Troubleshooting Your Treo 650 Bluetooth DUN Setup : Texxors.com

Troubleshooting Your Treo 650 Bluetooth DUN Setup

September 1, 2006 Posted by Bryan in : How-to , trackback, Email this post

I originally wrote this article in Winter 2005 for another (much more highly trafficked) site I worked with and posted it in the Texxors forums. Since the forums are now gone, I am reposting it here. There have been some changes in how cell phone companies approach DUN since then, but I’m sure some of the information is still useful if you’re having trouble setting up Bluetooth Dial Up Networking on a Treo 650.

When I first heard about the Bluetooth Dial-up Networking feature I thought it sounded like one of the coolest potential uses for the 650 that I had heard of. I mean, imagine having internet access through your laptop, just like you have at home, anywhere that you can get cell phone reception. Around the same time I first heard about DUN for the Treo, I was having difficulties finding a place where I could eat and work at the same time that had an internet connection. I was ecstatic! DUN would mean I could work and eat at that biker dive up the street where they hadnâ€™t even upgraded the grill since 1965 much less considered adding internet access. But I think I must have run into every possible problem in getting it set up. Once I finally got everything to work I thought I would write a quick, down and dirty article on some solutions for problems that hung me up and that others may be running into as well.

This is NOT meant to be a step-by-step how to. Because of all the different versions of BT adapters and services out there, that would be almost unfeasible. Even though this is more of a troubleshooting article, you can probably piece together a how-to specific to your devices and cellular service based on these resources and approaches (Note: This is based on experiences with a Cingular branded device, YMMV). Also, Iâ€™m not going to go into the problems I ran into while trying to use the early hack. Most of the providers have enabled DUN legitimately now so if youâ€™re not seeing the DUN option under the Bluetooth preferences on your device, your first step is to upgrade to the new firmware. Ok, on to keeping this briefâ€¦

The first problem that I ran into was getting my BT adapter to work with my laptop; I kept getting the error message â€œBluetooth device could not be found.â€ I do a lot of removing this and installing that on my computer so I thought I had screwed up my COM ports bad enough that I couldnâ€™t get the D-Link 120 adapter I have to install right. It turns out, and Iâ€™m sure youâ€™ll be surprised to hear this, it was a Microsoft issue! I just happened to come across this link (thanks Tekara!) and the rest was downhill from there. Apparently there are some issues with the Service Pack 2 BT stack and (insert technical mumbo jumbo here)â€¦ Long story short, if youâ€™re having trouble getting your BT device to install or work properly and you havenâ€™t done this yet, give it a shot.

Next, I knew I needed to find some sort of connection information. I tried the Cingular info listed in Shadowmiteâ€™s how-to and it seemed to connect, but it hung on the â€œVerifying Passwordâ€ screen and eventually logged out, giving me an error 721 which is something to the effect of â€œYour mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.â€ After a few Googles I finally came across this thread regarding the Cingular setup for Macs. I use a PC, but I figured the connection information should be the same. About halfway down on the first page was some interesting information that suggested the Cingular setup on Shadowmiteâ€™s site was wrong; that instead of **99***1# it should be *99***1#. Actually, the post says that it should be the other way around, but me being the rebel I am - and not having any success with the first version - I decided to try the second first (which ultimately worked). But I also noticed a reference to some directions on the Palm site so I went to hunt those down as well.

That site would turn out to be the final piece of the puzzle and once I found the information in this online manual (direct link to PDF) I was pretty much good to go. I combined those directions with the setup information from Shadowmiteâ€™s site (except for the incorrect number listing in Shadowmiteâ€™s info) and the APN information available under Prefs->Network on my Treo device, and was connected in no time. In fact, I origianlly submitted this article via my BT DUN connection so since youâ€™re reading it, you know it worked.

Before I got serious about resolving them, these issues held me up for several months. They seem like they could be problems for other users as well, but they donâ€™t get addressed much in setup or troubleshooting guides and Iâ€™ve never seen them addressed all together in one place. You may get one resolved, but run into another one and have no idea where to go. This may be because, interestingly, some people seem to have success with some information and setups and some with others. No doubt this is a result of the huge number of different devices and services available out there.

In summary, if you’re having a hard time getting BT DUN to work check these three things:

Does your BT adapter work with the SP2 stack? If not use this link for directions on how to change it.
Are you using the correct dialing options? This can be a hard one to rectify. Google is your friend. Don’t be afraid to try different numbers. It worked for me!
Have you followed Palm’s setup instructions? If not you can find them here.

If youâ€™re having difficulty getting BT DUN to work on your device, one of the items listed above may help or at least give you some other options to try. If you run across any other common problems and solutions, feel free to post them in the comments area below. The more info in one place the better!

Oh and keep in mind, if you do get your DUN working, depending on your cellular plan you may or may not get charged for using it. Generally, if you have an unlimited data plan youâ€™re ok, but if you have any doubts you should check with your provider. If not, it could get really expensive.