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Let's say Sprint happened to to send you a free phone with a free service plan as part of their Ambassador program. Wouldn't you want to share the benefit of that service with as many people as possible? Especially if the plan included free data service? After all, Mr. Ambassador, you certainly want everyone to enjoy Sprint's quality service as much as you do, right?

Or let's say you're so rich you can afford to pay Sprint's (probably high) fees for unlimited data service. Since there's no additional cost to you, shouldn't you share some of that bandwidth with some of us poor saps who can't afford such luxuries?

This post describes how to use your Bluetooth- and Airport-enabled Mac with your Bluetooth-enabled Sprint PCS phone to set up a mobile wifi access point. Meaning, you can put your iBook in your car or backpack, put your phone in your pocket, and give free wifi internet access to anyone who happens to be in the area. (Of course, you will also be able to access the internet yourself all the while.)

These instructions assume you are using Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), and a Samsung A920, the official phone of Sprint Ambassadors everywhere. But they should apply to any Sprint phone with Bluetooth that is capable of being a data modem and/or using their Power Vision service. Non-ambassadors will have to navigate the labyrinth of Sprint customer service and get "phone-as-modem" service added to their plan. Once you've gotten that taken care of, please continue...

Summary for experienced people

Details are below, but if you know what you're doing and just want to do it quickly:

1. Turn on Bluetooth on your phone.
2. Pair your phone with your Mac.
3. In the PPP configuration for Bluetooth in Network preferences, leave the username and password blank and use this phone number: #777
4. In Sharing preferences, go to the Internet pane and turn on Internet Connection Sharing for Bluetooth, allowing AirPort devices to connect.
5. Back in PPP, click "Dial Now...". You should be all set. By default, your SSID will be your computer's name.
6. If you need a detailed step-by-step, continue reading...

First, set up the phone

1. Press "Menu/OK".
2. Select "Settings".
3. Scroll down and select "Bluetooth" and press OK.
4. If Bluetooth is disabled, click OK on to enable it.
5. Set "Visibility" to "Always visible". (This is optional and not very secure, but it might make things easier later.)
6. Select "Device Name" and enter a nice name for your phone. This is the name other Bluetooth devices (like your Mac) will display when connecting to your phone. (I have found in other contexts that choosing a one-word name can reduce errors.)

Connect your Mac to your phone via Bluetooth

1. Open System Preferences.
2. In the Hardware section, click Bluetooth.
3. In the Settings pane, make sure it says Bluetooth is on. Other than that, it doesn't matter much what is selected. [screenshot]
4. In the Devices pane [screenshot], click "Setup New Device".
5. The Bluetooth Setup Assistant wizard will start. Click "Continue" and select "Mobile phone" from the list of device types.
6. The wizard will scan the airwaves looking for Bluetooth devices. When you see the name of your phone, select it and click "Continue".
7. After a few seconds of "gathering information," the wizard will prompt you to click "Continue" to continue. Do so.
8. Your computer will display a "passkey", a number you have to type into your phone to "pair" the phone with your Mac. [screenshot]
9. Your phone will prompt you to accept the pair. Press "Accept".
10. Enter the passkey into your phone and press OK. If you wait too long, the connection will time out, and you'll probably have to go back in the wizard and get a new passkey.
11. Once the pairing has taken place, click "Continue" to continue.
12. Make sure "Access the internet with your phone's data connection" is checked.
13. Click "Continue".
14. Here's the important part: You will be prompted to enter connection settings. Leave "Username" and "Password" blank. In "Phone Number", enter #777. For "Modem Script", select "Sprint PCS Vision". [screenshot]
15. Optionally, select the checkboxes to show Bluetooth and Modem status in the menu bar.
16. Click "Continue".
17. Click "Quit".

Connect to the Internet

At this point, you might want to turn off Airport and/or unplug your network cable, so that when you connect to the internet via the phone, you'll be sure you are connected via the phone. (After it's all set up, you can turn Airport back on.) In the meantime, here's how to get connected:

1. Open System Preferences. (Or click "Show All" if your Bluetooth panel is still active.)
2. In the Network & Internet section, choose "Network".
3. In the dropdown labeled "Show", select "Bluetooth".
4. In the "PPP" pane, make sure "Account Name" and "Password" are blank, and that "Telephone Number" is #777.
5. In the "Bluetooth Modem" pane, make sure the Modem dropdown says "Sprint PCS Vision", and (optionally) check all checkboxes. Now you're ready to connect to the internet.
6. Go back to the "PPP" pane, and click "Dial Now..." An "Internet Connect" dialog box will appear. Make sure the Bluetooth pane is showing. [screenshot]
7. Click "Connect". The modem status in the menu bar will read "Connecting..." and your phone will say "Connected as data modem to [your computer name]". You are connected! A timer on the phone will show the duration of your connection.
8. Open a web browser on your computer to confirm that you are connected.

Share your internet connection via AirPort

Now you are ready to share your connection to the internet with other users. To do so:

1. Turn AirPort back on if you turned it off earlier.
2. Return to System Preferences. (Click "Show All" if you are still on your Network settings.)
3. In "Internet & Network", click "Sharing".
4. Go to "Internet" pane. [screenshot]
5. In the dropdown labeled "Share your connection from", select "Bluetooth".
6. In the "To computers using" area, select "AirPort".
7. Click "AirPort options" to make sure encryption is not turned on and/or to change the name of the access point (SSID) that your Mac will broadcast .
8. Click "Start" to start sharing your internet connection via wifi.
9. You may get a message saying this conflicts with your firewall setting, as Personal Web Sharing must be turned on (for some reason) to share your internet connection. If there's a dialog, click "Show Services" or directly open the "Services" pane in Sharing (which partially controls your firewall), and activate "Personal Web Sharing" service. Note that this will make the "Sites" folder in your home directory available via your network connection. (If someone can explain to me why Personal Web Sharing has to be turned on in order to share your internet connection, I'd love to hear it. If it's just to open the port, couldn't they do that without firing up your web server?)
10. That's it! You're connected and you're sharing your connection. You might want to test it with another wifi device to make sure it can connect. (By default, your Mac will broadcast its name as the the name of the access point (SSID)).

Potentially sad note: Some devices may not be able to obtain an IP address from your Mac, in which case they won't be able to use your connection to the internet. However, if you can talk to whoever is attempting to share your connection (e.g., you're over at your friends' house and want to get them online), you can configure their network connection manually. To do so, follow these instructions. I'd recommend keeping the IP addresses of some public DNS servers handy, so you can just type those in instead of trying to determine them from the dig utility or similar. I really don't know anything about Internet Connection Sharing on the Mac, so I have no idea which devices can automatically obtain an IP from it and which can't.

Added bonus: Note that if you look at the Personal Web Sharing preferences, you'll see your external IP has been resolved to an actual domain name like http://h460c83c6.area2.spcsdns.net. Anyone accessing that address in their browser will see whatever website your Mac is serving from its web server folders.

Keep in mind:

• Sprint PCS may or may not like the idea of you sharing your bandwidth. (Especially if you're not an Ambassador and don't have diplomatic immunity.)
• If you are at work or school, your network administrator may or may not like (1) your computer's new-found role as a DHCP server, and (2) your computer giving indirect access to his/her LAN.

Even so, at least you can go to bed knowing you are the Robin Hood of wireless bandwidth!

A couple weeks ago, Sprint PCS invited me to participate in its "Sprint Ambassador Program," a program under which they give you a free phone and unlimited use of a premium plan for six months, no strings attached. I received the phone today, and tried to use it as a modem, which the program literature suggested was possible.

Although this story ended happily, it wasn't before I was reminded, at length, of why I left Sprint PCS back in the late 90s: their legendarily bad customer service.

The phone, a Samsung A920, arrived today, pre-activated. I had some fun exploring its various features, like music downloads (free for Ambassador participants, $2.50(!) for regular customers), video streaming, web browsing, etc.

But when I tried to set it up as a modem (via Bluetooth) and ran into questions, I quickly encountered Sprint's frustrating customer service apparatus, still spotty after all these years.

All I needed was the phone number to enter into my Bluetooth setup. I thought this information might be on their website. But it turned out I needed a password so I could log on to confirm I was signed up for data service, etc. According to the informational card shipped with my phone, this password defaults to the last four digits of my SSN. Easy enough, right? But of course it didn't work.

After a few tries, I clicked the "I don't know my password" link. The resulting page told me it couldn't reconcile my number with my password. I already knew that. Time to call my old friends at Sprint PCS customer service...

Dial *2, tell the robots I need tech support, get a CSR (not a tech guy) on the phone. I tell him I just got the phone today via the Ambassador program, I'm trying to use it as a modem, and I need a password so I can logon to the site and add that service to my plan. It didn't take long for the conversation to turn Kafka-esque as these conversations always do:

CSR: "I need your password before I can give you that information, sir."
Me: "Um. What I was saying is that according to this informational card that came with the phone, my password is supposed to be the last four digits of my social security number. Those numbers didn't work, so I don't know what my password is."
CSR: "Sir, I can't give you the information you need unless you can give me the password for this account."

Start over. Finally he determines my account is a business account, so he transfers me over to that department. I tell the new guy my situation and what I need.

Business CSR: "Who is the point of contact for your account."
Me: "I don't know...Me?"
Business CSR: "I'm seeing this is a large account with a large number of phones, so you need to get in touch with the point of contact for this account."
Me: "I think the point of contact is you. Like I said, you guys sent me the phone...you know, for review purposes."
Business CSR: "I understand."

Puts me on hold for two minutes, comes back and tells me I need to call ANOTHER number: (888) 296-8806, which apparently is the Ambassador hotline or whatever. Having been down these "special number" paths before, I asked him twice if they would be open right then (Saturday, 5 pm EST). He says yes.

I call the number. Guess what? Dead air. Nothing. Not a ring, not a busy signal, nothing.

Hurray for Sprint PCS! Consistently offering crappy customer service for almost 10 years!

After this, I tried the "I don't know my password" link on the website again, and this time it worked! Apparently they did something to resolve the purgatorial status of my account, and I got an SMS with my new pw. The pw worked.

So at this point, I figured all I need is the phone number to enter in my Bluetooth setup dialog. Can't find that in any of the documentation, online or otherwise, so that's another call to customer service. This time, I get a CSR who tells me my demo plan doesn't support "phone as modem" features but transfers me to a tech anyway. The tech -- who is named Roy (I think) -- is really good -- tells me what number to type in to the Bluetooth dialog (#777), and tells me to give it a shot. No dice.

He then discovers the special Ambassador service number, and gives it to me, but I tell him I already tried it and all I got was dead air. He tries it and gets dead air, too. He says he'd look into it, and I tell him I'd email the the Ambassador people and see if they could get me set up with a data plan, which at this point I still thought I didn't have (since that's what the CSR told me). Not an ideal solution, but at least he was trying to be helpful and knew what he was talking about.

About 10 minutes later, a tech named Jeff called my PCS phone. He told me he had talked to Roy and wanted to help me get my phone working as a modem.

He explained the root cause of my inability to get online with the phone. This is really funny:

Sprint gave all these Ambassador phones a username like "ambassadorNNNN@sprintpcs.com," where NNNN is a unique four-digit number. When you access the web via the phone's browser, it sends that username and your pw to their server and logs you on. BUT when you try to access the data service using the same phone as a modem, it sends a different username (e.g., ambassadorNNNN@modem.sprintpcs.com). Unfortunately, their system prohibits usernames with obscene words in them. Can you see where this is going? They system parsed the username "ambassadorNNNN", found the "obscene" word "ASS" in it, and refused to provision the account.

The solution Jeff came up with? He changed my username to "ambasadorNNNN" (one 's') and tried the provisioning again. It worked. The only remaining problem was that I then couldn't connect to the internet via the phone's browser, but that situation resolved itself a short time later.

So to summarize: To use my phone as a modem, I talked to five people at Sprint, two of whom (Jeff and Roy) seemed to know what they were talking about, used one faulty website, was wrongly told my plan did not include a data component, and was directed to a dead phone line. All as a member of this Ambassador program.

Please note that I am the last person on Earth to expect special treatment as a member of a premium group (especially one I'm not paying for). I just think it's funny that Sprint had such trouble providing simple information to a member of a group they had internally designated as high-profile.

Finally, the data service, which I will probably be writing about some time in the future, is very good and feels very fast. I will do some formal upload/download tests later and post the results.