How to use 2G and 3G GPRS mobile internet on your computer (for India only)

Imagine a situation where you have to send an important email to your friend or boss and your internet doesn’t work. Imagine the helplessness, the frustration, the anger. I am pretty sure you didn’t imagine it but recalled a moment when something of the sort actually happened to you. Internet connectivity, although becoming better with each passing day is still a luxury in many parts of the world, especially in rural areas. But the advent of smartphones is changing that. Nowadays, you can connect to the internet very easily using your mobile phone.

I hope I am not the only one to feel this but using the internet on the mobile is just not as fun or convenient as using it on a computer. So today, I will teach you how to connect to the internet on your computer using the GPRS internet pack you have on your mobile phone.

The recipe is simple. Here’s the ingredients:
1. A datacable OR a bluetooth enabled mobile phone(your computer should be bluetooth enabled too in this case).
2. The necessary drivers to use your mobile as a modem.

Make sure the internet on your mobile phone is working before actually going through the next steps.

Installing the drivers

First lets install the drivers necessary to use your phone as a modem. To check if they are already installed, go to Control Panel->Phone and Modem->Modems

If you can see the modem for your mobile phone, then you can skip the next few paragraphs.
If not, then install the PC suite for your mobile phone on your computer and connect your phone to it and the drivers will be installed automatically. If you don’t have the PC suite, either download it from another PC with an internet connection or if you are a geek, you can download the specific drivers for only the modem from the internet.

Go back to Control Panel->Phone and Modem->Modems to double check if the modem is installed.

CONFIGURING YOUR PHONE’S MODEM

I will first explain the connection procedure using a data cable.

• Go to Control Panel->Phone and Modem->Dialing Rules.
  

Click on New and select “India” as the country and write the ZIP code of the place where you are going to use the internet.
Leave the other fields as they are and press OK. Now click on the Modems tab again. Select the modem you are going to use and click properties.

Choose the “Advanced” tab in the dialog box that follows in the space for “Extra Initialization Commands” type the following codes depending on your cable operator:

AIRTEL

AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”airtelgprs.com”

AIRCEL

AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”aircelgprs.com”

IDEA

AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”ideagprs.com”

TATA DOCOMO

AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”TATA.DOCOMO.INTERNET”

VODAFONE

AT+CGDCONT=1,“IP”, “www”

Don’t get freaked out if the only two options in the drop down list below are Japan and Afghanistan(I did), you can leave it as it is and press OK.

Please doublecheck the part after “IP” from your mobile internet’s settings before you continue. It is called APN(Access Point Name) and it allows you to access the internet from your mobile phone e.g. The APN for Airtel is “airtelgprs.com”. They may differ in your state from the ones I have shown here.

CONNECTING TO THE INTERNET

Now go to Control Panel->Network and Sharing Center and click “Set up a new connection or network”.
In the menu that follows, choose Set-up a dial-up connection.

Enter the phone number as “*99#” without the quotes. Leave everything else empty. You can change the name of the connection to whatever you want.

You’re done! Now go to the network icon and double click on the connection you just created. Enjoy the internet.

If an error #734 occurs, it means that either the internet on your mobile is not working right now or that you have entered the wrong APN. Check your APN and reconfigure the settings. Your internet should work fine.

Also, don’t forget to mark “No Proxy” in your browser’s connection settings.

Now lets move on to connection using bluetooth. Activate bluetooth on both your mobile phone and your computer.

Pairing your mobile phone with your computer

If your mobile is already paired, move on to the next section.

If not, Go to Control Panel->Devices and Printers->Bluetooth Devices and click on “Add a device”.
Let the setup find your bluetooth device and click on it to pair with it. Check your mobile phone and match the passkeys. Now, all the processes are the same as the data cable with a few differences.

To set up the modem you can right click on the icon for your phone in the Bluetooth Devices folder and click on “modem” or you can go to “Phone and Modem” as before and select “Standard Modem Over Bluetooth Link” and do everything exactly the same way as I explained before.

Now, we need to set up a dial-up connection. Go back to “Bluetooth Devices” and double-click on the icon for your phone. Click the “Connect” button which is next to “Use your phone to connect to the internet”. If it doesn’t work the first time, select the option to enter the details manually. Now enter the phone number as *99# and enjoy.

The version of windows while writing this tutorial is Windows 7 Premium. The process is similar for other versions. I’ll be write another one for connecting your mobile internet to a computer with a linux-based operating system later.

If you had any problems, please comment below and I will reply with a solution.

Tags: aircel. docomo, airtel, computer, connect, GPRS, idea, internet, laptop, mobile, PC, vodafone