|
This page describes how to build a complete computer system, based around a Mobile Phone with GPRS (General Packet Radio System) capability, for accessing the internet and email.
See also: Ricardo (all my computer ideas), especially BluetoothPhoneIncluder, BluetoothPhoneIncluderLatestSystem, InternetAccessByMobilePhone, Sneakernet.
There are 3 main computer-systems you can build :-
- GPRS Phone only (with a web-browser program).
- GPRS Bluetooth Phone + Bluetooth Keyboard (iGo Stowaway).
- GPRS Phone + Laptop, linked by Bluetooth, Infrared or USB Cable.
Important point - You have nothing to lose by enabling GPRS on your phone. If you don't use GPRS for a period of time, then you don't pay anything. This applies to everyone; individuals, Peace Centres, Telecentres, businesses, schools, etc.
The GPRS Phone Computer System is based on some ideas from...
BluetoothPhoneIncluder, BluetoothPhoneIncluderLatestSystem and InternetAccessByMobilePhone
The central idea - It centres around the idea that...
'A modern mobile phone is like a small laptop computer'
...able to run a wide range of applications like word-processors, text editors, eBook readers, media players, etc. It also has communication circuitry as well, like a laptop or PC with a modem, so you can use email and surf the web.
Possible uses include :-
- Peace Centres, starting with very little money
- Minimalist Telecentres, starting small and using profits to grow larger
- Business computer systems
- Individual Home-Computer systems
- Schools
For Kenya in particular, I intend to publish a PDF step-by-step guide called something like "Accessing the internet from your GPRS Phone", when we have gathered all the information on the Safaricom and Celtel GPRS services, and tested it.
As well as using the phone on its own, it could also link to a laptop or dektop PC, by Bluetooth (radio-link), Infrared or USB Cable, to give the computer internet-access from anywhere with a phone signal.
Finding out your phone's internet capabilities  For a start, you need to find the Manufacturer's Name and Model No. for your phone.
Now check the internet capabilities of your phone, on the manufacturer's website...
 http://www.nokia.com/
http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/
http://www.motorola.com/
or on a 3rd party information site, like this one...
http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_3100-453.php
or do a Google search for '<Make and model of phone> specification'...
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=nokia+3100+specification&meta=
I find the gsmarena site the quickest for checking other people's phone specifications.
Internet Technologies:
Now look at the specification and see whether the phone supports these internet access technologies...
GPRS - The best technology, where you pay by the kilobyte for internet access.
WAP - Second-best, you pay by the minute, sometimes limited to small WAP pages.
Dial-Up - The phone doesn't have GPRS or WAP, just a 9600 bps dial-up modem.
Finding out your phone's connectivity to other phones and computers
Look at the phone-specification and see whether the phone has...
Bluetooth - A short range radio link to other Bluetooth devices. You can link to phones for file-transfer, or link your laptop or PC via a USB Bluetooth adapter. Your computer can then use your phone for internet access.
Infrared - An Infrared light-beam connection to other Infrared devices. You can link to phones for file-transfer, or link your laptop via it's built-in Infrared port, or link to your PC via a USB Infrared adapter. Your computer can then use your phone for internet access.
If your phone doesn't have Bluetooth or Infrared, you can use a USB Cable connection between your laptop/PC and phone, for internet access.
GPRS Phones with GPRS (General Packet Radio System) capability can access the internet using the mobile-phone company's GPRS data-packet service. In the major cities of Africa, you can use the fast GPRS/EDGE (Enhanced Data Rate GRPS) service, with data rates up to 384kbps (7 x 56k dial-up). In other areas, you can use standard GPRS at 40 to 80kbps, similar to 56K dial-up speed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gprs
Instructions - How to enable GPRS via your phone company
To use GPRS, you need to contact your phone company and ask them to enable GPRS on your phone, so you then have a GPRS-enabled SIM card.
You can do this...
- At a phone shop, such as a Kenya Safaricom or Celtel shop.
- By calling customers services, or
- Some companies have an automated SMS service, described on their website (search the website for 'GPRS', to find the relevant page).
- In some countries, for signed-up post-pay customers only, you can also login to your phone account on a website and use a form to request GPRS.
- If the phone company says "We don't support your phone model, so you can't have GPRS enabled", don't give up. You can still get the GPRS settings from their website and enter them manually into the phone. Look on the phone-company website for a similar model, like Nokia 3100, get the settings (username, password, Access Point Name, etc), then follow the instructions in your phone manual to 'create a new connection'. The phone manual is available as a PDF file from the Nokia/Sony Ericsson/Motorola/etc website 'support and download' section.
So, you contact your phone company and say something like "I'm a pre-pay customer, and I want to access the internet on my Nokia 3100 phone (or whatever). Please can you enable GPRS on my phone".
Whichever way you contact them, the phone company sends an SMS text-message to your phone, containing the GPRS settings. It has a readable message saying how to save the settings in your phone (SIM card). There may be a 4 digit PIN No, for some phone companies, either in the SMS message or given to you seperately at the phone shop, during your phone-call to them or by email or letter-post.
On my Nokia phone for a UK mobile-phone company, when the SMS arrived, I just had to select the Options menu on the phone, and Save. It prompted me for a 4 digit PIN that I had been sent by email.
In Africa, the simplest method may be to visit a phone-shop (Safaricom, etc). If this isn't possible, then please phone your phone-company's Customer Services department.
Automated system to enable GPRS: Some phone companies have an automated SMS system to enable GPRS, as one option you can use. For Safaricom Kenya, this page describes how to enable GPRS by SMS, but the info on their site is hard to understand, so it may only apply to Safaricom Advantage customers...
http://www.safaricom.co.ke/2005/printed.asp?active_page_id=194
It says - To automatically set up GPRS on the above, please write a message as below and send to 416
<Make of Phone> GPRS
Example; NOKIA GPRS
It can be done for the following makes of phone:
Nokia
SonyEricsson
Siemens
Alcatel
You will receive an SMS with your settings which you will need to save on your handset. You can also refer to your mobile phone manual or log on to www.safaricom.co.ke for a guide on mobile phone manual set-up. You can also contact the Safaricom Customer Care Centre for assistance. - Phone 200.
For Celtel Kenya, it says - If you have any questions at all - about your phone, your tariff plan or how to use our services - just call us or send email to: customercare@ke.celtel.com.
Help for Prepaid customers - If you are a Celtel Prepaid subscriber, dial 710 from your mobile phone or 0733 100 710 from any phone.
See http://www.ke.celtel.com/en/customer-care/contact-us/index.html
Here's another example. These pages are for internet services with Vodacom Tanzania...
http://www.vodacom.co.tz/docs/docredir.asp?docid=3427 - All internet services
http://www.vodacom.co.tz/docs/docredir.asp?docid=3435 - Enable INTERNET or WAP
It says - "To activate, send a free SMS saying INTERNET (space) phone make (space) phone model number to 15300. Example: INTERNET SAMSUNG V600i"
It carries on "If your phone doesn't support GPRS, you can use WAP and pay by the minute - send a free SMS saying WAP (space) phone make (space) phone model number to 15300. If your device / phone model is not available, call Vodacom Customer Care (100 or 101) for assistance. Vodacom send you an SMS with a PIN to save the settings. Default PIN is 1234. Then you can use the web-browser on your phone and enter the web-address you want to go to."
Celtel Tanzania:
From http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Celtel/message/3
"If you want to read your emails on your phone, the first thing is you must have GPRS compatible phone(Those phone with colored screen or with camera is an example of those) Then you must send the word internet to number 232 you will recive three meseges the first one will be instruction, the second one will be the settings save them, and the third one will be instruction.. Your phone must have not less than 600 Tzshs Balance.."
Other companies:
For other companies, see their website and search it for 'GPRS', to find the right page.
Phone company websites, for GPRS info and Customer Care phone No.
Here are some phone company websites...
Kenya:
Safaricom Kenya - http://www.safaricom.co.ke/2005/default.asp
Safaricom - Call Customer Care on the number 200 and ask them to enable GPRS.
Celtel Kenya - http://www.ke.celtel.com/en/
Celtel pre-pay customers - Call Customer Services on the number 710 and ask them to enable GPRS. They will send you an SMS with the settings.
The customer care page says - Help desks - If you prefer to see someone face-to-face, then visit a help desk in one of our offices (Mon - Fri, 8:30am - 5.30pm. Sat 8:30am - 1pm):
See Celtel Kenya - Customer Care and GPRS FAQ pages...
http://www.ke.celtel.com/en/customer-care/contact-us/index.html
http://www.ke.celtel.com/en/customer-care/faqs/gprs-faqs/index.html
The Celtel FAQ page is well worth reading, even if you are with a different company. It tells you a lot about GPRS internet access.
Tanzania:
Vodacom Tanzania - http://www.vodacom.co.tz/docs/docredir.asp
Uganda:
MTN Uganda - http://www.mtn.co.ug/
Celtel Uganda - http://www.ug.celtel.com/en/
Other countries:
For other countries and companies websites, just do a Google search.
GPRS Data Charges Firstly, let me say that You have nothing to lose by enabling GPRS on your phone. This applies to everyone; individuals, Peace Centres, Telecentres, businesses, schools, etc. There is no monthly subscription. If you don't use GPRS for months or years, then you don't pay anything. You only pay when you use the internet, paying for the number of kilobytes of data uploaded/downloaded (web-pages, files, etc). Inactivity costs nothing, while you take several minutes to read a long web-page, or do something else. It only costs money when you click a link and cause a new page to be downloaded.
To find out the current charges per kilobyte of data, please contact your phone company, at one of their shops, by phoning customer services, or see their website.
Safaricom Kenya: It's difficult to find the GPRS information on their website, and to know exactly who the information applies to (pre-pay or post-pay customers, individuals or businesses).
This page has the GPRS data-charges for their Mobile Office service, which may be similar to the prices charged to individuals. Check with customer services.
http://www.safaricom.co.ke/2005/default2.asp?active_page_id=387
Current price at 17-Feb-2008: 0.03 KSH/KB or 30 KSH/MB, Tariff Rate exclusive of 16% VAT and 10% Excise Duty. After taxes, that gives a total price of 0.03828 KSH/KB or 38.28 KSH/MB, but please check the latest price yourself.
Celtel: See their FAQ page for charges per kilobyte...
http://www.ke.celtel.com/en/customer-care/faqs/gprs-faqs/index.html
At present 17-Feb-2008, they are - Prepaid PAYG charged at 20 Ksh/MB inclusive of taxes, Post Paid PAYG charged at 16 Ksh/MB exclusive of taxes. There are some cheaper bundle prices for post-pay customers.
Comparison of Safaricom and Celtel Kenya:
My information could be wrong, but Safaricom at 38.28 KSH/MB seems to be more expensive than Celtel at 20 KSH/MB. Some articles I read saying that Safaricom are cheaper than Celtel must be out of date. If you use a GPRS phone in Kenya, please let me know what you're paying, and whether any of the info on this page is wrong. The prices on this page are just to give you an approximate price. - Ricardo February 17, 2008 14:58 CET
Controlling your GPRS Costs See InternetAccessByMobilePhone#ControllingyourGPRSCosts for how to save money on GPRS Data-Charges, by browsing in text-only mode, for email, etc.
WAP alternative If your phone doesn't support GPRS, it may still support WAP, where you pay for internet-access by the minute, not by the kilobyte. You may find that the service is limited to small, specially-formatted WAP pages (not the full internet), beginning with 'wap', in the style http://wap.xyz.com/
It's quite limiting, and more expensive than GPRS access, but may be worth using for email, news and google/yahoo searches.
Dial Up Alternative to GPRS and WAP If your phone doesn't support GPRS or WAP, but it does have modem capability, your phone company may provide a slow 9600 bps dial-up internet-service that you can use. Ask your phone company about this, at one of their shops or by calling customer services and telling them what phone make and model you have.
Adding Bluetooth Peripherals If your phone has Bluetooth, a short range radio link between computer/phone devices, then you can add some fairly cheap peripherals, to turn your phone into a more useable and useful computer system.
You can add :-
1. A Bluetooth full-size QWERTY Keyboard
(some of these like the iGo Stowaway fold in half for carrying)
See photos on the BluetoothPhoneIncluderLatestSystem page.
2. A Bluetooth printer, to print documents, web-pages, eBooks, photos, forms, leaflets, etc, from the internet. People with Bluetooth camera phones can also send photos to the printer.
3. Anyone with a laptop or PC can add a USB Bluetooth adapter (sometimes called a dongle). The phone can then transfer files to/from the computer.
4. 1Gb or 2GB SD Memory Card - If the phone has a memory-card slot, you can turn the phone into a 'file library'. You can keep a whole load of files (programs, documents, eBooks, web-pages, photos, MP3, videos, etc) and act as a mobile library for other people. You can transfer files by Bluetooth radio-link to other phones or computers, or Infrared, if your phone has that too. See ElectronicLibraries.
You can transfer files between 2 phones by Bluetooth. That can be just between one or two friends phones, or you could set up a large Sneakernet system for a whole region, to distribute files by phone and take them to/from a place with internet-access, either to/from a phone in an area with internet-access or to/from a PC at an internet-cafe. In this way, files can be transferred from phone-to-phone, to/from people who live where there is no mobile-phone signal, who just use a phone-handset like a small laptop, to read/write messages as files using a text-editor or record/listen-to voice messages as files in the phone internal-memory or a flash memory-card.
See BluetoothPhoneIncluder
Connecting your Laptop or PC to the internet by mobile phone When you have set up GPRS internet access on your phone, and you can browse the internet on the phone, you can now link the phone to your Laptop or PC and access the internet from your computer, via the phone. You can link the computer and phone together in 3 ways; by Bluetooth (radio), by Infrared (light) or by USB Cable.
See InternetAccessByMobilePhone#Settingupyourcomputersinternetbrowsertousethephone
Area of operation A GPRS phone computer system could provide internet-access to a whole community, anywhere with a mobile phone signal, which means within a few kilometres of a mobile-phone mast. If coverage is poor, some fairly cheap external antennas are available for phones, to extend the range, if they are legal in that country.
In some countries, phones are linked over 25KM to a phone mast by rooftop antenna, by the MTN Uganda VillagePhone service, for example...
http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?InternetAccessByMobilePhone#MTNVillagePhoneUganda
Peace Centre technology I've been looking at Dan Otedo and Pam McLean's idea for Peace Centres in Kenya and suggested that they can start small with just one internet terminal, then earn money to buy more computers.
They may be able to use some of the Bluetooth Phone Includer ideas...
http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?BluetoothPhoneIncluder
In fact, they could start with just a GPRS phone, for interent-access and email, then charge people to use it and make a small profit to buy more equipment. They just need to contact the phone company at a shop or by phone to ask them to enable GPRS on their phone (making their SIM into a 'GPRS-enabled SIM). The company sends an SMS with the settings, with instructions on how to store the GPRS settings in the phone.
The details include the company's APN (Access Point Name), user name, password, home page, etc.
If Peace Centres can afford a Bluetooth phone (or Infrared), they can build a small computer system around their first phone. They can add a full-size QWERTY Keyboard, like the iGo Stowaway Ultra-Slim Bluetooth Keyboard PDA Phone UK. I've just bought one for my phone. It helps people write emails and SMS text-messages, and even a built-in or freeware word-processor programs on the phone.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/iGo-Stowaway-Ultra-Slim-Bluetooth-Keyboard-PDA-Phone-UK_W0QQitemZ160206464959QQihZ006QQcategoryZ10364QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem
Other useful things to do are :-
1. Buy a Bluetooth printer (a printer with a Bluetooth interface for receiving files to print). Paper printouts of information from the net, eBooks, leaflets, forms, etc, opens up information to the whole population, not just phone or computer owners.
2. Transfer files to/from other people's Bluetooth phones at the centre, by short range Bluetooth radio link.
3. Copying files between phones can turn into a full Sneakernet, covering the whole area, and linking phones and computers, and other devices that can accept memory cards, such as digital photo frames.
4. Add a 1GByte or 2GByte SD Memory Card, if the phone has a slot for it. This allows the phone to act as a 'File Library' for eBooks, MP3s, programs, video-clips, photos, copies of web-pages downloaded or waiting for upload, copies of 'local websites' to be copied onto all phones in the area, etc.
5. Many Bluetooth phones also have an Infrared link, so files can also be copied to Infrared-only phones. One Infrared phone can operate a Sneakernet, copying files to other Infrared only phones. It only takes one combined Bluetooth and Infrared phone in the area to link the Bluetooth and Infrared Sneakernets, it doesn't have to be the Peace Centre's own phone.
6. Phones can be used to transfer files to/from laptops (which usually have an Infrared port), or to/from a Desktop PC with a Bluetooth or Infrared adapter (dongle). Hence, all the businesses, schools, NGOs, home-computers in the area can join the Sneakernet and at least have indirect access to the internet.
The Sneakernet can have an email service using text files to carry email., in the same format as ordinary emails...
From: jsmith@abc.com
To: fjones@xyz.com
Subject: Invitation to meeting
Body: Dear Fred, blah, blah, blah...
Phone + Laptop + Bluetooth adapter/dongle
I've got this working on my Desktop PC + Bluetooth Dongle + Nokia N73 phone.
1. You need to get your phone company to enable GPRS. See their website for details. Sometimes their is an automatic form where you enter your phone number and receive an SMS with the settings. Alternatively, phone their Customer Services people, or visit their phone shop to get GPRS enabled.
2. You need to install the Bluetooth dongle. Some have a CD with drivers, some use Microsoft drivers.
3. You need to go through a Bluetooth 'Pairing' process between the 2 devices (phone and laptop). See Phone manual for details. You enter a 4-digit passcode on the 2 devices, that you choose yourself, such as 7291. After that, they can communicate securely at any time. You don't need to remember it.
4. For Bluetooth you need to read your phone manual and use your phone menus. Make sure Bluetooth is on and your phone is 'visible' and 'discoverable', so that other Bluetooth devices within the 10 meter range can discover it. You are still kept secure by your phone only talking to paired devices. (If you're using Infrared, make sure Infrared is ON).
5. On your phone menus make sure your phone-modem is ON. On my Nokia N73 phone, this was under Tools, Modem.
Your phone should be recognised as a modem. If not, you can try running the Start button, Settings, Control Panel, Add new hardware wizard to detect it, or just shutdown and re-start your computer.
6. You then need to create a 'Dial Up Networking' connection on the laptop or PC.
You can get the Nokia (PC Suite Software), Sony Ericsson (Connection Manager), Motorola applications to do this automatically, and ask you for the details it needs, or you can do it manually.
On Windows XP, the manual process uses Start, Settings, Control Panel, Network Connections, Create a New connection. It may ask you for APN, User Name and Password (from your phone menus or phone-company website or articles on the internet about your phone company, or by calling your phone company customer-services). If it asks for a phone number, you can try *99# (normal) or *99***1#, *99***2#, *99***3#, etc, or none.
You may find these articles useful...
http://www.filesaveas.com/gprsconnect.html#laptop - Setting up Dial Up Networking
http://www.filesaveas.com/connect.html (connection problems)
http://www.filesaveas.com/gprs.html GPRS settings
7. Now make the phone modem the 'default modem' for Internet Explorer. Right click the Internet Explorer icon on the desktop, select the 'Connections' tab, click the phone modem to select it, then click the 'Make default' button and OK.
8. Now we need to test it. Double-click the Internet Explorer icon to run it. A 'connecting' dialog should pop up. The first time you use it, it may have the user name, password and phone number already from our setup process, or ask you for it again. You can tick the box to save it for every time you connect. The dialog should connect to the internet, like a dial-up modem, then launch Internet Explorer. You should see whatever home page you selected. You can change your home page in the Internet Explorer Tools, Internet Options dialog, if you want.
Web-browser Programs Many phones have a built-in browser. You can also use the very good, free Opera Mini browser on standard phones, or Opera Mobile on Smart Phones.
http://www.opera.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_(web_browser)
Most low-cost phones can use the free Opera Mini browser...
http://www.operamini.com/
This page describes the 3 ways you can download it; phone-download, PC or SMS.
http://www.operamini.com/download/
Free phone software Many people don't realise this, but there is a lot of useful Freeware on the internet for mobile phones, if you look hard enough.
I will add some links soon.
For now, try this Google search for 'mobile phone freeware'...
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=mobile+phone+freeware&meta=
or 'cell phone freeware' (the American term for mobile phones)...
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=cell+phone+freeware&meta=
There is a wide range of phone software, like a laptop, including Open Office (Word Processor, Spreasheet, etc), eBook readers, PDF readers, media players, communications programs, etc.
Note - Some websites want you to sign-up for a service, so ignore those. Just get phone freeware from websites that let you download files without giving any of your contact details, the websites run by public-sprited hobbyists.
Commercial phone software If you can afford it, there is a wide range of commercial programs available for mobile phones. A good word-processor, for example, may be a good investment, especially if many different people are going to share a phone computer system.
This is the Nokia Software Supermarket, for example...
http://www.softwaremarket.nokia.com/?software_categories.html&lang=en
Even if you can't afford any commercial programs, these sites give you a good idea of the wide range of programs that exist. Someone may have written a freeware version of them.
There are some surprisingly advanced programs for phones, such as one that captures a photo on a camera-phone from a school/business white-board or black-board, then performs Optical Character Recognition, turns it into text, so you can email it or send it by SMS.
As I said, a phone is like a small laptop, so there are equivalents to many PC programs, but created for mobile phones.
Screen rotation One way to make the phone-screen more readable, for web-browsing and email, is to rotate the screen image from portrait to landscape. There are freeware programs to do this for various phones or Operating-Systems.
For example RotateMe for Symbian 60 phones, like some Nokia Smartphones.
http://www.bysamir.fr/rotateme/
Also, try mobile phone freeware sites or a Google search.
Screen Magnification This is a bit amateurish, but to make the phone-screen more readable, there are some Magnifiers available, that either clip-on to the phone. Also, there are some magnifiers with a stand that you position over the phone or a PDA, like a Nintendo GameBoy magnifier. You can buy these from some mobile-phone accessory shops and websites, Amazon online bookstore http://www.amazon.co.uk/, eBay auction/sale site http://www.ebay.co.uk/, etc.
See these pictures on Google Image search for what I have in mind.
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=phone+magnifier&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
http://images.google.co.uk/images?um=1&hl=en&safe=active&q=game+boy+magnifier
About this page
- PageType=Endeavor
- EndeavorLeader=Ricardo
- EndeavorTeam=AndriusKulikauskas, SashaMrkailo, DanOtedo
- EndeavorSummary=GprsPhoneComputerSystem - Describing how to build a complete computer system around a mobile phone with GPRS internet-access capability, perhaps adding a Bluetooth Keyboard and printer, and linking with other phones to form a Sneakernet for the whole area. Possible applications are for Peace Centres and Minimalist Telecentres, starting with very little money, schools, businesses and home users. A GPRS phone could also link to a laptop or PC by Bluetooth, Infrared or USB cable to give it internet-access.
- PageByRicardo=GprsPhoneComputerSystem - Describing how to build a complete computer system around a mobile phone with GPRS internet-access capability, perhaps adding a Bluetooth Keyboard and printer, and linking with other phones to form a Sneakernet for the whole area. Possible applications are for Peace Centres and Minimalist Telecentres, starting with very little money, schools, businesses and home users. A GPRS phone could also link to a laptop or PC by Bluetooth, Infrared or USB cable to give it internet-access.
Ricardo (England)
Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:07:31 UTC jack: stil dont know why its not working
SashaMrkailo : finally I have a GPRS mobile phone - Nokia 3110. Will experiment with it a little to see how it works.
Tue, 23 Sep 08 20:22:23 +0000 124biola: Pls how can i connect my nokia phone to my laptop window xp using infrared link and direct me how set my laptop network
Hi. Is your username biola, or has it been cut short?
I'm sorry I didn't notice this question that you posted back in September 2008. I don't get any automatic alerts, so I need to check the page from time to time.
To connect your phone and laptop for internet access :-
1. Take your phone to a phone shop and ask them to enable GPRS on it, or phone customers services and ask them to send you an SMS to enable it.
2. Use the browser program on your phone to check the GPRS connection works and you can access the internet on the phone (without a laptop).
3. An Infrared light link from laptop to phone requires a direct line-of-sight. Find out where the Infrared windows are on your phone and laptop (if you need the location from a phone or laptop manual, you can usually download it from the manufacturers website as a PDF file. It's a good idea to search through the PDF phone manual for the words 'GPRS' and 'Infrared' for advice on setting it up, where to find settings in the phone menu, etc). Place the laptop and phone Infrared windows opposite each other, about 30cm apart or less. Laptops usually have an Infrared interface built-in. For anyone using a PC, you can buy a USB Infrared adapter, install the driver from CD, plug in the the adapter and it may be auto-detected. If not, use the windows control panel to Add New Hardware.
4. On most phones, you need to turn on Infrared using an option in the phone menus (usually each time you want to use it, after power up).
5. On the laptop, go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, Add New Hardware and follow the instructions to auto-detect the phone. It should appear as a new Modem, probably with the same name as the phone type, such as Nokia N73.
6. You now need to create a new network connection on the laptop. You can do this manually, following articles on the internet, but for Nokia phones, it's easier to logon to the Nokia website, support section, on another PC at a cafe etc, download a copy of the free Nokia PC Suite Software onto a flash drive or CD, copy it to the laptop, install it, and use the option to create a new network connection. It may ask you for some APN (Access Point Node) details, which you find by looking in the phone menu (see phone manual) or a phone shop or phone company customers services can tell you, or look on the phone company website for the right settings for your phone model. There's a similar phone manager program on the Sony Ericsson website for their phones. For Motorola phones, you need to buy a phone manager program.
This article has some screen-shots of the whole process for the UK, but it's a similar process in Kenya, etc.
http://www.filesaveas.com/gprsconnect.html
In general, if you need help on any technical subject, you can post a question any time of the day or night on Yahoo Answers at this address (login with your Yahoo Mail ID). To avoid junk email etc, please don't give away personal info in your question, such as email address or real name. You can wait 20 minutes for some answers or set it to email you any answers.
http://answers.yahoo.com/
Ricardo January 15, 2009 15:55 CET
Fri, 03 Oct 08 21:56:59 +0000 Gathogo: I need setting connecting 2 internet using my as modem through pc
Hi Gathogo. Do you mean an ADSL Modem, or is 'as' a brand name of laptop modem card or phone? Ricardo January 15, 2009 15:55 CET
Fri, 19 Dec 08 21:32:42 +0000 MODICAL OP: THANKS GUYS FOR YOUR WONDERFUL CONTRIBUTIONS YOU TEACH GOOD STUFF, YOU KNOW... PLS HELP ME TO KNOW HOW TO SET UP THE GPRS FOR MTN AND GLO MOBILE(S) AND THEIR CORRESPONDING MMS SETUP AND AS WELL HOW TO SAVE COSTS WHEN ACCESSING THE INTERNET VIA GPRS
For MTN, go to an MTN shop and ask them "Please enable GPRS on this phone", or call customer services to send you and SMS with the settings. The SMS will have instructions to save the settings in your phone. Your phone manual tells you how to connect to the web using your phone's web browser. See my answer above, to biola.
For MMS settings, see the MTN website for the settings. Phone MTN Customer Care if neccessary.
To save money on GPRS Charges, please see my advice at...
InternetAccessByMobilePhone#ControllingyourGPRSCosts
Ricardo January 15, 2009 15:55 CET
Thu, 01 Jan 09 14:47:38 +0000 Anand: Really useful - thanks for this. For Kenya the Safaricom page has now changed, APN details are :
Safaricom manual setup*
APN
 web.safaricom.com
Username
web
Password
web
Thanks Anand. Everyone, if this changes again, to keep up to date with your APN settings, please go here on the Safaricom website (Products and Services) and search for 'APN' or 'GPRS'
http://www.safaricom.co.ke/index.php?id=24
Ricardo January 15, 2009 15:55 CET
Thu, 26 Feb 09 16:02:34 +0000 Samfield: Please can someone sent me the step to install opera 4.1 in my nokia 6500.when installing it write fail to connect to internet .PLEASE HELP ME.My email is samfield4christ@yahoo.com.I hope to hear soon
Thu, 26 Feb 09 16:03:11 +0000 Samfield: Please can someone sent me the step to install opera 4.1 in my nokia 6500.when installing it write fail to connect to internet .PLEASE HELP ME.My email is samfield4christ@yahoo.com.I hope to hear soon
Thu, 26 Feb 09 16:06:34 +0000 Samfield: Please can someone sent me the step to install opera 4.1 in my nokia 6500.when installing it write fail to connect to internet .PLEASE HELP ME.My email is samfield4christ@yahoo.com.I hope to hear soon
Add Your Comments
| 
