Broadcom wireless driver update, Windows Mobile tethering...

This morning I noticed there's a new version of the Broadcom proprietary wireless driver available, so I updated the packages for that in Mandriva Cooker and 2009. That also provides a neat excuse to write about using the driver on 2009. I'm hoping it will be the default driver for these interfaces on 2009 Spring.

Aside from that, I've basically been twiddling with Windows Mobile tethering this morning. First I tried doing it via Bluetooth in the 'approved' way, via Bluetooth DUN, which effectively treats the phone as a modem and sends AT commands to it. drakconnect has a mode which will actually set this up completely graphically; it has presets for several European GSM providers and will work with a bit of manual configuration (you need to know your network's APN, and the username and password to use) on most GSM networks. However, it doesn't quite work on North American CDMA networks, which don't use the APN system, and dial #777 rather than 99**1# to initialize the data connection. I have a long-standing bug report on that issue.

Now, though, I have a new issue with that - my current data plan isn't supposed to allow tethering, so when the network picks up that I'm trying to use the phone as a modem I just get a NO CARRIER message and I'm SOL. So I had to get creative. Turns out the trick is to use an Internet Connection Sharing application on the phone itself. My phone (which is running a customized Windows Mobile build courtesy of PPCKitchen) has one on there already, and I think quite a lot of phones do come with the app. If not, you can download it. The one I have has modes for both USB tethering and Bluetooth tethering.

In USB mode, it's really easy, at least it was for me. You just plug the phone in to the PC, then run the Internet Connection Sharing app, set it to USB, and hit connect. It connects to the internet, and in a few seconds, Mandriva will pop up that a new network interface was connected, and that's it - you're online.

in Bluetooth mode, as I understand it, it sets the phone up as a Bluetooth PAN access node. So you just need to set the PC up as a PAN client and it should work. I've found a couple of HOWTOs on that and I'm going to try it later. The USB mode is neat enough, though, and saves on battery power.