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Connecting your PDA to the Internet using Bluetooth

Using your PDA to browse wirelessly the internet is a very nice experience. One could roam around the house or office within or lie around in bed while reading Slashdot. PDAs nowadays have at least Bluetooth or WIFI to connect to the net. WIFI is very is to use but Bluetooth sometimes is cumbersome. This tutorial is a step by step guide on how to connect your Bluetooth PDA to the net.

First we need to have the needed software and hardware to let it work. A Bluetooth USB dongle is need and nothing else for the hardware. The PC also should be able to connect to the internet. For the software part, we need 2 pieces of software, the Bluetooth stack and the routing software.

BlueSoleil configurationFor the Bluetooth stack, the most common is BlueSoleil. It can be downloaded here freely but with 5 Megabyte limit. Sometimes the unlimited version is free together USB dongle when bought. The limited version is still usable. When reaching the 5M limit just disconnect and reconnect again and you are given another 5M. Install this on your PC.

For the routing software, I use m-Router. It can be downloaded here. This software routes your Bluetooth connection to your PC’s internet connection. I like this one because DHCP is already built-in on this package, so no need to configure IP addresses and DNS entries. Download and then install this software.

After installing both software. Open BlueSoleil Main Window by clicking the Bluetooth icon on the system taskbar. If the Service Window is shown, or press “Ctrl+TAB” to show it. Then follow these steps:

  • Click “My Services” on the pull-down menu.
  • The “Service Properties” window should open. Then click on the “Serial Port A” tab.
  • On this tab, check the “Auto-start this service when My Bluetooth starts”
  • On top of this checkbox, take a note of the Serial Port Service COM port it is using. See the picture. On my PC it is “COM8″. Remember this may be different on your PC.
  • Then pair your phone to the PC. This is done by making your phone “discoverable” then clicking the center orange circle (sun) on the BlueSoleil window. Your phone icon should appear on the elliptical lines surrounding the circle. Right click on the icon and select “Pair device”. Enter a common passkey on both phone and PC. Typing “1″ on both devices will do.

m-Router configurationNext, configure the m-Router software. To do this, open it by double-clicking the icon on the system taskbar. Then do the following steps:

  • Click on the “Advanced Settings” tab.
  • Then on the “Connectivity Methods” box, click on the “+” icon of the “Additional COM Ports” line.
  • This shows the available COM ports to use as connection. Click on the COM port number BlueSoleil Serial Port Service you have noted during the BlueSoleil configuration. In my case, it is COM8. And check it. See attached picture.

There you have it. A fully configured PC to route your Bluetooth packets to the internet. Just use your PDA to connect to the PC by either using DUN (Dial-up networking) or PAN (Personal Area Networking).