Bluetooth PAN connectivity arrives for Nokia Internet Tablets
As much as I enjoy using a Nokia N800 Internet Tablet, it's not without its challenges. First and foremost to me is the difficulty in pairing it with a non-Nokia handset. Time and time again, I receive e-mails from readers who are frustrated by the same problem because without WiFi, you're limited to apps and data on the device only.
Luckily, the issue caught the attention of the Maemo community, because there's a new add-on that supports Bluetooth PAN connectivity. PAN or Personal Area Networking has become increasingly more common the newer Windows Mobile devices; the older solution was DUN or Dial Up Networking. With this add-on, you should be able to tether your phone wirelessly by setting up a PAN, just like I did with my Windows Mobile device and a MacBook Pro. The free add-on is for the Internet Tablets running the new OS2008 only.
Update: this add-on is looking for a dependent package (bluez-utils), so I'm still futzing with trying to get it to work with my lowly EDGE connection on the Dash.
Update 2: Works as advertised. I never thought I'd be this happy to see an EDGE-based PAN for the Nokia. ;) My earlier issue: I didn't have the latest version of OS2008; once updated, this worked just fine!
I use my N800 with Tablet OS2008 and paired it to my BB8830 very easy; but have heard many people having problems to pair over bluetooth. Good to hear the Maemo Community is got a app to help out. Let us know how it works for you Kevin. I use my N800 on the road when I don't want to bring along the U810 and its nice that you can use Google docs to edit docs on the road for those times you should of brought along the computer.
Posted by: HG | February 26, 2008 at 08:23 PM
Nice find but not working with the Advantage. the N800 can't "find the phone".
Posted by: James Kendrick | February 26, 2008 at 09:41 PM
problematic without a nokia phone?
get a sonyericsson! my non-smart Z710 has the works, PAN, DUN, syncs of all kind and other nice bluetooth stuff :D
Posted by: turn_self_off | February 27, 2008 at 06:13 AM
problematic without a nokia phone?
get a sonyericsson! my non-smart Z710 has the works, PAN, DUN, syncs of all kind and other nice bluetooth stuff :D
Posted by: turn_self_off | February 27, 2008 at 06:13 AM
James, sounds like a pairing problem, not a PAN problem. That would be a shame if the two devices couldn't pair. :(
turn_self_off: the issue isn't that the non-Nokia phones don't have PAN; it's the N800/N810 that didn't have PAN support. Having a phone with PAN wasn't useful with the Internet Tablets until now. Of course, if WinMo kept DUN like the Sony Ericsson you mention did, this would be a moot point... ;)
Posted by: Kevin C. Tofel | February 27, 2008 at 07:21 AM
well it was mostly that the "non-nokia" comment made it sound as if the N800 could only do bluetooth connectivity when paired with a nokia phone, something thats not the case.
this is sqarely a issue with winmo based phones...
Posted by: turn_self_off | February 27, 2008 at 08:48 AM
Good point. I probably should have said "Windows Mobile" instead of "non-Nokia".
Posted by: Kevin C. Tofel | February 27, 2008 at 09:47 AM
Can it be a PAN server, or just client?
Posted by: Nate the great | February 28, 2008 at 09:28 PM
That's nice but I even after installing this package I cannot share internet connection on my pc. I'm using Windows Vista (sorry for that ;( ). Do anyone knows how to do it?
Posted by: jau | March 20, 2008 at 05:42 AM
That's nice but I even after installing this package I cannot share internet connection on my pc. I'm using Windows Vista (sorry for that ;( ). Do anyone knows how to do it?
Posted by: jau | March 20, 2008 at 05:43 AM