Mac sharing internet through BT

[Martim Weinstein]

As promised:

First my configuration: Powerbook G4 500 Mhz, OS 10.2.6, generic USB BT 
module (brandless), Tungsten T and a heavy dose of patience. The Tibook 
is receiving net from an airport station connected to another mac which 
is sharing it's connection. So basically I'm sharing through BT a 
already shared connection... oh, one more thing: my Firewall is off. 
There is something about opening ports 8827 and 8775 in order to work 
with WebPro (Tungsten browser) but since I don't use my firewall I 
didn't test it.

None of this stuff is of my authoring, I got most of it out of 
Macosxhints.com and used some common sense and troubleshooting. Some of 
the stuff I did, I don't understand too deeply (like the script!), so 
I'm just describing what works for me.

Link on the article I used (most of the stuff is from the comments 
section):

<http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20021103062212288>

Configuring the Mac:

1- activate another port in network preferences that allows you to 
share your main connection. To make a port your main connection port 
just drag it to the top. Even if you don't use it, you'll need it open 
otherwise the script below might not work. No configuration needed of 
this port.

2- Share that connection activating it in Sharing in the system 
preferences. No need to configure anything.

3- Paste the following script into script editor. Keep it as a script 
at first so you can make alterations as necessary.

set runresult to ""
  tell me to activate
  display dialog "Turn Bluetooth Internet Sharing ON?" buttons 
{"Cancel", "Yes"} default button 2
  set userchoice to button returned of result
  if userchoice = "Yes" then
          with timeout of 20 seconds
                  try
                          do shell script "sudo 
/usr/libexec/InternetSharing" with administrator privileges
                          set runresult to "Statement 1 done" & return
                  on error errormsj
                          display dialog errormsj as string
                          set runresult to runresult & "Statement one 
failed" * errormsj & return
                  end try
                  try
                          do shell script "sudo /usr/sbin/pppd 
/dev/tty.Bluetooth-PDA-Sync 115200 noauth local passive proxyarp 
asyncmap 0 silent persist :10.1.1.201 &"
                          set runresult to "Internet Sharing ON" & return
                  on error errormsj
                          display dialog errormsj as string
                          set runresult to runresult & "Statement 2 
failed" * errormsj & return
                  end try
          end timeout
          tell me to activate
          display dialog (runresult as string) buttons {"OK"} default 
button 1
  end if

For my LAN I changed the ip on  "proxyarp asyncmap 0 silent persist 
:10.1.1.201 &" to 192.168.0.5 since it's the ip range I use. Not sure 
if it made a difference, but again, I'm only describing what I have 
since what I have is working.

4- Run the script. Once it works you can save it as an application and 
even include it in the login items...

Configuring the Tungsten (This is just copy, paste from macosxhints):

1- Launch the Prefs application on your Palm Powered handheld.
2- Select the Connection panel.
3- Touch the New... button.
4- Give the new connection a descriptive name such as Bluetooth to 
Macintosh.
5- Set Connect to to PC.
6- Set Via to Bluetooth.
7- Touch the box labeled Tap to Find and select your Macintosh.
8- Touch Details....
9- Set Speed to 115,200 bps.
10- Set Flow Ctl to Automatic.
11- Touch OK twice to return to the Connection panel.
12- Select the Network panel.
13- Choose the UUNet service. Rename it something descriptive, such as 
Bluetooth to Macintosh.
14- Set Connection to the connection you just created previously in 
this section.
15- Leave the User Name and Password entries blank.
16- Touch Details... and ensure that Conection type is set to PPP and 
IP Address is checked. Uncheck Query DNS and enter the addresses of 
local Primary and Secondary DNS servers for your network. THIS IS VERY 
IMPORTANT!
17- Set the Idle timeout to however long you'd like the connection to 
remain active before timing out. (I set mine to never)
18- Touch Script... and make sure that the only entry in the script is 
End.
19- Touch OK twice.

Testing the connection and troubleshooting:

1- Simply go to WebPro and see if it loads any page... no?

2- Is BT activated on the Tungsten? Did you press connect in the 
Connection panel? Yes, should be you answer to both. If youre getting 
"serial" errors it is probably one of these. It was for me. On my palm, 
everytime I switch it off, I have to activate BT and press connect 
again.

3- You can also try substituting the IP address for webpro.palm.com 
(63.97.179.33) in Web Pro's (menu) Options > Preferences > Advanced.  
That eliminates the potential DNS problems with the host address, 
anyway.

4- You can figure out whether your connection is working by using ping 
from within your Palm.  Go to Prefs > Network > (your Service name) > 
(menu) Options > View Log WITHYOUR CONNECTION ACTIVE.  Scroll to the 
bottom of the log and you can test ping there.  Grafitti in "ping 
63.97.179.33" return (downward left slash, not the Done button), and if 
your connection is talking to the outside world, it should have one 
line that says "Pinging 63.97.179.33 with 32 bytes of data:" and then 
it should return "Reply from 63.97.179.33: bytes=32 time=110ms 
TTL=125".  If it times out, then you are not talking to the webpro site 
at the very least.  If it works,  I would ping a non-IP address like 
apple.com to test your DNS lookup.  If it works there, then both the 
connection and your DNS servers are working.  Beware that I got errors 
from some sites I pinged, including macosxhints.com, probably because 
they set up their ping services strange.


Good luck! If anybody has any further questions feel free to ask, I 
just can't promise I'll be able to answer them since this is mostly 
copy paste of what worked for me! ;-)



-mw

There cannot be a crisis today; my schedule is already full.