Mac OS X, Bluetooth and Nokia UMTS phones

This brief post explains how to pair Mac OS X with a Nokia 3G/UMTS phone in order to access the Internet via a data packet connection. In my case, I’m using a Nokia 6234 phone but any other Nokia phone should work.

Before you start, please make sure that your phone is properly configured and that you can browse the Web via a GPRS/UMTS connection. Also, make sure that Bluetooth support in your phone is configured and activated and, for phones that have temporary visibility (are only visible via Bluetooth for a limited period of time), make sure to enable Bluetooth just before the pairing process.

Initial configuration

First, download the Nokia 3G Modem Scripts for Mac OS X from Ross Barkman’s Home Page (the official site) or from here.

Second, uncompress the file and copy the files named “Nokia 3G CID1” and “Nokia 3G CID2” into “/Library/Modem Scripts“.

Next, pair your Mac OS X computer with the Nokia phone by clicking on the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar and then Set up Bluetooth Device…. When pairing make you sure you choose Use a direct, higher speed connection to reach your Internet Service Provider *GPRS, 1xRTT).

Enter guest as the Username, guest as the Password, the APN (CID String or Telephone number) and make sure Nokia 3G CID1 is selected as the Modem Script. For example:

For a detailed list of possible combinations of username, password and APN CID for a lot of providers around the world visit Ross Barkman’s GPRS Info Page.

Dialing out

To dial out, open Internet Connect, browse to the Bluetooth tab and make sure the right entry is selected from the drop down menu. Then click Connect. Mac OS X will authenticate to the remote PPP server and a new dynamic PPP subinterface should be configured:

$ ifconfig ppp0
ppp0: flags=8051 mtu 1500
        inet 10.142.15.9 --> 10.6.6.6 netmask 0xffffff00

In my case, browsing speed is very good (around 384Kbps), but it might vary according to placement, coverage, whether you are moving and so on (by the way, UMTS network planning, deployment and coverage is something not trivial).

Troubleshooting

Make sure all the information for the connection have been entered correctly, specially the APN/Telephone number. If it doesn’t work, try using Nokia 3G CID2 as the Modem Script instead.

7 Responses to “Mac OS X, Bluetooth and Nokia UMTS phones”

  1. [...] Read more, click Felipe Alfaro Solana [...]

    Mac OS X, Bluetooth and Nokia UMTS phones : 3G and SmartPhone said this on February 11th, 2007 at 04:47

  2. [...] NOTE: This post is a based on Mac OS X, Bluetooth and Nokia UMTS phones that I wrote some days ago, but adapted to Motorola 3G phones. [...]

    Felipe Alfaro Solana » Blog Archive » Mac OS X, Bluetooth and Motorola UMTS phones said this on February 14th, 2007 at 03:49

  3. [...] http://felipe-alfaro.org/blog/2007/02/11/mac-os-x-bluetooth-and-nokia-umts-phones/ [...]

    Nokia N95 + Mac PowerBook « LCRM Blog said this on April 5th, 2007 at 01:00

  4. (sorry for the cross-post, I also commented on http://blog.bittube.com/2007/04/24/using-the-n95-as-a-bluetooth-modem-on-os-x/)

    I have an N95 that I wanted to use with my Powerbook running 10.4.9. I am on Dutch T-Mobile GPRS. At first this HOWTO didn’t work for me. It made contact with my phone vai PPP but never came past “authenticating user”.

    Kept trying though with alternative settings. This is what finally did it for me:

    * Under tab “Bluetooth Modem” I used the modem script Nokia 3G CID1, which I installed as explained here.
    * Under tab “PPP” the only thing I filled in are: service provider “tmobile” and telephone number “internet”. So no *99#, no gprs.t-mobile.nl, or anything. Just internet.

    * Dunno whether this is really needed, but I also turned off “enable error correction” & “wait for dial tone”. And turned off “send PPP echo packets” & Use TCP header compression” under “PPP Options” under tab PPP

    Downloading speed at > 100KB is pretty neat (considering a €9,50/month flatfee):

    macmichiel:~ michiel$ curl -O ftp://ftp.plusline.de/pub/NeoOffice/NeoOffice-2.1-PowerPC.dmg
    % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
    Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
    0 139M 0 897k 0 0 67272 0 0:36:07 0:00:13 0:35:54 112k

    If the above settings didn’t do it for you, I hope this does!

    michiel said this on May 26th, 2007 at 16:54

  5. Good morning
    I have a Nokia 6234 G3 hand phone and can connect with by bluetooth using the included (Mac OS X V10.4.9) modem driver - Nokio iR_8xxx - however this is unreliable as sometimes it stays connected until I disconect but other days it falls after 1 minute and ALSO is very slow (15Kbs) the supplier says it should be 250Kbs. Yes under ppp options I have unticked “send ppp echo packets” and I have downloaded as per your instructions the two scripts “nokio 3g cid1 and nokio 3G cid2″ but when chosen as the modem it connects but rapidly disconnects with the message - the connection has failed please check your settings -
    What am I doing wrong
    Greatly appreciate any help
    Robert

    Robert said this on June 17th, 2007 at 11:44

  6. Thank you I will keep trying for the moment the server does not accept Nokio 3G cid1 as an acceptable script for log on
    Robert

    Robert said this on June 20th, 2007 at 13:43

  7. Thanks - worked perfectly first time :D I’m using an N95 on Vodacom in South Africa.

    Artagra said this on September 9th, 2007 at 05:23

Leave a Reply