After my recent look at using S60 with Apple Mac computers (see 'Features|How to'😉, Krisse now starts a new series of articles looking at using S60 with Linux-based computers. First off is a how-to guide on connecting the Linux-based EEE PC to the internet using an S60 phone as a modem.
Read on in the full article.
Smashing, but it is not a bit easier and cable-less to use Jaiku hotspot or similar?
The scary looking command: AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet.saunalahti","0.0.0.0",0,0 is actually quite easy to work out... it's a combination ofwhat you';; see in the Access Points settings on your phone.
The bit you'll most likely need to change is the APN name - in my example below (for T-Mobile UK) it is general.t-mobile.
For example, for T-Mobile UK the command would be:
AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","general.t-mobile","0.0.0.0",0,0
You can easily connect to internet using those two machines via a bluetooth connection.
Turn on Bluetooth in both machines,
Search for devices in EEE PC's Bluetooth Manager
Search for services in EEE PC's Bluetooth Manager
Select dial-up networking
Pair two devices and authorise to accept all connections in N95's Bluetooth Menu
a screen shall popup in EEE PC asking for information
number to be dialled is *99#, other options are unnecessary.
provided your settings in the phone are correct, you should be able to connect, of course sometimes it does not work, try again and it should.
Also works with my Sony Ericsson P910i, and should work with any Bluetooth enabled phone.
I hope this helps.
hiya.is someone in a position to try this tethering with an E71? i remember when this mobile was first announced on here and my question to you in the know was can it be tethered to an eeepc jobbie?the answer was a categorical no!seems someone was a bit more persistant in their efforts to find out if s60 can be married to an eee.
well .. i think it's the time to Nokia release a LINUX Suite instead of these individual solutions!
@MaXeR: While I would certainly welcome some official support for Linux (and perhaps other non-Windows-or-Mac systems too) it's not as simple as just doing a "Linux app". You see, there's a large variety of different desktop environments on Linux (kind of like S60 / UIQ / MOAP on Symbian OS :tongue😊 and also different distributions may include different sets of stuff (and also configure and package them differently).
So, if Nokia made a nice app for the Eee PC's flavour of Linux it may not work well (or at all) with other distros. And no matter how many distros and variations they did support there would always be some they don't (someone running an un-supported homebrew distro on some esoteric hardware platform would compain, I guarantee it!).
I think the best thing Nokia (and other handset manufacturers) could do is open up the protocols they use in PC Suite and other apps to do stuff like sync and back-ups. If these things were openly documented then people could write their own apps to do these things (rather than having to rely on dodgy reverse-engineering). Then, if a handset manufacturer won't provide an official app for a particular OS some clever developer can come along and fill the gap. Who knows, perhaps mainstream systems would benefit too: Someone might write a better PC Suite than PC Suite :tongue:
While it would be nice if they could do the same for firmware updates, I can see why they might want to keep the details of how that works secret for security reasons. But as OTA firmware updates get more commonplace this may be a non-issue anyway.
Regarding a Linux solution from Nokia, I was truly hoping that their Troll Tech purchase might have helped with this. While there are indeed a great many flavours of Linux, I've not run into any significant issues with Qt-based applications running on any of the more popular distributions I've tried (including Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat/Fedora, and SuSE, using both Gnome and KDE desktops). A few applications, such as last.fm's player, I've run on multiple distributions of Linux as well as on Windows XP and Mac OSX.
hiya.is someone in a position to try this tethering with an E71?
I haven't got an E71, however I did manage to tether the EEE PC to a N95 which has the same S60 3rd FP1 platform, and also tethered to a 5320 which has the S60 3rd FP2 platform.
I would guess that the E71 should work fine, I can't think of any reason why the method above wouldn't work with it as well. All it has to is connect through the phone as a modem, which is a standard feature of all S60 models and most Series 40 models too.
You can easily connect to internet using those two machines via a bluetooth connection.
The EEE PC 900 (which is what I am using) and 701 don't have Bluetooth so I thought this was the most universal method.
(And on a more practical level I can't test the Bluetooth method without having a 901 or 1000 model, and they're not out yet in Finland. 😊 )
While I would certainly welcome some official support for Linux (and perhaps other non-Windows-or-Mac systems too) it's not as simple as just doing a "Linux app". You see, there's a large variety of different desktop environments on Linux (kind of like S60 / UIQ / MOAP on Symbian OS ) and also different distributions may include different sets of stuff (and also configure and package them differently).
Nokia does have some official Linux support on their very own Maemo Linux, used in their internet tablets (the 700, N800 and N810). It can link to the internet through Bluetooth DUN phones, and share a common file system with them too.
Interestingly Maemo is compatible with non-Nokia phones too, something that PC Suite isn't.
I think the best thing Nokia (and other handset manufacturers) could do is open up the protocols they use in PC Suite and other apps to do stuff like sync and back-ups
Well, in the case of simply connecting to the internet all that the EEE PC really needs is a built-in list of network operator modem settings, which are all already publicly available from the various network websites.
This is how the Nokia PC Suite's "one touch connection" works, you just pick a network from the list, and there's nothing to stop Asus from including such a list built into the EEE PC, or available as a downloadable patch. Unfortunately Asus haven't done that, so I had to enter the settings manually.
Smashing, but it is not a bit easier and cable-less to use Jaiku hotspot or similar?
That should work too, but it involves downloading the app file to your phone, installing it, setting it up etc which IMHO is a bit more complicated for newbies than the method above.
The other snag is that you can only create hotspots on phones with Wi-Fi, and some S60 phones don't have that (the numbered models for example such as the 6120 or 5320). The USB cable method can be used on Series 40 too I believe, and none of them have Wi-Fi.
Also, USB cable connections tend to extend battery life compared to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth ones.
But each to their own, both methods should work fine, so take your pick and use whatever suits your needs/tastes. 😊
MaXeR wrote:well .. i think it's the time to Nokia release a LINUX Suite instead of these individual solutions!I don't know what you mean by "individual solutions". Linux uses ppp as the underlying mechanism for connecting to all kinds of serial links/modems. You can edit the ppp files directly or you can use any number of GUIs, either way will work. Nokia releasing an app to do this would be YET ANOTHER gui to crowd and to confuse.
What Nokia should be doing is to remove the dependence on the "Suite" (and by implication, Windows) to perform firmware updates.
What Nokia should be doing is to remove the dependence on the "Suite" (and by implication, Windows) to perform firmware updates.
They are actually doing that. The very latest S60 phones (for example the N78, 6220, 5320 etc) have OTA firmware updates, where you download the update straight onto the phone through Wi-Fi or the phone network.
Because you don't even need a computer to do an update, there's absolutely no dependence on any OS.
OTA firmware updates are also now available on Nokia's internet tablets and apparently some Series 40 phones too, so there's less and less need to have a Windows machine.
I have an E71 and it tethers to my Ubuntu box and my EEE 701 (running Debian!) just fine. I followed one of the "really easy" methods posted by a "Linux expert", as this was before Tzer2 posted this, but I think my method and Tzer2's end up with the same result, except that I was tethering over Bluetooth rather than cable. So I predict his method should work fine for an E71.
I do find it's a bit flaky - sometimes the internet connection will drop even though the Bluetooth connection is still open, and I have to reboot the phone (!) to restore access. Not sure whether the problem is the phone or my Linux machines, but either way it's good enough while I'm on a train, or stuck without broadband after moving house.
Kudos to Tzer2 for posting this - really looking forward to further S60+Linux posts!
Thanks for this -- I could get the eee PC (1000 HD) to connect to the net via the Nokia N95 when using a USB cable, but really wanted to do it via Bluetooth. That damned dial up box really had me stumped -- thanks so much for unlocking it for me!
Cheers!
KerryJ
What I would really like is to be able to hook up my Eee via my T Mobile mobile internet dongle. Now that would be a neat trick!
Anyone done this yet?
Haven't tried this out as I don't yet have an EEE, but these guys seem to have got a Nokia N95 (S60) working with Asus Linux EEE machines:
so i chose dial-up and true enough nokia e51 showed up, but then it didn't work 😞
It's even easier, actually - in many cases at least. I am happily using an Eee PC with Eeebuntu Standard and a Samsung SGH-i550 mobile phone (runs with S60 3rd edition). Here's the installation procedure, which is the same with Ubuntu (tested with 8.10) on any other computer:
1. Connect phone in "PC Studio" mode to computer with USB cable.
2. A notification will pop up, a new mobile broadband device is found.
3. Click the network-manager icon and start configuration. The wizard shows a list of mobile network providers in your country, select yours and apply.
Now, the mobile internet connection can be easily activated and deactivated by using the network-manager.
eee pc 701, default linux, nokia 6555b, att gophone account, mini-usb to usb cable ca101 from nokia. single space user name and password. "nokia mode" was set under settings/connectivity/usb data cable. USA.
but its expensive .01/kb. might buy the unlimited medianet add on. from my quick research, didn't see any legal tethering option for gophone users. though might have one for 1 year or possibly monthly contracts, data only, with regular att accounts.
sorry, not unlimited, 100mb for $20 for 30 days
Just wanted to say thanks for this clear description. Having gone down some dead end following other instructions this was clear and easy. My eee PC901 and Nokia N85 are now best friends.
Thank you!