Accessing the Internet using your cellphone as a modem
I get regular questions “how do I set up my cellphone for so-and-so?” As I have said before, I am not a cellphone Guru.
One of these questions I can try to answer, is how to access the Internet from your PC using your cellphone as a modem. In the past I avoided answering this question for all but the most tech savvy, as it was complicated, expensive and not worth the effort. Thanks to changes at MTN and Vodacom, this is no longer true.
Both networks now offer prepaid data bundles for your phone. For a long time only MTN did this. Also both have extended data airtime windows to 60 days. Much better than the old 30 days. The per/mb charges on both are now the same as well.
First, of course, you must have a WAP enabled cellphone and a prepaid SIM (or top-up/hybrid contract). Contract customers need to phone their respective customer services and get them to add a “bolt-on” data bundle. MTN makes this easier as you can select an option for a monthly data bundle in their recharge menu. If you are buying a new SIM for a data connection, MTN is the easier to set up.
Next, you must decide on your bundle size, how much you think you will use. You can find this informations here
www.vodacom.co.za/services/vodacom_broadband/cost
Load airtime to a bit more than the value you need. You will then need to convert the airtime to data time. Call 141 on MTN and *111# on Vodacom and follow the prompts/menu’s to convert airtime to data. Now when you access the Internet off your cellphone, you are using data bundle time, not talk time.
The following explanation is necessary before I proceed. When you insert your SIM for the first time several services are set up automatically by the network depending on your phone. If you have a GPRS phone, then one of these is the Internet. If services are not active, customer services can usually set these up remotely with a series of SMS’s. The Internet service on your cellular consists of a series of setting called “profiles”. The location of these setting varies depending on which phone you have, but usually they are under browser or Internet settings. There can be more than one profile, and so they are numbered “1”, “2” etc. with a short description. The settings are set to work only for that service providers network and contains information on the server that must be contacted to give you Internet access.
At this point, if you can access the Internet off your phone, it means your Internet settings are correct and you can proceed.
To connect your PC to the Internet using your phone as a modem, you need to get the PC and the phone talking to one another. This is usually accomplished by means of a cable plugged into the USB port or by Bluetooth if both PC and phone are Bluetooth enabled. There is some software for the phone that must be loaded on your PC. If you do not know how to get them connected you will have to figure that out first before reading on. I can’t help you.
If the PC and phone are connected, you need to make sure that the modem drivers are installed. To do this go to “Start” – “Control Panel” – “Phone and Modem Options”. Click the “Modems” tab. If your phone is not listed, you need to install the modem drivers. If you don’t know how, refer my comment above. If the modem is listed, highlight it and click “Properties”. Select the “Diagnostics” tab and click “Query Modem”. The dialogue “Please wait …. Communicating with Modem” should appear and after a short time, text should pop up in the window in the center of the Diagnostics panel. If that happens, then the PC recognizes the phone as a modem and we can proceed.
Now we have to train the PC to use the phone as a modem to connect to the data network server that gives you access to the Internet. Both Vodacom and MTN have programs to do these setups for the data modems (dongles) that are supplied as part of a data contract. Since you are using a phone, I will show you how to set up a Dial-up connection to do the same thing.
Go to “Start” – “Network Connections”. Under “Network Tasks” on the left select “Create a new connection”. The New Connection Wizard will appear. Click “Next” and make sure “Connect to the Internet” is selected. Click “Next” and ensure that “Set up my connection manually” is selected. Click “Next” and select “Connect using a dial-up modem”. Click “Next” and enter a name for your connection under “ISP name”. This is just a label, it can be anything as long as it helps you identify the connection shortcut. Click “Next” to get to the “Phone Number to Dial” dialogue. This number is the key to accessing the data network. The default settings is usually *99# which accesses the default Internet setup on most phones. If this does not work, you can use the format *99***number# where “number” is the number of the Internet profile set up on your phone. You can check this if you can find the profile on you phone. Remember you are looking for the profile labeled “Internet”, and not “Vlive” or “MTNloaded”. So for example the number will be *99***1# for profile 1.
Click “Next” to proceed. Leave the User name and Password fields CLEAR and click “Next” to proceed. Tick “Add a shortcut” and “Finish” to complete the wizard. There should now be a shortcut on your desktop to the connection, and one under “Network Connections” as well.
Click on the desktop shortcut and then select “Properties”. Make sure under the “General” tab that “use dialing rules” in unticked. Check that your phone modem is showing in the top window. If there are more than one entry, make sure that only your phone modem has a tick next to it. Select the “Options” tab and leave only “Display progress” and “Prompt for number” (so you can change it if you need) ticked. “OK” gets you back to the connect box. Click “Dial” to try out your connection.
If it all goes well you should see the dialogs; “Verifying user” then “Registering user” and finally “Connected”. If you don’t get a connection, try an alternate number, just change it in the “Dial” box in the connection dialogue. When it asks if you want to make the change permanent, answer whatever you like. If your phone is set up correctly for Internet, the PC and phone are connected, the phone is set up correctly as a modem, and your dial-up connection settings are right, then you should be connected. Open Internet Explorer or Firefox and type www.google.com in the address box to test.
