How to get a nokia phone to dial up the internet on a computer running Vista

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Okay so I signed up for an unlimited internet price plan. Wierd that all the price plans talk about "minutes" and lots "text" messages, when all I want is lots of internet, totally unlimited. I mean with some excellent VOIP services, why would I want talk (m)any minutes? Anyway I eventually plumped for my current provider which just happens to be Vodafone and reduced my monthly plan by £10 and that's me happy, or that's what I thought.

Now I have used my cellphone to access the web before, mostly using the opera mini browser which is an excellent app, and arguably the most important one for any mobile / cell phone. However now I was trying to use the phone as a modem for a dial-up connection from my laptop - running Vista.

I am hesitant to mention the phone model, because it is irrelavant to this post. But just so you know where I am coming from, it is a Nokia 6120 Classic. Because it is a Nokia I obviously needed PcSuite.

Although Nokia's PcSuite is a supreme example of bloatedware it actually does the job. What I want is basic functionality, what is supplied is Nokia ego on steroids. I mean, for example, why does Nokia bundle a music and picture manager program which obfuscates? All we need is instructions on file cut, copy & paste. But let's ignore that rant since the basic functionality largely works, and works well.

So in goes the latest Nokia PcSuite. Then I hook the phone up via USB cable (my laptop does not have Bluetooth) when requested, and from that moment PcSuite works. So right now my Nokia talks to my computer, and vice-versa.

However Vista does not dial up the web to create that illusive Internet connection. Neither does it dial the web using the Nokia OneTouch program, nor does it do it via dial-up networking. It looks like it is going to dial - and then just stops.

Some sculduggery is obviously called for.

After much web research seeing lots and lots of people with similar problems I come across RaRepair. RaRepair is very hard to find a download. Yes there are lots of references but finding the download place is like looking for a needle in a haystack. But it does exist - rarepair.zip.

Anyway all that I read about RaRepair seems to indicate it is aimed at Windows XP. Will it run on Vista? Will it solve my dial-up problem on Vista? Will it mess around with my Vista apart from that?

Only one way to find out.

Actually RaRepair is quite a sweet program. The zip file contains an exe which simply runs with no install. Once run it tellls you to reboot. Actually I cannot remember if it asked for a second reboot! Anyway rerunning the program reverses RaRepair (in principle) and that again requires a reboot. Initially RaRepair prompted me to reboot properly, later I just rebooted manually since I did not trust RaRepar's lack of further prompt for rebooting. No complaints though, RaRepair is not production stuff.

The question is did it have any effect?

Well of course it did. Vista is not that different from XP. Like with a lot of problem solving it was not the entire solution, but my guess is that my dial-up networking would not be working without it. But that is only a hunch.

One thing RaRepair does is install the RasSync device, albeit with a dodgy setup 'cos it will neither run nor uninstall, nor disable. Isn't life fun. So I seem to be stuck with that permanently, however if that is the only downside I can live with it!

Anyway more fixes required. My guess is that what needed to really happen for Dial-Up Networking to work is that the RasMan service needed to start (automatically). Whether RaRepair helped me get RasMan service running or whether I could have done that anyway, who knows. I am trying to wrack my brains, and I think - again - that I had to remove a dependency in order to get it to start.

Once RasMan service is running suddenly my Dialup connection starts dialing. Yes, it all works.

I use the Nokia OneTouch program to begin with, and in some senses it seems prefered option. Nokia OneTouch is an important place to start with getting DUN working since it has the correct access point, authentication etc settings. So do use OneTouch to begin with.

But life with Vista is never straightforward. What is wierd is that Vista seems intent on creating different copies of the same DUN entry, each one suffixed by #2, #3 and so forth. Well after going up to #12 this was getting stupid.

Also what is even more wierd is that neither Nokia OneTouch, nor simple DUN can keep up with these new entries. Even wierder is that sometimes Vista happily restarts back at the first entry.

Are you yawning? Pay attention.

Many people on the web may be suffering with these multiple entries and not realise that these are causing DUN to not work. What is happening is that when you try to reconnect DUN and OneTouch go for the last entry you used which might be, for examply #3. Well if Vista has decided in its wisdom to clone the DUN entry and make #4 the live one - and more importantly only one, then you, OneTouch and whatever program calls DUN (eg Internet Explorer Connection Options) needs to know about this change.

So I have got used to just watching for DUN not working and then I check what the latest number is and try that.

Vista has a wierd feature in DUN management to "merge" or "delete" these multiple cloned copies. I started using this but then thought what is the point and got bored with deleting and merging. I mean all I want is for these clones never to exist!

One thing I find amazing about connecting to the web over mobile phone is that you can still make and accept normal calls and SMS text messages. When you do this your web connection is temporarily suspended, and as soon as the call is finished your connection resumes.