How to tether AT&T Tilt to Nokia N800/N810 (Bluetooth DUN)

Since Microsoft removed Bluetooth dial-up networking (BT DUN) in favor of Internet Sharing on Windows Mobile devices last year, several people have asked how I was able to tether my AT&T Tilt (WM6) to the Nokia N800/N810 Internet Tablets for the OS2007 vs. OS2008 browser comparisons.

Although various hacks and utilities exist to enable the functionality, I didn't have to use any of them because the Tilt actually supports BT DUN right out of the box. Or at least it does after all the AT&T nonsense is wiped off. (Given that AT&T buried Internet Sharing and put Wireless Modem in its place, I wouldn't put it past them to have somehow disabled DUN too.)

Unfortunately, just because the functionality is there doesn't mean it automatically works. The main obstacle when trying to establish a BT DUN connection between the Tilt and the N800/N810 is that Nokia's predefined operator settings aren't correct. Read on to find out which are.

The AT&T Tilt supports the following Bluetooth profiles: A2DP, AVRC, DUN, FTP, HFP, HSP, and OPP.

All the N800/N810 cares about is DUN.

Tutorial

First things first.

Pair the Tilt and N800/N810 and then follow the steps below to use the phone as a Bluetooth modem for the Internet Tablet.

Step 1: On the N800/N810, go to Settings -> Control Panel -> Phone.

Step 2: Select "New" from the pop-up window and choose the Tilt from the "Select a Phone" list of found devices.

Step 3: An operator setup wizard will launch automatically. Follow the on-screen instructions.

But wait! When asked to pick a cellular operator in step 3 of the wizard, do not select "AT&T Internet."

Choose the "(none)" option instead.

Step 4: After you exit the wizard, go to Settings -> Control Panel -> Connectivity.

Step 5:  Tap the "Connections" button on the pop-up window, select the Tilt from the "Connections" list, and tap the "Edit" button to access the connection setup settings.

Give the connection a name and select "GRPS" as the connection type.

Fill in the fields as shown above. The password is CINGULAR1.

Step 6: Now it's time to get online. Tap the connection icon in the status bar at the top of the N800/N810's home screen.

On the N810, the Tilt icon will look like this:

And on the N800, it looks like this:

Step 7: Select the Tilt from the list of available connections.

And you're done!

You're now surfing the Web on the Nokia N800/N810 using the AT&T Tilt's 3G network connection.

Comments

[Kevin C. Tofel]

Outstanding Jenn... thanks!

[scott]

Any chance you know how to do this with a Blackberry 8830 from Verizon. I keep trying and cant get it to connect properly. I finally gave up and added internet plan to my phone, but thats an extra $60 (with tethering) quite a waste but I am enjoying being able to use my tablet everywhere.

[Larry Fletcher]

Is that possible with the Nokia N770?

I'm guessing no, but I don't know for sure. If so, is there anything different I'd have to do. It would be great to get some LIFE out of that old N770.

Good job BTW!

[Gadi]

Another option is to use WMWiFiRouter - use the phone as a WiFi router, where the internet connection is thru the phone, which acts as an access point/router. Then, the tablet simply connects to a wifi network.

See the info here - WMWifiRouter

[turn_self_off]

one got to love living in a nation where custom operator firmware is a exception rather then the norm.

[orbitalcomp]

I'm with Gadi - I'll put my vote in for WMWifiRouter, it works great. I use it on my Sprint Mogul, but it would probably work on my Advantage as well.

One nice thing about using the Wifi connection is that it is quite a bit faster than using BT, plus you don't have to deal with pairing incompatibilities. Just click one button and it starts everything up for you. Plus multiple users can access it at the same time, just like a traditional Wifi router.

The bad thing about it is that it can really suck the battery dry faster than using BT, so you have to make sure that you can plug-in for extended usage of say, over a few hours.

[scott]

Is their any type of wifi router you can do with a blackberry? That would be great.

[Brad Midgley]

What kind of data rates do you get?

A few years ago I tried several windows phones and couldn't get DUN from a linux client to perform any better than 150kbits/sec.

The cheaper/simpler moto e815 was getting 600kbits/sec on the same network. (Verizon EVDO fwiw)

[Brad Midgley]

I tried this setup myself with my n810. I got 580kbps in a file xfer. Not too bad.

Unfortunately the phone couldn't maintain the data connection while I talk on the phone. This was sort of possible with a razr I tried--sort of because it was crash-prone.

If I use the wap access point, data is suspended during a call. If I use the isp access point, the call is dropped or the data connection is dropped when trying to do both at once.

[Brad Midgley]

I can see why a voice call and DUN can't coexist.

Microsoft implements DUN by allowing the DUN client to talk directly to the GSM chip. This means other applications on the phone like voice are locked out.

They really should have made it so DUN was a virtual modem running on top of the real network stack--I think this might be how razr and others do it. It's also how dund works if you set up a linux access point.

[Arash]

so how come this doesnt work on pc

[Matthew Ciuccio]

Thanks so much. I am so happy you helped me figure out how to do this. The Tilt is great but the N800 can still browse some sites it can not. songza