Earlier this month, a group of folks at the XDA Developers forums figured out how to share the GPRS / evdo internet on Windows Mobile based phones over a Wi-fi connection. This was unfortunately not possible on smartphones, until today!

I was able to get this working on the T-Mobile Dash (and posted by inital findings here. The main hurdle in the smartphones is the lack of a network configuration panel of any kind. Luckily, all these settings are stored in the registry.

I am not sure how many of the changes I made were actually necessary. These are preliminary instructions that will work, but may require you to perform more steps than are really necessary.

NOTE: These changes will probably break your ability to connect to wireless networks with your Smartphone until reverted!!! Proceed with caution!!!!

Perform the following actions in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\TNETWLN1\Parms\TCPIP:
(Note: <blank> means to make the value blank, not the string “<blank>”, or a space. Make the field empty.)

Change these Values to:
AutoCfg = 0 (Default: 1)
AutoInterval = 0 (Default: 300)
AutoIP = 192.168.0.1
AutoMask = 255.255.255.0
AutoSubnet = 192.168.0.0
DhcpDNS = <blank>
DhcpEnableImmediateAuto = 0 (Default 1)
DhcpIPAddress = <blank>
DhcpServer = <blank>
DhcpSubnetMask = <blank>
DhcpWINS = <blank>
Domain = <blank>
EnableDHCP = 0 (Default 1)

Note: The only values you should need to change to undo these modifications are in red. the rest are set automatically.

Add the following Values, and set their value as shown:
dword, DefaultGateway = 0
string, IpAddress = 192.168.0.1
string, SubnetMask = 255.255.255.0

Note: I do not yet know what impact these will have on normal wifi connections. They may need to be deleted to restore normal functionality.

You should probably have the ad-hoc network created before starting Internet Sharing. I set mine up with no security because I’m lazy :D.

You will probably need to make sure that the smartphone does not try to connect to any infrastructure (access point) networks. You can either remove their settings, or in Wi-fi Settings, choose “Only device-to-device” in Networks to access.

Now, startup internet sharing using Bluetooth PAN.
Choose “no” if you get the visibility prompt (although it doesn’t really matter).

You may now turn bluetooth off.

Change PrivateInterface (in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\ConnectionSharing) to TNETWLN1 (for the Dash anyway).

If you haven’t turned Wi-fi on yet, you should do so now. (i am not sure what the ideal time to turn it on is…)

And now, go ahead and connect.

Troubleshooting:

Check the IP address that is assigned to your “client” computer. If it is 192.168.0.xxx, it probably worked. If not, check your registry settings.

Switch to the Internet sharing app, and make sure it still says connected. If it does not, you will have to start it, and edit the PrivateInterface again.

You may need to set up a proxy if you are using T-Mobile. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you probably shouldn’t be trying these modifications at this point.

Hope this helps somebody else. I will be using it to get internet on my Ipod Touch when I don’t have wifi.

Looking to run Linux within Windows?

Think vmware and clunky linux ports (bochs, qemu, etc) are your only free options?

Think again. Maybe I have been living under a rock, but until recently I was unaware of innotek’s vrtualization offering called VirtualBox.

VirtualBox is not quite as stable a vmware, but more than makes up for it with the light refreshing aftertaste. You do not need IIS installed. It has a small footprint, and is feature-packed (it has excellent USB support).

The main version of virtualbox is free (as in beer) for non-commercial use, but there is a free (as in speech) version available as well (albeit with fewer features).

I have run windows vista, centos 4 and fedora 7 on it.

I highly recommend this software, but don’t take my word for it. It is a quick download, and a painless install. Give it a try!

I really wish the ipod touch supported flash, because I would use it to watch strongbad emails.
I also wish Apple would have made it easy to copy videos onto the thing.
I also wish third party apps worked.

I haven’t had to print anything at home in quite some time (read: over a year). In fact, today marks the first time I have really needed some things printed.

So I busted out my Epson Stylus Photo R220, that has been sitting on my desk upstairs unused for over a year with the original ink tanks still installed. I wasn’t real optimistic about the outcome…

Surprisingly, the thing worked fine. After dusting it out and printing a few pages, it seems to be working good as new.

While I cannot recommend Epson for their anti-consumer, anti-refill technology, this printer didn’t dry up.

Night!