Caleb Hunt (.com)

*** Heads Up!*** Data tethering can be outrageously expensive (potentially $8/mb) if your plan does not include tethering. I take no responsibilities if you end up with crazy data charges. My data package includes tethering, and I’ve had NO extra charges using the methods outlined below. That being said, if you feel comfortable doing what you’re doing… carry on

After a whole lot of internet searching, and no success finding a step-by-step tutorial on how to properly setup Bluetooth tethering, I’ve manage to piece together the settings on how you can make this work. This tutorial is specifically written on how to setup Bluetooth tethering with TELUS BlackBerries, and even more specifically my Bold 9700, so keep in mind, your mileage may vary on this one… but I hope this helps get you in the right direction.

My laptop is an LG R200 (C2D T7250, 2GB RAM) with a fresh installation of Windows 7 x32 Enterprise. I’m using the generic built-in Bluetooth drivers that Microsoft supports provides with Windows 7 which proves to be all that’s required to make things work.

First step, is to pair your Bluetooth enabled PC to your BlackBerry. During the paring, Windows installs the ‘Standard Modem over Bluetooth Link’ drivers required for Bluetooth connection to your BlackBerry, and then to the internet.

In the Network & Sharing Center in the Control Panel, there is an option to ‘Setup a new connection or network’ which you select, and on the following screen you select the ‘Standard Modem over Bluetooth link’ as the modem you’d like to use. The following screen asks you to enter your ISP information. Enter the following:

Dial-up Phone  number: *99#
User name: leave blank
password: leave blank

Give the connection name something like ‘TELUS via Bluetooth’ or something, an  then click connect. It will attempt to dial the *99# number via your BlackBerry – but just cancel this attempt by hitting ‘Skip’. Hitting close on the following screen creates the connection and saves the connection under Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections (or by clicking the ‘Change Adapter Settings’ link in the side menu of the ‘Network and Sharing Center’)

*Update July 19th 2010*: confirmed that this setting also works with a CDMA BlackBerry 8530 as I helped a friend setup her phone for bluetooth tethering as well. No need for the next step if you’re configuring a CDMA (1XEV) BlackBerry, read on if you’re using an HSPA (3G) BlackBerry…

Next, from the Control Panel, select ‘Phone and Modem’ settings. Under the ‘Modems’ tab, select the ‘Standard Modem over Bluetooth Link’ and hit ‘Properties’.

Under the General Tab, hit the ‘Change Settings’ button. Select the ‘Advanced’ tab and add this line to the ‘Extra initialization commands’ box:

AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”sp.telus.com”

sp.telus.com is the APN Telus uses for internet connections. Once you’re done, hit OK.

I’ve modified the connection properties to skip the prompt for the phone number and prompt for username/password, so it connects as soon as you click the ‘Connect’ button.

But that’s it – you’re good to go. You know you’re connected when your BlackBerry says ‘Modem Mode Enabled’ like it does here:

Now, I should probably say… Tethering via Bluetooth is NOT as fast as tethering via a USB cable, nor does it help the ‘make my battery life on my BlackBerry longer’ department, but it’s mighty handy when you don’t want to mess around with wires.  From what I’ve read, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR  maxes out around 3mb/sec, so your results may be a little better than this, but for webbrowsing, email, (and creating posts like this) – I’m OK with it.

This is the story of how a routine BlackBerry OS upgrade ended up being a total time vampire.

I decided to upgrade my Bold 9700′s OS the other day after an official update was issued for my phone by a UK provider. Considering it had been a while since I had done an upgrade, and the reviews were positive on this release, I decided to give it a go. When I got my 9700 back in December 2009, I was coming from an OS 5.0 BlackBerry Tour. I decided to give my new phone as fresh of a start as possible and did a selective restore of specific data (contacts, volume profiles, custom setting, etc…) and opted to re-download all my applications fresh to avoid any issues restoring from a backup file or using the device transfer wizard.

I use Google Sync to sync my contacts and calendar with my Gmail account, and have always had decent results – emphasis on the decent, because it hasn’t always been magical but I suppose that’s a whole other entry (why can Apple + iPhone + Google get it soooo right but RIM + Google = fail?). Anyway, for the OS upgrade I do a full backup and restore of everything exactly the way it was prior to the upgrade, but during the upgrade, for whatever reason (I think it’s the order in which things were re-installed), the ‘BlackBerry Messenger Group Calendar’ became set as the default calendar for my BlackBerry. Queue the headache… Why is this such a bad thing? Well, because then when Google Sync sync’s it’s default calendar (my Gmail calendar) it populates the Blackberry Messenger Group calendar by default. Extremely annoying and extremely frustrating. So now all my Calendar  updates are now visible to all my BBM Group buddies… Not what I wanted at all.

See, what happens is for every email address that you have on your BlackBerry (I have 3), there are service books on the device for mail and for calendar for each of the email address. Normally, I delete all but my primary Gmail calendar’s service books as the others are completely unnecessary. But for whatever reason, since BlackBerry messenger was upgraded to 5.0 and added in the feature of ‘Groups’, the BBM Group calendar can NOT  be deleted from your phone like the other calendars as there is no service book for it. I was only ever a part of one group that we used for communication between people at work, so while it was handy, it wasn’t entirely necessary. I notified everyone I was shutting down / deleting the group in an attempt to perhaps solve the issue… but – even after removing yourself from every BBM Group you were a part of, the Group Calendar still exists, and was still set as the default calendar.

With my Google Sync meltdown and hours of time down the tube, I said ‘screw this’ and decided to wipe my BlackBerry to rid myself of the headache. Needless to say, I’m back up and running now, but here’s how I prevented any recurrence of errors on the fresh install:

- During the OS reload / wipe I made sure that I unchecked  BBM from the list of applications to install to ensure it wasn’t on my phone by default
- Once the phone was back in action, I made sure that the BBM Groups calendar wasn’t still on the phone – and it isn’t.
- Restored my data
- Re-sent my service books & deleted the calendar service books for the email addresses I didn’t need

- Setup Google sync to sync with the email calendar I wanted
- Downloaded all my applications
- Downloaded BBM 5.0
- Swore to myself I’m never ever joining another BBM group until RIM fixes this issue.

One of the things that I have always appreciated about the internet when it comes to doing hardware upgrades, is the ability to ‘google’ the combination of parts I’m trying to put together, and 8 times out of 10, I find someone else out there on the interwebs that has an identical (or very similar) setup. They post pictures to show their setups, air-flow strategies, and any modifications to the componenets they make to ensure things work. The mission of this post is to document my recent HTPC upgrades so that someone else out there (somewhere someday) who’s attempting a similar upgrade will have a few pictures to work with.

To start, here’s what I’m working with:

Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H Motherboard (first revision with the terrible stock Northbridge cooler)
AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition CPU (2.8GHZ 7.5MB Cache 95W 45NM)
4GB G.SKILL F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK (2x2GB) PC2-8500 RAM

Antec Sonata III Case w/ Antec Earthwatt 500W power supply.
120mm Tri-Cool Antec fan for exhaust+ a 120mm Noctua fan mounted behind the HDD cage to pull air across the HDD’s for cooling

First step was to fix the crazy heat issue I was having with the integrated 780G graphics on my Motherboard. The stock Gigabyte cooler was junk, and while I understand that the 780G chips are designed to run hot, when the chipset would frequently hit 100 degree temps (ie:  during HD playback) it would cause system instability, likely resulting in a shutdown/reboot. Initially, I was planning on using a Thermalright HR-05/IFX cooler (which I actually purchased), I applied Arctic Silver 5,  and spent a good half hour getting it properly installed. My biggest gripe (aside from the installation time) was that due to it’s size, it was WAY too easy to bump while in the case, when it was idling at 92 degrees, it had to go. At the same time I ordered my parts, I also ordered a Zalman ZM-NB47J for which I was planning on replacing the stock southbridge. This wasn’t entirely a necessary upgrade, but figured I would do it anyway when I had everything apart. I ended up using the ZM-NB47J + AS5 on my northbridge to cool my 780G graphics, and so far it’s working just the way it should. It *just barely* fit, but installation was a breeze and it’s snug and secure. Idle temps are are around 80, 92 under full load.

Now, to cool the CPU, I thought I might just stick with the stock AMD cooler until I saw it running at almost 60 degrees under full load. So, I picked up a Xigmatek HDT-S1283 for $35 @ NCIX after reading such positive reviews. When I went to install it, I was disappointed to find that the only way to mount it on the stock AM2/AM3 bracket was horizontally so that the 120mm fan that was supplied with the heatsync either pushed air towards the bottom, or top of the case – NOT out the back like I had envisioned it (as per my Arctic Cooling Freezer on my e8400 Desktop). Still wanting to make use of the cooler, I applied AS5 to the CPU using the ‘two line’ method illustrated here (not the typical AMD AS5 method I was used to) and so far, the results have been very positive. The Heatsync is MASSIVE (and just barely fits in the Sonata Case), and it does cover two of the RAM slots, but it keeps my CPU ~30 Idle. and ~40 under full load (Prime95/Hyper Pi).  I opted to mount the 120mm fan so that it pushed air down towards the bottom of my case, hoping that it would push a little air onto the northbridge (using the little spoiler) and also to catch the cross-flow between the Noctua and exhaust through the tri-cool.

So, here’s some pictures of the setup. Hope this helps someone in the future!

People ask me frequently what my home network setup is like, so here it is:

So a couple months ago I decided to pull the trigger and build myself a new desktop PC after my LG R200 laptop just was no longer cutting it in the realms of speed / capacity. It served it’s time well for my mobile days of traveling to/from school, but just couldn’t hack editing RAW images in Photoshop/Lightroom. Here’s what I ended up with:

Processor: Intel E8400 stock at 3GHz w/ Arctic Cooling Freezer PRO HSF
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-UD3p
RAM: 4GB G-Skill PC-8500 RAM
HDD: 1TB WD Black
Video: XFX Radeon 4850 w/1GB ram
OS: Windows 7 Beta

This is my first Intel build since, well… a PIII 733 waaaay back in the day. I’ve yet to OC, but that’s on tap for the future. I re-used my Antec case from my AMD X2 3800 build back in ’05 and picked up a 700 Watt Modular Power Supply from FS. One of the reasons I wanted to do a desktop (despite desktop PC’s being dead) was to take advantage of dual displays. I ended up getting a great deal on a couple Samsung Syncmaster 2343BW’s. These each have a 16×9 resolution that support 2048×1152 – that’s two 8.5×11 pieces of paper side by side. There’s tons of screen real-estate which is fantastic, even though one of them is already going back to Samsung for an exchange because of a faulty DVI display port.

So that’s my desktop, next on the docket – the Media Centre. I’m a huge fan of the HTPC (Home Theatre PC). This is our always-on, always-accessible PC that houses the majority of our media. It has our MP3′s (incl iTunes library), movies, TV, runs our torrents, stores our pictures etc. It’s evolved into much more than simply a “media streamer” which was it’s intended purpose when I picked up an Acer Aspire desktop PC with a dual core Athlon X2 3600+ a year 1/2 ago. It’s now been supped up with a:

Processor: AMD Phenom X3 720 Black Edition Processor @ 2.8GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-SH2 (w/ AMD 780G onboard video that handles HD content flawlessly)
RAM: 4GB G-Skill PC-8500
HDD: 2 x 250GB Seagate, 1 x 1TB Samsung and I need to replace a 500GB external that died on the weekend (moral of the story… BACK IT UP)
OS: Windows XP Pro (to be upgraded in the near future)
Display: Samsung Aquos 32″ 720P LCD TV

Megan uses this PC (that is also our TV in the living room) as her main computer. The next upgrade for this will be a new PC case… I think I’m going to pick up an Antec Sonata III (just did a desktop build for a client, and it’s a quality case).

I still have my LG R200 Laptop which I use on a frequent basis, though not as regularly as the other PC’s.

Another gadget that’s attached to our network to house even more media is our HP EX470 Windows Home Server. It’s currently stuffed with a 500 GB Seagate HDD and 2 x 1TB Western Digital Green hard drives at the present time and acts as even more storage for our HTPC to stream from.

Our ISP is Nexicom, unlimited ADSL+ traffic – highly recommended. It’s coming into a Linksys WRT54GL router with Tomato firmware on it (turns your $50 router into a $200+ router) and all our networked PC’s are running off a GBE Dlink switch.

So there you have it.

That’s right. Megan and I are off to Greece! Eudora’s off to my parents as we embark this coming Monday for a two week jaunt around the Mediterranean. How exciting is that?! We’re making the trip with Megan’s parents who have been to Greece on multiple occasions before. Jim (Megan’s dad) is over in Greece a few times a year on work related ventures. He’s the Dean of Arts and PhD at UNB in Fredericton – Classic Arts is his ‘thing’, and we can’t be more excited to have him as our tour guide!

We’ll be spending the Majority of our time in Athens with the last few days spent on a cruise that will take us to Turkey and around some of the Greek Isles.

I’ve ordered a new lens for my camera(s) and it should arrive tomorrow, so my arsenal is shaping up quite nicely:
- Canon EOS 30D & Canon Rebel XSi Bodies
- Canon EF 24-105mm F4L  IS (new addition for the trip!)
- Canon EF 50mm F1.8
- Canon EF 70-200mm F4L
- Canon Speedlight 430EX

I’m even debating ‘borrowing’ a Canon EF-S 10-22mm lens from the shop for my UWA perspective. It’ll be a solid line up… I’ve got about 20GB in memory cards, so I should be good for over 2000 RAW images.

I fully intend on blogging this journey, will it be ‘live’ – that is still yet to be seen. I’d love to update Twitter along the way, blog cool stuff as I see it and keep in touch with folks while I’m away – but I can’t seem to find the “perfect solution”. I recently unlocked my Bell BlackBerry Tour 9630, so I can use a foreign SIM card while I’m overseas, however it’s quite difficult finding a service provider who will do data support. Phone/SMS isn’t an issue, but I’d like an alternative to the $50/MB roaming charge from Bell. I’ve looked into solutions such as Brightroam ($15/MB + $30 SIM) but I think I’ve ran out of time on that one.

Anyway… That’s what’s coming down the pipe, some quality updates in the next couple weeks.