Use your 3G HSPA smartphone as a wireless modem for your Mac while on-the-road
What you need:
One of these AT&T smartphones:
Time to complete:
- Approximately 5 - 10 minutes (pairing the cell phone with your Mac and making a connection)
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How to Use Your 3G AT&T Phone as a Modem for Your Mac
Never miss a call when you use your 3G HSPA smartphone as a portable modem with your Mac
Jun. 24, 2008
Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter
We’ve all heard about the potential of 3G, but did you know that with HSPA 3G, you can use your cell phone as a wireless modem for your laptop and still take a call? It’s true; you won’t even lose your connection when you finish the phone call. Now with a 3G HSPA smartphone from AT&T and an unlimited data plan, you can pair your handset with a Mac via Bluetooth and use the cell phone’s high-speed data service as a modem when you’re on the road. This type of connection provides cable-like speeds, so you’ll have no problem surfing the Web or listening to streaming music on your Mac. The one caveat is that you need to be in an area with support for AT&T’s HSPA network (the service is currently available in over 270 markets); otherwise, you’ll be surfing over EDGE networks, which typically deliver downlinks in the 100-130 kbps range – about twice the speed of a dial-up connection.
Note: We did this how-to using a Samsung SGH-A737 cell phone; however, it’s best to use one of the smartphones listed on the side.
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1. Turn on Bluetooth on your Mac and cell phone
First, activate the Bluetooth feature on your Mac and on your cell phone. To do this on the Mac, mouse over to the faint Bluetooth icon in the top-right corner of the screen and select it. Scroll down and choose Turn Bluetooth On. To activate the feature in a cell phone, locate the Bluetooth feature in your phone’s menu. There will either be a dedicated Bluetooth menu, or you can find Bluetooth in Settings and then Connections. Select the On option for Bluetooth. When Bluetooth is activated in your cell phone, you will see the Bluetooth icon in the phone’s information bar at the top of the screen (likely next to the battery icon).
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2. Let your Mac discover your cell phone
Next, you need to put both devices into discoverable mode so that they can connect to each other via Bluetooth. To accomplish this on a Mac, go to the same place you went to turn Bluetooth on, view the drop-down menu, and choose Discoverable from the menu. On the cell phone, go to the same Bluetooth menu, and there will be an option for Visibility. Choose that and select the option that allows the cell phone to be Discoverable. Once both products are discoverable, they’ll start searching for each other.
Note: Once the devices initially discover each other and pair, the Mac will appear in your list of connections on the cell phone, and the name of your cell phone will appear in the Bluetooth drop-down menu on the Mac. Going forward, you’ll only have to make the devices discoverable and select the name of the product you want to pair on one of the products.
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3. Make a Bluetooth connection
Once the devices detect each other, you’ll be prompted to enter a PIN in order to connect the Mac with the cell phone via Bluetooth. This 4-digit code can be anything; you’ll just need to enter the same number on the cell phone that you do on the Mac.
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4. Create a connection on the Mac
Now that the Mac and the cell phone are connected via Bluetooth, it’s time to set up the data connection so that you can use the 3G high-speed data connection as a modem for your Mac. In order to do this, you’ll need to mouse over to the phone icon on the top-right corner of the Mac, and select Open Network Preferences.
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5. Connect to the cell phone’s 3G data network
When the Open Network Preferences box appears on the screen, Bluetooth should be highlighted in the left-hand column; if it’s not highlighted, select it yourself. Now all you need to do is choose Connect. There’s no need to type in a telephone number or account name.
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6. Complete the connection and start surfing at 3G speeds
The connection box will appear, and you shouldn’t need to type in anything. Since the cell phone has already been paired with the Mac, it should automatically pre-populate the settings. If this is the first time you’re making a connection to use the cell phone as a modem, you’ll need to type in "isp.cingular" in the APN box. Once the connection is made, you’ll be able to start surfing the Internet and send/receive e-mail at cable-network speeds.
Note: To see this device in action, check out our video.
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