Guide to using BlackBerry as a modem

Have you ever been on a business trip and found yourself without a wifi connection for your laptop? Yes, free wifi can be found in almost all hotel/motel rooms these days, but service outages and other factors can still come into play, leaving you with no connectivity and no way to get the days work from your laptop into the hands of your team back home.

In order to utilize your BlackBerry as a modem you will need to have a USB cable connected and have the BlackBerry Handheld Manager installed on your laptop. The BlackBerry Handheld Manager is a component of the BlackBerry Desktop Manager software. In order to initialize the BlackBerry Handheld Manager, simply activate the Desktop Manager software. The BlackBerry Handheld Manager will now be running in the background.

The next step in the process is to add a new internet connection within your laptop. This connection will be reserved for internet usage via the BlackBerry as modem only. Set up this new internet connection like any other, the process will vary depending on if you are using Windows XP or Vista.

It is important to disable IP header compression along with disabling hardware flow control, modem error control and modem compression. These can be disabled by following these simple steps:

- Start Menu->Network Connections->”BlackBerry Modem”
- Click Properties Button
- Click Networking Tab
- Select “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)”
- Click Properties Button
- Click Advanced… Button
- Disable “Use IP header compression” checkbox
- Click all OK buttons to close all dialogs

Once you have your BlackBerry and laptop configured using the steps laid out here, you are ready to begin surfing. Simply connect the BlackBerry to your Laptop via USB, run the BlackBerry Desktop Software and click on the BlackBerry Modem icon in your list of available network connections. You will now be surfing the web at broadband speeds using nothing more than your BlackBerry for your internet connection.

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