Re: Using bluetooth to get Internet access through a cell phone

[Iain Hibbert <plunky%rya-online.net@localhost>]

On Wed, 24 Dec 2008, Alan Barrett wrote:

> I have a cell phone that supports various ways of getting Internet
> access (GPRS and UMTS).  Both the phone and my laptop support bluetooth.
>
> How do I tell the laptop to use the phone to get Inetrnet access?  I
> assume that it involves something like ppp over virtual com port over
> bluetooth, but I find NetBSD's bluetooth-related man pages to be very
> short on useful examples.

You can either use rfcomm_sppd(1) to create a serial link for PPP, or
direct PAN ethernet emulation with btpand(8) when the phone supports it**.
There are fairly comprehensive examples in "The NetBSD Guide" (more up to
date than the wiki Jared linked to I think). I recall though that cube
reported a fairly steep learning curve that naturally I can't see, perhaps
some manpages should mention the guide (but then, its not immediately
obvious that "rfcomm_sppd" is the program you are looking for, not sure
what can be done about that)

as a 'new user' if you have any ideas to make the documentation better, or
can identify particular points that need improving, please let me know..

iain

**use sdpquery(1) to discover this with eg "sdpquery -a phone search NAP".
The output is pretty rubbish alas but I am working on a replacement that
will be more understandable.