Taxco TX60 as GPRS Modem

Last time, I review about Taxco TX60’s user interface. Now, Let’s talk about it’s other functionality, GPRS modem.

And how we can use the phone as dialup modem? In my review of TX60, when we connect the handset to USB port, we propted for three options. The last one is COM Port. Select that one and it will recognized as new hardware and request for driver installation. Question: where can we obtain the driver? Well, usually china phone are similiar one and another. Usually they are marked as MT6227. You can googling for MT6227 driver for one. Or you can go here since I aquired it from googling myself :p. Now, point the installation source to the downloaded and extracted directory/folder and install the driver.

After the driver installed, we need to Install the modem. For this, go to “Control Panels” -> “Phone and Modem Options”. The steps are:

• Chose Modems tab. There we can se list of installed modems.
• Click “Add…”. This will open modem installation wizard.
• Check “Don’t detect my modem; I will select it from a list.” for manual installation and go Next.
• Don’t select available modems. Click “Have Disk…” instead. This will open “Install from disk” dialog.
• Point to previous extracted directory/folder and select “MTK GPRS USB Modem.inf” and click OK.
• Ignore the warning about the driver is not digitally signed. I’ve test it and I have no problem with it. Go Next.
• Here we will prompted for which COM port we will use. Use the appropriate com port and go Next.

Viola … your modem is installed. But wait, how can I ensure that the modem installed properly? Select your new installed modem and open it’s properties (by clicking “Properties” if you don’t follow what I mean (-_-)a ). Go to “Diagnostics” tab and cick “Query Modem” to test modem connection. If the command ATQ0V1E0 return “Success”, it should be ok.

Next, We need to set the modem for appropriate mobile operator. Still at modem properties (the one we query the modem), go to “Advanced” tab and enter this command:

AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”APN_of_operator”

The examples of APN are: “www.indosat-m3.net” for IM3, “3gprs” for Hutchison 3, etc (these examples are based on Indonesian operators). Note that in those initialization commands, the quotes are needed. For Indonesian operators, find the appropriate APN for your operator here.

Next, the final part, We must create a dialup networking connection. Go to “Control Panel” -> “Network Connections”. The step are:

• Click “Create a new connection” and go Next
• Select “Connect to the Internet” and go Next
• Select “Set up my connection manually” and go Next
• Select “Connect using dial-up modem” and go Next
• Select your new istalled modem (MTK GPRS USB Modem) and go Next
• Type in your ISP name (the connection name) and go Next
• Type in “*99***1#” (without quote) for default GPRS dialup number (most GSM operators use this) and go Next
• Select the user (either Anyone or just ourself. This is based on our own policy) and go Next
• Fill in username, password (and retype it). Where I get this? see this again. You can check the two options or not. It’s self explanatory :p. Note that this form are fully optional. username and password are just saved and re-prompted when we want to connect to the internet (of course, if you fill it now, they will filled automatically when prompted). go Next.
• You can optionally create this connection’s shortuct on desktop or not. click Finish.

Your modem is ready to use. Try to connect it (double click it or right click and chose connect). If your username and password correct and no signal distortion exist, it should be connected to the server. Congratulation. You’ve been connected 🙂

PS:
Sometime, the DNS of the operator(s) doesn’t work well. You can set it manually (of course, it definitelly slower than operator’s DNS). Go to connection properties (by right click and chose properties). Go to “Networking” tab. On “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)”, click properties again. Let the IP address assigned by server (Obtain an IP address automatically) and change the DNS setting to manual (Use the following DNS Server addresses) and fill in the DNS IP address. One example of free public DNS server are listed here.