Little known, but powerful fact: you can use a Nokia phone as a modem to connect to the internet anywhere there's a 3G signal (in technical speak, this is GPRS). This will mean extra charges for your data usage, but, hey, in case of emergency, you'll probably need this.

The steps seem tedious, but if you have enough patience, you'll be rewarded with internet almost everywhere in the country. :)

Preparation

You'll need to have the following:

• A Nokia phone with a modem. Mine is an E51 and I think all of the "E" and "N" series have modems. check your manual to see if you have a modem).
• Your phone configured to acces the internet through GPRS, 3G or Edge. (I use Globe. Ask your telco how to configure this, if you don't know how.)
• Bluetooth in your phone, or a USB cable. I prefer bluetooth so I don't have to carry around a cable, but cable is faster. Make sure your Mac and phone are communicating through bluetooth. (You can do this by clicking on the Bluetooth icon in System Preferences and
• MacOS Tiger (10.4) to Snow Leopard (mine is the latter, aka 10.6; the screens you'll see here are for Snow Leopard).

If you don't have an access point configured, read "No Access Point?" below:I. Find your APN (access point name).1. In your phone, go to Tools > Settings > Connection > Access points. 2. Click the Access Point that Globe sent you. This will probably be named myGlobe Internet unless you renamed it when you received the configuration info. Click this. 3. Write down the value inside "Access point name". Mine is internet.globe.com.ph.

II. Set up your Mac to use the phone modem.1. In System Preferences, click Network Preferences. The left box contains your possible connection points. 2. Click the + sign to add a new connection. Type a name for this connection. I called mine "Globe Nokia". Click the "Create" button. This brings you back to the main screen. (Screen 1, below) 3. In the Telephone number box, type 99#* and click the Advanced...** button. (Screen 2) 4. In the Modem tab, enter the following values and click OK. (Screen 3) * Vendor: Nokia * Model: GPRS (GSM/3G) * APN: internet.globe.com.ph (Note: this is the value you found in Step I, above.) * CID: 1

1. In the main window of Network Preferences, click Apply.
2. Test your connection by clicking the Connect button. Make sure your phone and Mac Bluetooth devices are turned on.

| | | Screen 1. |

| | | Screen 2. |

| | | Screen 3. |

Tips: * Check the box beside "Show modem status in menu bar". This will display a telephone icon that you could click to quickly connect through your phone. * If you use gmail, or google, type m.gmail.com or m.google.com to indicate "mobile". No Access Point? Try the following steps to set up an internet connection to Globe:
- In your phone, go to Tools > Settings > Connection > Access points.

• Click Options > New access point. You'll get the form to enter a new access point.

• Put a Connection name. Example: Globe mobile internet

• In Data bearer, choose Packet data.

• In Access point name, type internet.globe.com.ph

• Don't touch Username, Prompt password, Password and Authentication.

• I also leave Homepage blank -- this is the default page that your phone loads when it connects to the net. It will add to your data charges if you always load the default page, especially if it has big graphics.

A few years back, I didn't have the benefit of this Nokia webpage. Check it out for more information.

Share your tips on how you connect to the net, using your mobile devices.The MacSwitched Blog - Online Journal of a Mac Switcher http://macswitched.blogspot.com. Tips, tricks and other discoveries about Macs and iPods.