Internet Access over a CDMA Phone

I currently subscribe to SprintPCS service, which uses CDMA. My Qualcomm QCP-2760 CDMA phone will emulate a modem with a Hayes command-set. I regularly use this phone to access the Internet, from both my Palm III and from my laptop which runs NetBSD. (I tried the WAP browser that's built into the phone, and found it worse than useless.)

The SprintPCS people were happy to bill me $10 extra per month to allow me to use the phone to connect to the Internet (this is part of what they call ``Wireless Web''), but they weren't particularly helpful at explaining how to do it. One support person went so far as to tell me it wasn't possible.

As best I can remember, here's what I had to do to get this work for the Palm III:

• I bought a kit that contains a very nice (meaning compact) cable to connect between the Palm III and the QCP-2760 from the Kyocera Wireless Store. (Kyocera has taken over Qualcomm's CDMA phone manufacturing business, so this is where to go to get accessories for Qualcomm phones.) The kit (#TXDTA03G1) I bought also came with a leather case that would hold the CD and the phone, along with a CD of software. The combination of the phone, organizer, cable, and case is huge and awkward, and I didn't end up using any of the software. Now you can buy just a "replacement cable" (#TXDTA003G) from them and avoid paying for the case and CD.

  Note: The Palm III cable probably works with several models of Palm that use the same connector and have approximately the same pinouts. You can get details on connector pinouts from Palm if you dig through their web site. Kyocera also makes similar cables to connect this phone to the Palm V series, and several other phones to Palm III, V, or VII series organizers. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any such cables for the newer organizers from Palm. If you have one of these you might have to resort to buying separate cables - one to connect the Palm to a DB-9, and another to connect the DB-9 to the phone, and you might need a null modem adapter.

• I upgraded my Palm III to PalmOS 3.3. This upgrade was available for free from Palm. (you have to pay to upgrade to more recent versions, but this one worked for me.) The biggest problem was that the upgrade has to be done using a Windows program, and I don't run Windows on anything.
• I configured my Palm III to talk to the phone.
  The Kyocera kit came with instructions for how to set the phone up. (if you buy just the cable you can get the instructions in PDF format) For whatever reason, they didn't quite work with my Palm, perhaps because I was using a different version of the OS. The following configuration worked for me to connect the Palm to the Internet using my dialup ISP (which was Mindspring at the time):
  • In Prefs, under Connection, I added a new configuration called "mindspring".
    • Connection method was set to "Serial to Modem"
    • Dialing was set to "TouchTone"
    • Volume was set to "Off"
    • Under Details...
      • Speed was set to "19,200 bps"
      • Flow Ctl was set to "Automatic"
  • In Prefs, under Network, I added a new service called "mindspring".
    • User Name was set to my mindspring user name
    • Password was set to my password
    • Connection was set to "mindspring"
    • Phone was set to the phone number of a mindspring dialup modem pool.
    • Under Details...
      • Connection type was set to "PPP".
      • Idle timeout was set to "Power Off".
      • Query DNS was enabled.
      • IP Address was set to "Automatic".
      • Script... was left empty.

  The above configuration worked fine, but it took a long time to establish a connection, and it ate up minutes of my (time-limited) ISP account. SprintPCS was rumored to support direct connection to the Internet, but none of the support people seemed to know how to set it up. Here's what I eventually found to work:

  • In Prefs, under Connection, I added a new configuration called "sprint".
    • Connection method was set to "Serial to PC"
    • Under Details...
      • Speed was set to "19,200 bps"
      • Flow Ctl was set to "Automatic"
  • In Prefs, under Network, I added a new service called "sprintpcs".
    • User Name was set to "web"
    • Password was set to my "web"
    • Connection was set to "sprint"
    • Under Details...
      • Connection type was set to "PPP".
      • Idle timeout was set to "Power Off".
      • Query DNS was disabled.
      • Primary DNS and Secondary DNS were set to two DNS servers which I use often.
      • IP Address was set to "Automatic".
      • Script... was as follows:
        • Send ATDT#2932
        • Send CR
        • Delay 4
        • End

  I use PalmScape to browse the web. I highly recommend it. I've used various Palm SSH clients, but I don't have a favorite to recommend right now. Many SSH clients are vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks because they don't actually check the server key for validity. A couple of mail clients are available but I haven't yet found one that does POP or IMAP over TLS, and I don't want to expose my password to the Internet.

• Bought a "replacement data cable" (#TXDTA031) for my phone from Kyocera Wireless Store.
• Create a shell script called /etc/ppp/ppp-sprintpcs with the following contents:

  #!/bin/sh
  SPEED=19200
  TTY=tty00
  ISP=sprintpcs
  USER=web
  pppd $TTY $SPEED \
          defaultroute \
          lock \
          bsdcomp 15 \
          deflate 15 \
          name $ISP \
          user $USER \
          debug kdebug 1 \
          connect '/usr/sbin/chat -v -s -f /etc/ppp/chat-sprintpcs'
  

• Create a chat script called /etc/ppp/chat-sprintpcs with the following contents:

  ABORT "NO CARRIER"
  ABORT "NO DIALTONE"
  ABORT "ERROR"
  ABORT "NO ANSWER"
  ABORT "BUSY"
  '' AT&FX4
  OK ATX3
  OK ATDT#2932
  CONNECT
  

• Add the lines web sprintpcs web and web 3com web to /etc/ppp/chap-secrets. (why 3com? because for some reason that's what the report PPP server asked for!)