Wether you're running Windows or OS X, we'll show you how to connect via EV-DO with Bluetooth or (gasp!) tether with a USB cable to get full speed access. (Unfortunately, OS X fans are limited to Bluetooth unless they're running Parallels.) First we'll cover using USB to connect with Windows XP, then move on to Bluetooth for Macs, and finally, put them together with Parallels.
Before we can do anything, we'll have to enable WModem (the Bluetooth and USB Dial up networking app) on our Verizon XV6700. Despite having Internet access on our EV-DO phone, we have to pay Verizon extra to teather. We had to call Verizon and pay extra to teather with our Verizon account. Yeah we know, it sucks.
Any time we want to use the phone as an EV-DO modem, we'll have to launch the Wmodem program. Of course, it's hidden. Whip out File Explorer and pull up the Windows folder. (select show all files in the menu) and we'll find the super secret program we need. Make a shortcut to Wmodem and place it inside the Windows/Start Menu folder. Now we'll have easy access to the modem feature when we need it.
Bluetooth is glorious in its cable free wonder, but unless you're rocking full Bluetooth 2.0+ EDR on both ends, in order to get full EV-DO speeds, we need a USB cable. Now we'll need a few files from the CD that came with our phone. Grab the Verizon CD, pop it into your Windows laptop and navigate to X:\OEM\APPS\Drivers\CDMA USB Modem\ and copy CDMA USB Modem.INF and CDMA_USB_Modem_Dialer.exe to our desktop. (Sorry OS X fans, there are no USB Modem drivers for you, but we got you covered in a bit.)
We need to make sure our phone isn't transmitting when we try to use it as a modem so we have to use Comm Manager to stop data service.
We plug the 6700 into our Windows XP machine and when the driver window pops up, we direct it to use the CDMA USB Modem.INF (If we don't have WModem running on our 6700 the correct device won't show up in Windows and our device will try to sync instead.)
Once the device is installed, and WModem is running, double click on CDMA_USB_Modem_Dialer.exe
- Username: 123-123-1234@vzw3.com (Put in your phone number)
- Password: vzw
- Dial: #777
- Modem: CDMA USB Modem
Mac users have two options: Bluetooth under OS X or USB, but only if you're running Parallels. (There's no native USB driver for OS X) Again, until Bluetooth 2.0 really starts to show up in handsets, it'll limit your connection speed.
Click continue on the first page of the BT wizard then choose any and hit continue, NOT PHONE!
We could choose to use our phone as a headset too, although we don't know why anyone would.
- Username 123-123-1234@vzw3.com (Put in your phone number)
- Password vzw
- Dial #777
- au cdmaOne Bluetoot adaptor Modem
If everything is good , we're rewarded with the connected screen. If we get an error it's usually because the data connection is being used by something else on the phone. The quick fix is to stop any other data transfer on the 6700 and reconnect.
Right now there's no USB Modem driver for the 6700 on a Mac. But thanks to Parallels, we can run a virtual machine and use the Windows driver. (With this trick we can leach power over the USB port and get the high speed access we crave.)
To get things going, we're running Windows XP under Parallels. Before launching our XP Virtual Machine we go into the VM properties
Hit OK and power on the VM. (Make sure you're on at least Parallels build 1862, which fixes many USB bugs)
Once the XP VM is booted, we launch WModem on our phone and choose USB, then press Start.
Then plug in our USB Cable.
Scroll up and use our Windows instructions to configure the USB Modem device and the dialer.
Select Allow other Network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection.
Now, once you throw Bluetooth DUN and certain other hacks into the equation you'll wind up with a lot more ways to get your laptop online with your EV-DO phone -- if you've got some more hacks, please, do leave them in the comments! Still, we think this is a good way to get you started if you're ready to take on the challenge of ExpressCard / PC card-less 3G on your laptop.