InfoTart

One of the coolest things is that with a Nokia 770, you’re never far from the Internet. Obviously, it has WiFi access, so if there’s a free & open WiFi hotspot around, then you’re online in a jiffy. What’s also really cool is that if your phone supports Bluetooth and you have a good data plan, then going online that way is also wicked easy. Thank goodness for the unlimited data plan on my work phone!

Well, once quite recently, I put an experimental version of the operating system on the device. And when I went to set up the device to connect to the Internet via my phone — the list of known operators in the US was missing Cingular. Oops! It was a bug in the software build and it was quickly fixed.

This issue stymied me for a few days or so until I ran into a co-worker who happened to know the magic settings for Cinguar. I didn’t realize how much I’d come to rely on randomly going onlinne — whether to check email or kill some time reading Google News — until I couldn’t do it any more via the phone connection. So just in case someone else ever faces the same issue, here are the magic settings. (And it’s not easy to figure out where to put them in, either!)

1. Click on the Programs icon > Tools category > Control Panel.
2. Click on the Connectivity icon in the Control Panel.
3. In the Connectivity dialog, click on the Connections button.
4. If “Cingular Internet” is listed there, then you can click the Edit button. If it’s not listed, click New instead.
5. The Connection Setup Wizard introduction screen will display. Click Next.
6. Step 1, Name and Type. Enter these values, then click Next.
• Connection name:  Cingular Internet
• Connection type:  Packet data
7. Step 2, Packet Data. Click next after entering these values:
• Access point name: wap.cingular
• Dial-up number: *99#
• User name: wap.cingulargprs.com
• Password: cingular1
• Prompt password at every login:  (Leave unchecked)
8. Advanced Settings: Don’t modify any of the advanced settings.

That ought to do it! Now you’ll see Cingular Internet in the list of connection options. The device will attempt to connect to the Internet via the current phone using the Cingular Internet settings above.

I’m still not entirely sure how it works — I’m just thankful that it does! And I didn’t even have to sacrifice a goat to get the magical settings values…