How to share T-Mobile HP Ipaq h6315 internet conenction with a laptop or pc via bluetooth or wi-fi.

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TheSailor

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3657 15-Mar-2005 02:12

Ok folks, I've seen lots of posts about how to share your home or office internet (from a PC) with a pocket pc or handhelp via bluetooth - but nothing in the reverse....

My goal: 1) Get cellular internet serivice on my laptop when out of wifi area or where I dont subscribe to wifi provider (or think its a rip)...

2) not buy additional t-mobile gprs wifi cell phone pcmcia card for my laptop...

My Equipment:

Service Provider: T-Mobile
Phone/PPC: HP Ipaq h6315 (Windows Mobile 2003, 802.11b, bluetooth, cell phone/gprs/gsm)
Laptop: HP dv1175us (XP,Centrino w/bluetooth/802.11 b/g)

The thing here is that I go on the road a lot and to remote building sites - I sell real estate and help people with financing options by providing down payment assistance,,, anyhow the point is I go go go... most of the time I'm well within cell phone coverage... I purchased the ipaq as an upgrade from the original tmobile pocket pc phone they first offered a couple years back (despite haveing a slower processor - the new one has SO many more features -like bluetooth and built-it wifi).

Since I already pay for unlimited gprs internet service (tmobile) on my h6315 ipaq pocket pc - I'd like to SHARE the internet with my laptop on those ocassions I hit a website that is not pocket IE friendly... a lot of corp sites are...

Is there a way to start (connect to tmobile gprs) interent on my phone (ipaq) and then share its internet connection with my laptop via either bluetooth or wifi?

I've tried setting up a personal lan and I guess thats just for file sharing.. is there any MS or 3rd party software to help accomplish this? Somthing like NAT32 for Pocket PC? eh?

Any help would be appreciated.

I'm just trying to avoid buying redundent products - i.e. tmobile reps told me I shoudl buy a pcmcia card and a new service plan for that card with internet on that service plan too... the problem there is that the pcmcia card is like a little cell phone - it also has 802.11 and bluetooth built-in... all things I already have on my laptop and cell phone - the only thing I dont have on my laptop is the ability to connect to the tmobile gsm/gprs network directly... and I don't like the idea of having to pay for an additional service plan just for the laptop since I'm already paying over $200/month bills for 4 phones and interent on them...

If there's a way I figured you all would know... If not - perhaps you know someone who would be willing to be PAID to program a new PPC app that would run on the mobile 2003 platform and share internet with wifi connections or bluetooth connections... THAT would be awsome... think about it... take a cellphone anywhere and have it act as a wifi hotspot router for several pc's/laptops.... sure the connections would be SLOW but the point is - whereever there's GSM/GPRS connection available - you'd have service for a meeting or at least emails...

Got any ideas?

TheSailor

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#13592 15-Mar-2005 07:17

This is What HP support rep told me today:

Mon, Mar 14, 2005 11:43 AM] -- Kevin
Thank you for being online. I understand that you need to share internet connection from the pocket PC to the laptop. I am afraid , we do not have this feature on the laptop.

I have asked T-Mobile, I've asked the wrong people at MS... perhaps you guys have an answer or solution... I've got HP everywhere in my office and home and I never thought about just asking you folks..

is it possible with 3rd party software or anything like that? ppc to any desktop or laptop?

[ Mon, Mar 14, 2005 11:47 AM] -- Kevin
I would suggest you to contact HP support for iPod at 1-800-474-6836 regarding this issue.

They would have the necessary information regarding this query.

ok thanks for the tip...

freitasm

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#13595 15-Mar-2005 07:33

Wow! Sorry for being this clear, but what a load of stupid comments from HP support this time! In general they're a little better than this. And what the iPOD support has to do with the iPAQ (or was just a typo?)

Anyway, what you need is not Internet Sharing, but simply use the Bluetooth dial-up profile. Check these instructions (assuming the Bluetooth is running with Widcomm software).

You'll have to search in our forums for "t-mobile" to find the username and password for the GPRS service. You'll also need GPRS services in your account of course.

TheSailor

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#13596 15-Mar-2005 07:53

THANKS - it was easier than the Windows 2000 example you gave in my win xp... took 2 seconds... AARRGGHHH... you'd think no one at MS, HP or Tmobile ever used these services
Still looking for the username and password - on hold with TMobile customer support.. we'll see... I'll also post how I did it on XP.

TheSailor

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#13601 15-Mar-2005 12:28

OK... been on the phone and chat rooms with HP, T-Mobile and others all day now... Here's what I got from T-Mobile Tier 3 (top level) Wireless Data Services:
While the iPaq has the capability of doing this (sharing its gsm internet via dial-up modem connections with bluetooth serial connection to a laptop)... the bluetooth drivers in the iPaq are old and unstable (version 1.00 - there is a 1.2 or something like that normally available now) and we [T-Mobile] are waiting for HP to put out an update for it..."
The T-MoFo rep continued:
"As for the gsm modem - it has known issues with this regard"... saying that even if there were no concerns with the bluetooth connection between the laptop and ipaq 6315 - as if there was another way to connet them and then establish the ipaq thru dial up networking as a modem for the laptop - the MODEM on the iPaq is flaky too..." They know about the issue and are waiting for HP to release an update....

sounds like a bunch of bull to me - but I said OK and went on... A little upset because I was talked into the h6315 because my T-Mobile PPC2000 (the original ppc cell phone they offered a couple years ago) has been on the fritz... I wanted to upgrade to old ppc2000 to ppc2002 and now ppc2003... they said it was impossible and they (t-mo) were not going to support it any longer... a bunch of bs when you spend several hundred dollars on it... so I was bullied into buying the iPaq and signing another one year contract with T-Mo so that I could get a price break (instead of 699 I paid like 499)... still BS - but one of the reasons I chose it was because the sales rep and literature supported the idea that I could use it (the h6315) as a modem for my laptop when out in the field, as well as it had 802.11b and a pathetic camera - but it's there...

So now they say it never worked right in the first place - but because the h6315's browser works itself - there's nothing more they need to do. I'm told that they have no idea when or I HP will write an update to fix the sluggish gsm modem or bluetooth upgrades...

SOOOO I called HP...

I talked with a VERY helpful young man in customer service that helped me re-establish the bluetooth activesync (I had unknowinlgy stupidly changed a COM port setting and forgot to change it back... duhh) and then we went to the bluetooth update.. He asked up the line and sent some emails to product development teams asking about it.. the only response was that they were unaware of any issues with the ipaq6315 's modem and have no timeline for an update for the bluetooth drivers... yet for the non-tmobile and non-US market pda's there is an available download for updating the bluetooth to the current stadard - just not for the t-mobile phones... MORE HEADACHES.... OK - so no timeline on that and not aware of gsm modem problems...

I finally just went and played with it a while... WIN XP: Network Connections: NEW : Internet: Manual connection: connect using dial-up then I chose the standard modem over bluetooth (com6 in my case) : named it "T-Mo" : used *99# as the phone number to dial : no user name or password (as per the tmo rep) : unchecked the "use as default connection as I use wi-fi lan usually : hit dial... then I waited....

eventually the ipaqasks to accept dial-up networking from the laptop... : accept: verifying user and pass appears on the laptop - then it connected at 115.2Kbps

Awsome... finally I thought...

I opened a browser and nothing... so I went to google.com... nothing.. then I tried yahoo.com and whammo it loaded...

then I tried to clicka link and nothing... tried a different site andnothing... then the phone (ipaq) screen went blank (power setting I think) and everythign just sat there... So I clicked disconect on the network connections on the laptop and tried to re-conenct.

now it tries to dial in and is rejected - Service not available" or the "error 626 number is busy...."

ocassionally I am ableto get thru - but nothing more comes across or very little before it dumps my connection...

Long story short: no one at HP or T-Mobile will take the blame for it not working much less tell me when or IF a patch will be available - to add to the story they tried to talk me into buying a Treo600 to use as a laptop modem for another $400!!!

What luck eh? Anyone else every have the bait and switch feeling with T-Mobile pulled on them? Call or Email me the story - I'm starting to get a little flustered... I think the iPaq could very well be an awsome device - if the bugs just get taken care of in a timely manner... so much for alfa and beta testing devices thuroughly anymore before product release...

-Eric