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Connecting a Mac to the internet via T-Mobile 3G and Bluetooth enabled LG Viewty KU990

This guide may also be useful to people with other phones and 3G accounts with other providers. Where there are instructions that are T-Mobile-specific these will be mentioned.

I have checked this guide with a MacBook Pro and an Intel iMac. The guide should also work for the iBook, the Mac mini, the MacBook and any other Mac with Bluetooth.

In order to use this guide, your Mac must be equipped with Bluetooth. Most modern Macs have Bluetooth modules as standard. If you have an older or non-Bluetooth you can either use a Bluetooth USB adapter or use Card Blues Suite.

You must have a T-Mobile 3G/HDSPA account activated on your phone with internet access. Currently that means Web 'n' Walk Plus or Max. Plain old Web 'n' Walk is web only on your phone.

You will also need to download the Generic HSDPA Scripts from Ross Barkman's website.

Generic HSDPA Scripts (20kB): Generic HSDPA - First Release Jul. 2007. These non-specific scripts should work with most HSDPA phones and PC Cards - they are a further speed evolution from the 3G scripts below, supporting a serial speed of 1.8 Mbit/s. They contain the bare minimum of set-up and configuration commands, in the hope that the phone's defaults will deal with the rest.

You should copy the scripts into the Modem Scripts folder in the Library folder on the root drive - not in your user Library.

First from the menu bar Bluetooth icon...

Bluetooth icon

Click and select Setup Bluetooth Device... this will start the Bluetooth Setup Assistant.

Bluetooth icon

If you can't see the Bluetooth icon, then ensure that the preference is checked in System Preferences. Also ensure that your Mac is Discoverable.

Bluetooth Preference Pane

The assistant starts as follows with the following welcome.

Bluetooth Assistant

Click the Continue button.

Bluetooth Assistant

Select Mobile Phone.

Bluetooth Assistant

On the Mac, click the Continue button. You will need to set the phone's Bluetooth to visible.

If you do not setup your phone to be visible (for some other phones this is the default) then you will see the following screen.

screenshot

Otherwise your Mac should find the phone, in this example the phone is called LG KU990 , most phones will probably be called by their model number, ie T610. As you can see in this example, the Mac has also found another phone, the N73 whilst searching. In a busy area there may be many phones.

Bluetooth Assistant

Select your phone and click the Continue button in order to now pair the phone and for the Mac to gather information from the phone.

Bluetooth Assistant

The assistant will display a number which will need to be entered onto the phone. This will pair the Mac and the phone. This is so you only need to go through the process once, and not have to undertake the pairing each time you want to use your phone as a modem.

Bluetooth Assistant

Now on the phone, the phone will ask you to enter the passcode from your Mac.

Enter the passkey you were given on the Mac on the phone. The phone will now add the Mac to it's devices.

Now on the Mac, select the services you wish to use... Only check the iSync option if you want to sync with your Mac with your phone. Ensure that Access the Internet with your phone's data connection is ticked and that you have checked Use a direct higher speed connection... option.

Bluetooth Assistant

You should now be able to click the Continue button.

You now need to setup your phone to match your mobile phone provider. I will be using T-Mobile details in this example, so if you are using someone else, eg Vodafone or O2 then you will need to check this site for details.

Bluetooth Assistant

If you are using T-Mobile, enter user for the Username and pass for the Password and enter general.t-mobile.co.uk as the GPRS CID String. Ensure that the Modem Script is set to Generic HSDPA CID1. I would also check the Show Modem status in the menu bar option, as this will make it easier to connect, otherwise you will need to use Internet Connect in Applications.

Bluetooth Assistant

Click the Continue button.

Bluetooth Assistant

You can now click the Quit button.

Unless you already have the Modem icon in your menu bar, open Internet Connect from the Applications folder.

Bluetooth Assistant

Select Bluetooth and click Connect to connect to the internet.

If you select Show modem status in menu bar, then you will see the staus of the modem connecting and authenticating.

You can also quickly connect from the menu bar.

Bluetooth Assistant

Remember that 3G data ad hoc charges can be expensive, so check with your mobile phone provider about which data plan you are on and the data costs.