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Using Your BlackBerry As a Modem On Linux
ruphus13 writes "Now, the suits and the geeks can unite — Barry allows BlackBerrys to serve as modems for Linux machines. From the news post, 'Barry, created by open source software vendor Net Direct, lets you not only sync your contacts and calendar but also use your smartphone as a computer modem. Sure, it's not as fast as T1 or cable, but you can't beat it if you're stuck somewhere with no Internet access. Currently, there are packages available for Ubuntu, Debian, Mandriva, and Fedora (although syncing is not supported on Fedora 9). Most older BlackBerrys work just fine with Barry, but the newest generation of devices — the Storm and Bold — are not yet fully supported.'"
I have done this with Mac OS X and a little Samsung Sync. Years ago, for phones that allow you to put software on it. There really isn't much stopping you from doing this.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Most corporate comms policies I have seen where Blackberries are given strictly forbid the use of work mobile phones as modems for their laptops, because data charges are so high.
One of the reasons RIM carved such a niche in corporate phones/PDAs is the "eat as much as you want" (more or less) email access; surfing the net via GSM/TDMA/3G/UMTS is not part of the deal, and billed by your provider as data by the Kb or minute.
Conversion Rate Optimisation French / English consultant
If it's anything as slow and difficult as it is on Windows, then it's really not worth the effort. Tethering a BB on Windows, even without a corporate policy, was exceedingly difficult and the speeds were pretty horrible.
... Im waiting for them.
My first experience was using a normal, run of the mill cell phone that had an IR port as a modem -- back in high school. That was beyond annoying, because the alignment had to be withing about 5 degrees, but it worked, and back then 9.6kbps was not unbearable even for the web. These days I do it with Bluetooth when I am traveling, and I can really only check my email via POP3.
Palm trees and 8
My crackberry 7520 is about a third the speed of dialup, with much higher latency..
can't picture using this as a modem.
Why? Can't we already just do..
modload usbnet
dhclient usb0
???
9 years late, we can welcome RIM to the new millenium.
Seriously, most geeks will have used cell phones as modems for years. I certainly did it back in the last millennium. In the old days, IR was the way to connect. Then when you got fed up trying to keep the phone pointed at the computer you got a cable.
Bluetooth replaced all that nonsense. And, today, we have software that turns your phone into a Wireless access point, allowing you to share your connection with the entire room.
Here's hoping I never have a job that forces me to give all that up for a Blackberry!
Nonetheless someone, somewhere, gets a hardon just thinking about it and absolutely cannot go on unless he finds a way to do it.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
I tried to do this with my Pearl when we went on vacation. Thought I could use my laptop on the trip when we wanted to find where to go, etc.
First roadblock is the cost. I pay $30 for my Blackberry data plan, can browse the internet... unlimited data they say. Except if you want to tether it to a computer that is another $30.
Then half way through the trip it just plain stopped working. I had to "reboot" the Pearl to correct the problem, where rebooting means pulling the battery out.
Otherwise I actually felt the speeds were decent, faster than dialup... probably 120k/sec, and this was over old-school GSM(not 3G).
This just isn't really practical. I just came back from a trip in Central America, and Internet access was easier to find than land or cell phone service. I have a feeling it's that way in lots of developing countries. My phone was useless. There were very very few land lines, but I could hop on one of many computers at hostels or Internet cafes and check my email.
Tethering works just fine on my G1. Set it up as a wifi AP and off you go. 3G means I get reasonable speed, although EDGE isn't so bad in a pinch. Caveat.. I do pay for the unlimited data plan.
The article mentions that the software allows a linux laptop to charge the battery.
My eee has always been able to do this without any software, anyone else?
Is it possible to use other cell phones as well as modem for Linux boxes ? My old Nokia connects with a USB cable and works as a modem on my windows laptop thanks to a special driver, but I never tried it under Linux. I don't think Nokia provides Linux drivers.
Non-Linux Penguins ?
I plugged a rectangular modulator/demodulator thingy into my Commodore 64, then attached that to the telephone jack in the wall! We didn't HAVE a cell phone in those days!
Now get off my lawn!
I've been doing this with my Curve 8320 without Barry for some time now, via blueZ and rfcomm under Gentoo on my laptop. It's relatively stable and has enough bandwidth for casual web surfing. I was able to get up to 20KBps down / 11KBps up over EDGE.
Future events such as these may affect you in the future!
Bluetooth to my cell is a saviour in low-service areas where I can't find a quick access point.
I've been doing this for quite some time as well, although some of the new usb-attached modems from local cell service providers are very nice (and work with Linux).
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
It would be news when I can send data and text messages over my unlimited (on nights & weekends) voice connection when I don't want to exceed my unnecessarily limited data quota.
Yes, but a girl's gotta have her standards, Chris.
I used to do that with my old T-Mobile phone, but now I just have a Sprint PCI-E mini card built in. It's a hell of a lot more convenient than using a tethered phone.
I wrote up a script that uses traceroute to determine whether or not I have Internet connectivity via 802.11 or my wired Ethernet jack, and if not, it automatically connects the Sprint card. When I have 802.11 connectivity it traceroutes to the nearest Google box every 30 seconds or so and if it notices that I'm not going out through Sprint (yay interface priority) it disconnects the Sprint card. My laptop's WiFi switch turns the entire shebang off, so it's kind of like a "I can has interwebs?" switch. :)
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo!
TuxMobil provides a survey of Linux compatibility and configuration guides for different Blackberry models. Currently only four guides are listed. Not much yet, but a start. But I guess the number of guides in the TuxMobil Linux and mobile phone section will increase soon.
I'm on a sprint USB aircard and get about 1.5down and 380 up with a latency of around 90. I use this connection in my home with a cradlepoint router. Which will also tether your blackberrys including storm for those of you running something other than ubuntu or fedora. My question is I've heard tethering slows down the connection is that true? Id rather pay $60 for a phone i can tether than $60 for an aircard that only does internet.
Also back in october? I heard at&t's ceo said they will be offering tethering soon for the iphone has anyone else heard of this or have any updates? I might just do that!
-- "of course thats just my opinion, I could be wrong." --Dennis Miller
I plugged in my shiny new Nokia E71 into my Ubuntu 8.10 machine and it automatically started configuring it. I have no need to use it in this manner so I stopped it, but it seemed like it would work fine.
This is really old news, you've been able to do this in Linux by abstracting the BB through bluetooth for quite some time. Here is a guide I wrote last January (when I had a BB Pearl for 2 weeks), and I've been doing the same process with my Moto Q smartphone for about a year prior to that.
Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut.
For AT&T customers in the US with 'unlimited' data plans, this is very likely against the terms of service. As long as you keep data usage light, you'll probably be fine - but if you start doing massive downloads and they look closer, your service may get terminated.
From the link:
Prohibited and permissable uses
... Furthermore, plans(unless specifically designated for tethering usage) cannot be used for any applications that tether the device (through use of, including without limitation, connection kits, other phone/PDA-to computer accessories, Bluetooth® or any other wireless technology) to Personal Computers (including without limitation, laptops), or other equipment for any purpose
I got my 8830 in October of 2007 and have been using it as a bluetooth modem on my Linux laptop since day 1.
Barry has been around for quite some time now, but I'm glad it's finally getting a little attention.
They SHOULD work with any OS, in order to make the install under Windows easy all of the cell modems I've seen in the last 5 years or so show up as a comm port USB adapter, then it's generally as simple as finding the dial string for your provider.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
I found a module for the linux kernel amr-modem, which alows you to send modem commands to your phone. I have my Motorola Razr hooked up via USB, and linxu automagically loaded the module, and then i could talk to my phone via Terminal. Although im not sure if you could use this as internet access (thats what i was trying to do, but never succeeded), but basically being able to use my phone as a modem for my laptop. Great idea, except AT&T is kind of expensive to do that.
Go go Gadget Nailgun!
kind of off topic, but go through every post, and read BlackBerry or BB as Butt buddy ;)
Go go Gadget Nailgun!
Now people will be able to read his e-mails!!
MG
even if you have "unlimited" there are TOS that forbid this. They have all done it.
I bought one of these several months ago and set it up as a USB modem quite easily. AT&T gives you the instructions for tethering this device using PPP and Windows Dialup Networking. Specifically, they give you the modem initialization string, the username and password, and the number you have to "dial" to set up your connection. All of this can easily be moved over to Linux. I easily got it working using KPPP and a 'sudo route add default ppp0' command. The connection is great : 3G with an average downstream bandwidth of 1.5 - 2.0 Mbps , plus where I am, I get 4 bars -- eg. max signal strength.
Anyway, that's my 2b'10 cents.
jdb2
Yours had a phone jack?
I had to dial the number, and then set the handset into the acoustic coupler. I still don't believe in all this wireless stuff. If I can't see the wire, I don't believe it's connected! How do I know I'm talking to the other person on the end of the wire, and not an impersonator. If my wife were to call me and ask for a gallon of milk, who's to say it's not a KGB agent trying to lure me to kill me and destroy our American way of life. You know those damned reds are out to take over the world.
Excuse me while I tighten my tin foil hat, and check the seals on my backyard fallout shelter. You can never be too prepared.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
I work for a telecoms, and they are handicapped because traffic is encrypted all the way to your corporate BES (Business Enterprise Server). They don't know what they hell you are doing on a blackberry, running a VoIP client or simply browsing. They can not do tiered charging or DPI. No tiered internet either. booohoohoo.
This is also why BlackBerry is such a corporate hit. Privacy is pretty much guaranteed over the wireless channel.
Now now, before you go to that porn site, your BES server admins can do pretty much what your companies corporate policy desires.
Any one knows of a way to use Blackberry as an internet modem in Windows?
Seriously, it is. Nowdays, any 'smart' phone should be able to do this, and without any weird command line voodoo (i.e. messing with AT commands).
Case in point : My Nokia E61i was really good about it. Here are the steps : 1) plug into Ubuntu, 2) surf web. No drivers to download, no configuration needed, it just works.
Try it on Linux. They probably show up as /dev/devttyACM# . Or I think that's what it showed for the last time I tried it with a USB phone. You could use it as an EVDO modem, and even send/receive SMS directly with it.
Of course, blackberrys aren't recognized automatically.
They SHOULD work with any OS, in order to make the install under Windows easy all of the cell modems I've seen in the last 5 years or so show up as a comm port USB adapter, then it's generally as simple as finding the dial string for your provider.
AFAIK it's #777 on all the sprint modems, I know it is on mine. Most of them work using the usbserial module in the linux kernel and don't require any extra drivers/setup, If you're lucky enough to have one of the novatel wireless ones like I do, you can use the option module (also in the main kernel tree) to get the modem working at full speed, which is actually faster than the local DSL in my area.
Some providers require a username/password where username is generally 10-digit# and password is always the same.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Blackberry Linux kernel charging driver by Greg Kroah-Hartman (February 16th 2007 so it would have turned up in 2.6.21, eeepc kernel is a patched 2.6.21.4). Greg likes see open source kernel things to go upstream quickly and is a USB maintainer.
"always the same"
Man, what a good password.
NO SIG
As stated, it's simply because the barry modules have been supplied with your kernel.
...and verify "MaxPower" for the device labeled "Research In Motion" reads 500mA.
Although oddly, I was under the impression that synchronising was still rather sketchy...
Cut'n'Paste from my wiki:
By default, a USB device can be supplied with up to 100mA without interaction from the kernel - the blackberry needs 500mA. For safety reasons, the devices need to communicate between each other before upping the amperage.
In Windows, this is accomplished with RIM's driver. In Linux, the above mentioned "Barry" has come to the rescue.
Just make sure you have the latest release & the libusb-dev library installed (available with apt). Once done, simply run:
bcharge
It will scan the available USB ports & negotiate with any attached Blackberries.
If you are unsure the amperage has been changed, run:
lsusb -v | less
Rather than manually running this command whenever I plug in my Blackberry, I've edited my udev scripts to do it for me.
Well, this was a nice article.
It obliquely credits my own article on the same topic - written a whole one day previously - while describing it as a 'review' of Barry. No, it isn't. It's a guide to the exact same topic covered in this article, only it's a hell of a lot more useful, because my article tells you exactly what packages to download for what distributions, and how to actually use them. Rather than just saying "oh, look, this application lets you do this, isn't it cool?"
Would've been a lot more useful to link to me. But then, my server probably can't take the load, so I should be thankful. :)
http://www.happyassassin.net/blackberry-tethering-and-more-on-linux/
I only pay for an unlimited data plan through Sprint, but I can use DUN over bluetooth for free with my Palm Centro. I would only have to pay an additional cost to use a cable and "special" (windows only!) software.
...And I can get pretty fast connections (around 200 KB/s). My only issue is that wvdial disconnects a lot, so I just run the command in an infinite loop.
I just:
# rfcomm connect 0 3 &
# wvdial
I tried "always the same" as a password, and oddly, got a view of Sarah Palin's backyard!
.. and I think I may have seen some Russians creeping across the tundra in the distance. Ahh... they were probably just hockey players.
.
- aqk
F U
Ive been tethering my BB Curve to my PC for almost a year now using the EDGE network, its actually quite capable when viewing web pages and the like. Streaming anything is a no go, but i managed to play WoW since June using it. Though my latency was around 600ms on a good day (low server population), it wasnt unbearable. At least till WotLK xpan anyways. Now its nearly impossible to keep the connection, but my point is that it is quite useful. Especially if you are unable to set up your own broadband account for whatever reason or cant find a wifi signal you can jack. Im not positive on the data xfer speeds but im fairly sure its in the dial up ballpark (56k), maybe slightly faster. Downloads consistantly peak out around 24 kbps. The new OS upgrade (4.5 and up) was supposedly supposed to boost speeds but if it did, it wasnt anything to speak of. Just thought id add my 2 coppers.
Whoosh!