BlackBerry to Laptop Tethering Made Easy

Searching the internet for methods of tethering your phone to a laptop can be overwhelming. There are dozens of ideas out there depending on your phone model, service and software. Some look easy, some look complicated, some look illegal, and some look like they’ll end up costing you your first born child in fees. With everything out there and the evolution of the technology over the past few years, it’s hard to know which approach to take.

Tethering has become extremely useful, particularly for people on the go. Wi-Fi spots still don’t exist most places, and the busy person never knows when they’re going to need an internet connection. Whether you’re on the bus embarking on a lengthy stop-and-go trip through the city, or sitting in an airport trying to avoid using that hideous Boingo service – you may wish you could harness the internet power of your cell phone for your laptop’s use.

While some phones and services still have very specific, controlled methods of tethering your phone to your laptop, others have become less complicated.

Blackberries now have new features that make turning your phone into a tethered modem simple, doing away with APN settings, making CDMA / GSM problems irrelevant, and there’s no spending money on third-party apps to simplify the process. It just straight up works, which is hardcore.

The Desktop Manager for Blackberry now comes with a fancy new “IP Modem” feature, as of last month’s Service Pack 1 (Desktop Manager 5.0.1). This delicious interface only works on Windows, so Mac users are out of luck for now. IP Modem makes tethering your Blackberry device to a laptop or PC easier, requiring only your data plan, a USB cable, and the Blackberry Desktop Manager software installed on the machine to which you are tethering.

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Here are the steps:

Note: Not all providers’ standard data plans include tethering (Verizon, for example). If you tether without a plan that supports it, you’re bound to incur some pretty drastic overage fees. Make sure your plan includes tethering coverage before trying, or else pick yourself up a tethering package if you think this is something you’re going to do frequently.

If you haven’t, you need to set up your modem connection settings. Plug the BlackBerry into the computer with the USB and open up Desktop Manager to get started.

Another Note: If you are on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, your Disable IP Modem IT policy rule needs to be set to “true” before the below will work.

1. Select “IP Modem.” The option should be in the bottom-right corner of the Desktop Manager menu screen.

2. The next screen should let you know which wireless carrier you use. After an explanation of the service, look for the words “Current connection profile:,” followed by your carrier. If it says something contrary, click the Configure button and select the correct carrier from the drop-down list of available carriers on the next screen.

1. If your carrier requires a username, password and access point for tethering, you will have to contact them for the appropriate information.

1. If you plan to close Desktop Manager while tethered, enter Configuration and check the little box at the bottom of the screen that reads “Keep an IP Modem connection open after the BlackBerry Desktop Manager is closed.”

2. Click connect.

1. Leave Desktop Manager open if you didn’t check the box in Step 4, or if you did, close DM and it will move to your taskbar.

The following screen will show your data sent/received totals, as well as your total uptime connected to the tether. Your connection status is in the lower-left, in green.

When you are finished…

1. Re-open Desktop Manager via the taskbar, or switch back to its window if you left it up. Go back to the IP Modem section and click the big Disconnect button.

With IP Modem, there are only a few reasons why tethering would fail. If your wireless carrier isn’t the right one in the configuration settings, or if the wireless radio on your device isn’t turned on.

If you don’t see the IP Modem feature in your Desktop Manager, or if it isn’t working despite your settings being correct, try uninstalling the software then re-installing. You may also have problems if you’ve upgraded to Windows 7 and didn’t do a complete reinstall of the Desktop software after the upgrade. Many folks who have had issues with IP Modem are seeing results after re-installing, regardless of the cause. The latest version can be downloaded here (as of 11/23/09): https://www.blackberry.com/Downloads/entry.do?code=A8BAA56554F96369AB93E4F3BB068C22

There may also be complications if you use a crackberry, as the IP Modem won’t stay active. There are some explanations for solving this problem here: http://forums.crackberry.com/f153/5-0-1-ip-modem-fixed-353251/

Happy tethering!

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