In Windows Mobile 6, Microsoft have removed the Bluetooth DUN ‘service’ along with our trusty “Wireless Modem” app.
Although this raises some fairly major issues with wireless devices which don’t support the replacement Bluetooth service type (I’m looking at you TomTom!), the new features are well worth persevering with.
I’ll explain as best I can; in early WM5, on the device requiring internet access, we had to create a Dial Up Networking Bluetooth connection, and then explicitly define a connection, rather like using dial up internet in windows.
Internet sharing, and its Bluetooth network access service gets rid of most of that.
The Internet Sharing app has just 2 selection boxes. You choose the incoming port (Bluetooth or USB), and select the outgoing internet connection (your GPRS connection). Job done? Nearly…
Now we make sure Bluetooth is turned on, and go back to our internet-free device. Finding our internet-happy PDA/Smartphone is still as normal, but the list of services now lists “Network Access Point”. This is your new best friend. Once this connection is enabled and active, it doesn’t matter if your PDA loses its GPRS connection – as soon as it returns, so does your internet.
Think of it like your ADSL router at home. There’s no dial up connection to drop out, its always on, as long as there is signal. if the signal drops, wait until it returns, and continue, without having to reconnect!
And now here is Microsoft to make more sense of it:
In WM5 AKU3 we introduced a new application called “Internet Sharing”. The technology behind this is actually referred to as Internet Connection Sharing (ICS). But our usability folks decided to drop the word “Connection” since it didn’t fit nicely in the user interface.
omething we’ve shipped as a component in the Windows CE operating system for several releases. We have now brought this technology to Windows Mobile. ICS allows you to share a public network connection (cellular data) with a private network connection (Bluetooth PAN or USB). The phone is basically acting like a your home’s wireless router.
Modem Link
Before Internet Sharing, we shipped an application called Modem Link. This application enables some of the same functionality provided by ICS. Modem Link supported sharing the cellular data connection over USB, IrDA, or Bluetooth. For Bluetooth, the DUN profile was used.
Instead of sharing the Internet connection at the IP layer, as ICS does, Modem Link enables the PC to directly send commands to the cellular radio on the device.
All that remains now is for Bluetooth enabled device manufacturers to support this standard….
Posted by: Mark
[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Wireless_ Internet, Internet Sharing, Tracy & Matt]
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