Nokia 6610 GPRS
Last updated 2003-11-15 in Shanghai, China.

This document was written after I got my Nokia 6610 to work with GPRS and the following configuration:
Readers not in China should skip to technical setup, below.


China Mobile steps
  1. Buy a standard prepaid SIM from any dealer.
  2. Turn up to a China Mobile office (these can be hard to find!) and request GPRS service.  At the time of writing (2003/11), unlimited GPRS for a month cost 200元 (about US$25).  After paying, use your phone menu to set your GPRS connection name to cmnet (cmwap is also supposed to work for WAP only access, but I havent bothered trying it.)
  3. Your service will begin on the first of the next calendar month, or there abouts.
  4. Remember to return monthly (before the end of the month) to pay your monthly fee again, or your SIM will be rendered useless until you do so.

Technical setup
  1. Install the Nokia drivers, which can be downloaded from their website.  Reboot or whatever as necessary.

  2. In Windows 98, make a new dial up networking (DUN) connection.  Make the number *99# (or if you're on Windows 98, just 99# will do- for some reason, leading *'s cannot be remembered by Windows 98 DUN, so you always have to modify the number saved in DUN when you connect anyway!).  You might like to call the connection Nokia GPRS or something similar.  Select the Nokia 6610 (IrDA) modem when prompted.

    (Explanation: When your phone dials this 'magic number' it establishes a GPRS to your mobile phone service provider, and a normal PPP connection with your computer.  Data is forwarded between the two links.)

  3. Right click on the new connection's icon, and select the Configure button next to where it says 'Connect Using' ... 'Nokia 6610 (IrDA)'.
    Click the Options tab.
    Check the Bring up terminal window before dialing box.
    Press OK.
    Select the Server Types tab.
    Click TCP/IP Settings.
    Select Specify name server addresses and add your name server's IP address.
    Press OK.
    Press OK.

Usage
Assuming that you have followed the steps above and have a bit of luck, here's how to connect.
  1. Use your phone menu to enable infra red.  (You should see a flashing beam icon in the top left of the phone's display.)
  2. Position your phone next to your laptop or computer such that the infra-red beam has an uninterrupted line of sight and that you will not end up looking directly in to an infra red port (said to be bad for your eyes!)
  3. In Windows 98, you should see your little infra red taskbar indicator change from a flashing port to two communicating ones.
  4. Double click on your DUN connection - Nokia GPRS or whatever you called it.
  5. Change the displayed number to *99# as it has probably reverted to 99#.  This is a Windows 'feature'!
  6. Click Connect.
  7. The pre-dial terminal window will pop up.  Select it (it's not always brought to the foreground - another Windows 'feature') ... and hold your finger on a letter key.  Once you start seeing the letter pop up in the terminal window, press F7 (continue).
  8. Here's the tricky part.  Sometimes you will get a connection, sometimes not.  There are various points where the connection can sometime freeze or fail entirely (resulting in a 'Disconnected' message before the connection is actually established), even if all of your equipment is good and your setup is perfect (or at least, the same as mine!).  Here's my experience on each point of failure (listed by displayed DUN status).
    1. Dialing
      If your dialing fails, then maybe you typed the number wrong or your phone cant get a GPRS connection at all.  Check to see that your SIM card actually has GPRS service enabled by your service provider.
    2. Verifying Username and Password
      Sometimes the phone locks up in some kind of half-connected mode where the diplay just says 'establishing GPRS' or some such (I dunno - mine's in Chinese) - and never really succeeds.  You can try to dial again, but if this fails, I recommend turning off the phone and turning it on again.  The phone's display will not respond until you do this, in my experience.
    3. Logging on to Network
      I usually find that if there is a failure at this point it is due to Windows timing-out the connection (or perhaps the phone's firmware partly locking up), but it will be remedied by dialing again.  You do not need to reboot the phone as described above in point 2.
  9. You should now be connected.
  10. If you cannot get any traffic to pass along the link, check that your provider's connection name (cmnet for China Mobile) was set up correctly in your phone menu.  Also, double check that your DNS server settings are correct.


Feel free to send corrections or feedback - walter@pratyeka.org.

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