connection” – for me this is an optional connection that I use when nothing else is available. 

Once done, your settings should look kind of like this:

When you press “next” you should get a DUN dialing screen, like this:

Click the Dial button.  If everything worked, you should get a quick connection to the network. If not, well… Tweak the modem.  If you’re on BES, make sure that the “Blackberry IPModem” is allowed in BES. For more, information check the Blackberry forums, there is a great thread on “how to.” Click here.

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