How To Use Blackberry Phone as Modem

You can use your Blackberry phone as a modem and surf the web using your PC or Laptop. I am using a Blackberry 8700G with Airtel connection here in India. I called up Airtel support and they told me that I CANNOT use Mobile Office on my phone which means I cannot use my Blackberry phone as a modem to surf the Internet on my Laptop. Previously I used to surf the Internet by connecting thorugh my Nokia E61i and the GPRS facility or Mobile Office provided by Airtel. The information provided to me that a Blackberry phone cannot be used as a modem was hard for me to digest. I could not give it a shot because the Blackberry Internet Service on the phone itself is so fast that you won’t be bothered to use Internet on your laptop.

Today while working we had a few minutes electricity maintenance work due to which I lost the Internet connection. I was researching on something important and immediately thought of connecting through the phone. But guess what? I don’t have a Nokia anymore…Damn! But then I tried of trying this out and trust me it actually worked. You can use your Blackberry phone as a Modem. It works on my Blackberry 8700G and Airtel BlackBerry Internet Services. I have an unlimited BIS plan so I am not sure how much this will cost you. Its better you ask your service provider about the charges first before using Internet on your Computer. Alright, this is what you need to do to use your Blackberry Phone as a modem and connect to the Internet.

1. Ensure that your Blackberry Phone is connected to your computer with a USB cable.

2. Ensure that the Blackberry Desktop Manager is opened and it shows connected status. You get the Blackberry Desktop Manager software with your Phone CD.

3. Now click on start > run and type in control to open the control panel.

4. In the control panel, open the Phone and Modem options.

5. On the Phone and Modem Options screen, click on the tab that says Modems. You will see a list of modems here. You should see a Standard Modem which is the modem we are going to use. In case you do not see this, then disconnect your USB cable, reconnect it back and ensure that the new hardware found is installed properly. You will need your phone CD for this. If you are planning to add the standard modem manually then make sure you select the right port. To get the port number on which your Blackberry phone is connected, just go to to the device manager (start >run > type devmgmt.msc & press enter). Under Ports you will see your RIM Virtual Server port. This will be the port for your standard modem.

6.  Now simply create a new connection by going to Control panel > Network Connections > New Connection Wizard.

• Click Next
• Select "Connect To The Internet" and click Next
• Select "Set up my connection manually" and click Next
• Select "Connect using a dial-up modem" and click Next.
• Check only the Standard Modem and click Next.
• Enter a connection name. You can add anything and click Next.
• The Phone number to dial on next screen will be the number provided by your service provider. I use *99# for Airtel. Enter the number and click Next.
• On this screen enter the username and password provided by your service provider. Airtel users can keep all the fields in the screen as blank and click Next.
• Check the box if you want to add this conenction to desktop and click finish.
• You will be conencted to the Internet.

If face any problems, please post the problem in comments. I will be glad to help you out.

[phpbay]blackberry[/phpbay]