Thursday, November 20, 2008

Mobile Broadband over Bluetooth on Ubuntu

I am using Blueman GTK Bluetooth Manager on Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid) for connecting to the internet using my mobile phone Nokia N95 and netbook Asus EEE PC 901.

As far as I know, the built-in Bluetooth functions in Ubuntu can not provide Dial-Up Networking, so we have to install Blueman first. These are the repositories if you want to add manually:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/blueman/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/blueman/ubuntu intrepid main


or you can add them using this command [thanks IntuitiveNipple]:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/blueman/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main' >/etc/apt/sources.list.d/blueman.list"

Now you can install Blueman using the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install blueman


After the installation is complete, run Blueman:


Click Menu -> Accesories -> Blueman Bluetooth Manager

That should bring a window similar to this but without the devices of course:

Complete the pair, bond and trusting steps between your Mobile Phone and Computer. Your view should resemble the screen capture, with the lock and the key icons. Also you should authorize / trust the computer in your mobile phone which would make connections seamless in the future.

After the bonding is complete, we should create a Bluetooth Modem connection, click the following on the Blueman interface.

Menu → Edit → Services

Which should open a window like this:


Click the Red Button next to Serial. It should turn Green like above.
Click Configure next to Autostart box (rightmost icon)

That should open a window like this. Do the following to add a Bluetooth modem connection:

Click Add New Serial Port to bring up Host and Service areas.
Select the Phone you have bonded as Host
Select Dial-Up Networking as Service

Click Add Port

You should have something like /dev/rfcomm0 yourphonename 00:00::0F:0E:0D Dial-Up Networking in the text area as shown in the screen shot, now:

Select This is a GSM/GPRS/EDGE/3G dialup connection.

Your phone is recognized by the system as a Bluetooth modem. Next step is for defining your Mobile Connection in Ubuntu. In Intrepid you can do the following:

Click Menu → System → Preferences → Network Configurations
Click Mobile Broadband Tab
Click Add


Follow the wizard and add your service provider. After this step is complete, you can:

Click Network Connections icon

Where you should see:

Wired Networks (eth0 your ethernet adapter)
...
Mobile Broadband (your configured connection I.e. T-Mobile, O2, Orange etc.)
...
Wireless Networks (if your wireless is enabled any connections in the vicinity)
...
...

Just click the connection you have created under Mobile Broadband and you should be able to connect to your phone and internet.

Monday, September 3, 2007

Under the Bosphorus Bridge

I do not have much to say in this post. Please click on the picture to go to my Picasa Web Album and enjoy some nice pictures taken while passing from the Bosphorus Strait.

The pictures are taken by a friend from a Turkish Coast Guard boat, accompanied by another TCG boat. The pictures are from Kadikoy on the Marmara Sea to the Black Sea. You can also see pictures of the very expensive waterfront estates, with prices reaching as high as $100 million.

Enjoy...

Sunday, September 2, 2007

The Leeds Castle

Looking for "The loveliest castle in the world"? If your search engine is Google, Yahoo or MS Live, the answer is Leeds Castle in Maidstone, Kent. If you use another one and the first result is something different, switch immediately.

I first saw the Leeds Castle as the cover on a promotional calendar from Altair Filters for the year 2002. The calendar is called "On the Wing" followed by the year. I have received all the calendars from 2002 to 2007, and every month contains another nice view from the beautiful United Kingdom; great castles, towns, dark blue sea shores, various hues of green. Unfortunately this year while moving out from my house the years 2002 to 2004 got lost. So is the best picture of the Leeds Castle gone.

But the Castle was still there, so I should visit.

Together with my girlfriend we went to London Paddington and asked for 2 tickets. The price for one person is 52 GBP including admission to the Castle, but you should queue at the ticket office before entering the Castle and exchange your railway tickets for some other ticket, very unnecessary.

Anyway we had time, it was around 10:25am and the train was on 11:00am, we walked around the Paddington station looking for some breakfast / lunch. No fast food seemed delicious at the moment and we decided to buy some sandwiches from Marks & Spencer. We went there, some lady in front of the queue poured fruit juice on my girlfriends outfit, and then she took ages asking some questions the cashier and...

It was 10:55, we were running for the train, my cell phone fall and broke apart, I tried picking the pieces while still running and some very dramatic moments finalized when we saw the train closing the doors in front of us. Well one of the polite employees of the Southeastern rail service has been nice enough to wait for us, and we managed to catch the train. These both paragraphs are only to thank our anonymous savior.

After 1 hour of train journey, when we ate and drink our hard earned M & S prize, we have reached the Bearsted Station, where a friendly coach driver has greeted all the passengers going to the Leeds Castle. This guy told jokes to everyone while checking the tickets and we have liked him very much. Oh the coach was ancient, vibrating and noisy, I am glad we made it to the Castle safely.

The Castle has large grounds including an aviary, a golf course, maze, many ducks, black swans and white swans, two restaurants, picnic area...

The Castle is in very good condition and alive, because I think many rooms are still being used for the meetings of the Leeds Castle Foundation. It is a very nice area for a whole day visit, go and see for yourself...