How To Tether Your Nokia S60 Phone To Your Windows Vista Laptop

In this how to, I want to show you how to connect your Nokia S60 phone and utilize the cellular data that it receives and channel it to your laptop, therefore making you're laptop go online anywhere you get a cellular reception. There are 3 main ways of doing this:

1. Using a Bluetooth Connection
2. Using a USB cable
3. Using an application called JoikoSpot or WalkingHotSpot. (If using this method your phone has to have Wi-Fi as well)

Now that we know the methods, We want to "tether" our phone to the laptop running Windows Vista using the first two methods. For this how to I'll be using a N95 8GB NAM (N95-4), as it supports US 3G  HSDPA and makes practical sense to tether (tethering can be done with other S60 phones with GPRS or EDGE as well). Of course there are multiple ways to set this up, but I'm trying to aim for the most stream-lined way of doing it, by using the Nokia PC Suite (or Nseries Suite).

1. Using a Bluetooth Connection:

Now my laptop has built-in bluetooth, but If your's doesn't, you can head down to any electronic store and pick up a bluetooth dongle for around $20. All you have to do is pop in the installation CD from the dongle and follow the instructions. Once you've installed your bluetooth dongle, install the Nokia PC Suite. Once you're done with that, you go to the Get Connected Wizard (or on the newest version of the PC Suite you can select "Click here to connect a phone).

From here you select bluetooth as the means of connection. Make sure at this point that on your phone bluetooth is on and that it is visible. After the wizard finds your phone, initiate the pairing process. If this is your first time connecting your phone, PC Suite will attempt to install a file on your phone called MMSync. I'd also recommend going into the bluetooth settings of the phone, in the devices section, and set your laptop as an authorized device so that you don't constantly have to give the laptop permission to interact with your phone.

Once you're done installing this, the application starts installing the modem drivers and you get a pop-up notifying you that "Standard Modem over Bluetooth Link #x" is installed. Now at this point you don't really need to use PC Suite to go online, but if you prefer to use it anyway all you have to do is go to One Touch Access, and from the settings there you can access this Standard Modem and either choose the pre-defined settings for your operator or enter the settings manually.

If you prefer not to use the PC Suite for tethering, just simply go to the network icon in your taskbar at the bottom right corner of Vista and from there choose the Standard Modem over Bluetooth Connection and enter your operator settings manually. This method is my preferred method of using Dial-Up-Networking (DUN) over bluetooth.

2. Using a USB Connection

This method is very similar to the bluetooth connection. At the Get Connected Wizard, you choose the cable connection, and then plug in your phone using a USB cable, and the wizard will automatically identify your phone and install the drivers, and this time you get a bubble notifying you that Nokia xxx USB Modem (OTA) is installed and ready. Again you can either choose the One Touch Access of the PC Suite or just simply going to Vista's Connect to a network. You can either select the pre-defined settings for the operators, or enter the settings manually.

A Note

I'd like to mention that before you start tethering, MAKE SURE tethering is allowed on your data plan. If you do tether without having it on your plan and the operator finds out, you can be slapped with a hefty bill.