Configuring W800i as a GPRS modem in Windows

Using the Sony Ericsson W800i as a GPRS modem for your computer is really simple – if you know a few key things. These proved troublesome to figure out online, so I’ve put them here in the hope that anyone else with the same problem will find this and save an hour of googling.

First, you have to set up a data communication profile on your mobile phone. Settings -> Communication -> Data communications -> Data accounts -> New account. Choose GPRS-data. Give the account some reasonable name. Now you will enter the name of the APN; this depends on which mobile operator you use. I use Norwegian Telenor, and my “APN-name” is “internet”. At the time of writing, the corresponding setting for Netcom users in Norway is “internet.netcom.no”. Now save the profile. Select it in the list, and find the external ID by choosing More -> Account information. This ID is used when we set up a dial-up connection in Windows.

In Windows XP, enter the Start menu -> Settings -> Control Panel. Enter the Network Connections category. Start the New Connection Wizard. Click Next. Select Connect to the Internet and click Next. Select Set up my connection manually. Click Next. Select Connect using a dial-up modem. Neeext. Enter some reasonable name for the connection. Next. Now, this is where I ran into trouble – I couldn’t figure out what the correct “phone number” should be. Turns out it looks like this:

*99***the_external_id_from_earlier#

In other words, if the external ID was 6, this would be

*99***6#

Click Next. The username and password probably varies among operators, some might not require any. With Telenor, I used my phone number as both username and password. Whether or not you want this connection to be the default connection etc is up to you, but probably unlikely :) Click Next – and you should be done.

Hope this was helpful to you. Drop me a line if you made use of this or couldn’t make it work, and take a look at the link below, it might have the settings for your phone. You can contact me at: arew at ifi.uio.no

Useful links:
Thread from the Opera forums on the internet / GPRS settings used on various phones