Ok, here you go.... Steps to get BIS working on your PC/Laptop. (I have to date only tried with USB, but Bluetooth should work the same) -------- Step 1. -------- Get yourself a BlackBerry (preferably one with 3G - 'cause it fast!) - on either contract or prepaid. BIS is available on both, but make sure to check with your service provider / carrier to confirm. A) For prepaid; load enough airtime to buy a 1-month subscription to BIS, then use your carrier's menu on your phone to activate it. You'll get a confirmation message. B) For contract; BIS should already be activated by your carrier if part of your deal. Make sure the people signing you aren't lazy, and do the dirty work for you! You'll know your BIS is activated and working when you have the little 4-dot logo at the top-right of your screen. (logo may differ phone-dependent) -------- Step 2. -------- Verify BIS activation. A) Open your menu and go to "Options" (spanner icon). Then click on "Device." Then go down to and click on "Advanced System Settings." Scroll down and click on "Host Routing Table." You should see some GPRS entries here. My phone has 4 GPRS entries + 1 Wi-Fi entry. 1 GPRS should be in bold. Click on it. You should see "APN: blackberry.net" [SCREENSHOT: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/214/gprsa.jpg/] B) Now go back twice (until you land back at the Advanced System Settings menu). Go down to TCP IP and click it. This next step is likely carrier-dependent. If "APN Settings Enabled" doesn't have a tick in the box; place 1 there. Directly underneath that, fill in the following next to APN: "blackberry.net" Make sure you type it AS IS (without the inverted commas) - double check your spelling! [SCREENSHOT: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/35/tcpipu.jpg/] Return to previous menu (click Save if prompted) -------- Step 3. -------- Hard reboot your phone. Do not simply power it off and on. Take out the battery, or install and use "Auto Reboot" from the BB App World - to simulate a battery pull (see NOTES at end) -------- Step 4. -------- Download and install Tether on both your PC and BB. A) Visit "http://tether.com/blackberry/download" on your PC and download & install the Tether app. Download & install this file if you prefer "http://tether.com/t/setupdrv.exe" (which includes the BlackBerry driver, if you don't have the BB Desktop software installed already) You might want to reboot your PC after installing the PC app, but it may not be necessary. B) Now visit "http://tether.com/blackberry/download" using your BB's browser and follow the instructions for installing onto your phone. Before clicking Download, tick the "Set Application Permissions" box - then when you install, set everything to "Allow" and save it before clicking Download. Finally; click Download. Do NOT launch it just yet! -------- Step 5. -------- Remove WAP2 service book to prevent data charges. As per Step 2; go back to your menu > Options > Device > Advanced System Settings. Now click on "Service Book." NOTE: you must do this step whenever you have restarted your phone, or have turned your radio on after it being off! This service book re-adds itself to your list without your consent. Please do not worry about deleting it. I promise you it is safe to. You'll most likely have a service book entry called "WAP2" or "WAP2 Transport." If you click on it, look for the field labelled "Gateway IP" and you'll see the BadBoy data APN for your carrier in there. This BadBoy is what we want to avoid at all costs, because it will mean you being charged if your BB uses it! Once you find WAP2, delete it. If it's not there, don't stress. Proceed forward. Return to your desktop or main menu. -------- Step 6. -------- A) Disable your usual internet adapter (LAN adapter, etc) or unplug your internet cable so that your PC is completely disconnected from the internet. B) Plug in your BB to your PC with the USB cable. When the prompt for USB Drive / Charge only appears on your BB, just click Return/Back. (i.e. don't select any of them) [Windows will install your BB using the driver for your phone - either from the BB Desktop software or if you downloaded the setupdrv.exe Windows Tether installer exe] C) Launch Tether on your BB and select USB. Tether will attempt and finally (hopefully) make a connecting to BIS. You’ll see "Tether is running" under Status once it's ready. BE PATIENT HERE !! Tether may take a few minutes to connect. [I recommend you try the trial first for Tether to make sure it works for your phone before you spend the dosh on it] D) Now launch your Tether PC app and select USB. It will connect to your BB and open your default web browser to www.tether.com/start. If the website opens ok and you see a packets sent & packets received count, then you're officially connected via your phone! (see NOTES below if you see sent packets, but no received packets) ---------------- Step 7 - closing ---------------- Double check you're using BIS and not your carrier. Open your browser and visit http://whatismyipaddress.com/ Check that under ISP it says something foreign like "Research in Motion" or "Codero." You should NOT see anything that sounds anything like your carrier's network. If your IP looks good (i.e. not your carrier's) - then you're all sorted !!! Enjoy leeching free internet using your BIS BlackBerry data plan !! ;-) __________________________________________________________ NOTES: -------- 1) I had some stability issues with the latest version of the BB Tether app (v1.4.5.0). I have since installed v1.1.0.5 and it's more stable now. To get it, visit the link below using your BB browser (delete your current Tether off your BB first!) 2) If Tether on your BB and PC both say they're connected/running, yet you receive no packets, then try either A) pulling your battery out & putting back in [this is a hard reboot] then trying again, or B) deleting your current version of Tether off of your BB and trying a different version from the list below. 3) There's an app in the BB App World that simulates a battery pull. Search for and install it if you aren't keen on removing your battery while experimenting. The app is called "Auto Reboot." 4) My Tether was already registered at the time of compiling this guide, so a couple of steps for trial users aren't mentioned. Just use your common sense and initiate your trial! 5) Speed tests on your PC won’t do Tether justice. Do a multi-part download and see. I’ve hit a top 440kB/s (kilobytes per second) to date. Latency is a little high, but throughput is great. -------------------------- Tether BB client versions: -------------------------- Newest: http://tether.com/t/tether.jad (v1.4.5.0 as of posting this) v1.4.4.3: http://tether.com/tim/Tether.jad v1.4.3.3: http://tether.com/tim/uc/Tether.jad v1.4.3.2: http://tether.com/tim/1.4.3.2/tether.jad v1.4.3.1: http://tether.com/tim/test/Tether.jad v1.1.0.6: http://tether.com/t/1.1.0.6/Tether.jad v1.1.0.5: http://tether.com/t/backups/1.1.0.5/Tether.jad v1.1.0.4: http://tether.com/t/backups/1.1.0.4/tether.jad v1.1.0.4: http://tether.com/t/backups/1.1.0.4/tether.jad