While I’m stuck at work however, or at local airports not willing to provide free wireless I’ve really been wanting to leverage my unlimited data plan and tether my BlackBerry to my laptop and leverage the modem function.

This ability is built into all BlackBerries and as far as I know any provider can offer the service.  In nearly every case, they will hide the ability from you; either by claiming it to “not be supported” as in my case, or by offering it via a upgraded data plan.

As with anything, Google is your friend here.  After a hour or two searching while wrapping up lose ends before leaving town Friday, I found plenty of resources on how to use your BlackBerry as a modem for your PC or Mac.

BlackBerryForums.com has a great quide and FAQ here.  This will probably be the last step for anyone trying to accomplish this.  They list a lot of carrier specific information to get you up and running depending on who your provider is.  Unfortunatly for CellularSouth, the information isn’t as well known.  I did a bit more searching and found some conflicting information, but I eventually found a combination that works.

How to tether your BlackBerry to a Mac:

• Pair your BlackBerry to your laptop using the Bluetooth Preferences (System Preferences > Bluetooth) Click Add (+) and select Mobile Phone.  Make sure your BlackBerry is Discoverable.  Enable all options related to Dial-up Networking.
• Under System Preferences > Network, select Bluetooth and enter your carrier specific Number, Username and Password.
  • CellularSouth Example:
    • Telephone Number: #777
    • Account Name: Your SIP User ID (Dial ##000000 on your BlackBerry and look at the A-Key Section) This will be a 10-digit phone number @cs3g.com.  This might be your phone number, but in my case it wasn’t
    • Password: Your Phone’s ESN in Hexidecimal format.  Select Menu > Options > Status on your BlackBerry.  Your ESN Hex is the last line.  Enter this as your password in all UPPERCASE.

• While still in the Bluetooth portion of the Network settings, select Advanced.  Set these options:
  • Vendor: Generic
  • Model: Dial Up Device
  • Dial Mode: Ignore Dial tone when dialing
    Leave all other options set to default and click ok, then Apply.
• From the Network screen you should be able to click Connect and establish a connection via your BlackBerry!

If this is too much trouble for you, or you are uable to find carrier specific information for connecting, there are applications that install on the BlackBerry and on your laptop for achieving the same functionality. You will have to pay dearly for them though.

MobiShark - http://mobishark.com/ $49.97 – Windows Only

iMobiMac – http://imobimac.com/ $69.95 – MobiShark for OS X.  I believe this is from the same creators of MobiShark.  Why they charge so much more for the OS X version, I’m not sure.

TetherBerry – http://www.tetherberry.com $59.99 – Windows only, USB only.

I’ve been running for two days with no problems at all.  My connection via laptop seems to be much better than the phone browser as well.  Note:  I make no claims to how this will effect your Terms of Service with your provider.  You will be pulling a lot more data tethering your BlackBerry to a laptop than if you were using the device alone.  Use at your own risk.  Don’t hold me responsible if you lose your data plan or get stuck with a large bill.

I’m really not sure what we are getting ourselves into with this system.  Its going to be a beast!

IT: Its a head banging good time

For some reason WordPress was having problems accessing the database. I did a quick check of my Webhost’s cPanel, and the database itself using MySQL and everything checked out. I confirmed other databases I had hosted still worked fine, which put the problem back on the WordPress installation and Database. The wp_config.php file was exactly the same as it was when I last touched it a few short months ago.

Exhausting all of my stellar trouble shooting skills, I turned to the Google Machine. After 10 minutes of trying various search terms, I came across another WordPress user who had this problem a few days ago.  It seems WordPress randomly gets tired of using the same database login and decides to just stop working until you give it a new friend to play with.  Five minutes later I have a shiny new database user created and a updated wp_config.php file uploaded.

…I bet you can guess where that got me since you are reading this post.  So now I have two perfectly good database user IDs, only one works for every database other than WordPress.  I’m reminded how much I hate technology and full of self-loathing that I have made it my career.  I encounter way too many issues that are resolved without determining a root-cause.

It seems someone has hacked thier update feed.  I’m getting texts from people that can get to the site that the updates range from STEVE JOBS HAS DIED to STEVE JOBS IS GAY.