11/11/2003, a quick update. I'm getting fewer letters from Macintosh users with problems, it's working better and better for people as the technology matures a bit. But I've started getting quite a few emails from Windows users asking similar questions. I don't mind but there is really nothing I can do to help you. I haven't owned a Windows PC in several years now and while I do continue to do some developing for windows and porting Windows software to the Mac I am not versed in the complexities of getting it to do everyday things for you. Actually, the complexity of getting it to do anything normal for me is the main reason I don't own or use windows for any internal or personal projects anymore.

This page has not been updated in over a year. In that time a lot has changed and perhaps this information needs a bit of an update. I've also been getting a lot of emails from folks with questions about specific phone models. I am still using my aging Motorola time port and so have absolutely no info on newer ones other than they should all work. I will sum up what I've been telling people here. Anybody with more information or specific models of phones and cables that work I would love to have you email me that info so that I can create and update a list here of what definitely works.

This new information applies almost exclusively to OSX versions 2 and higher. It is still possible that much of this will work with OS9, but I haven't run it in years and have no way to test or verify. Time for a new machine? :)

Obviously this will only work if you have a data capable phone and a cable to connect it to your Mac.

Getting the serial cable connected was the biggest problem with OS9 and mac flavored serial ports. This is a non-issue now as you use either blue tooth or a USB cable. The USB cables are great if they work and completely useless if they don't. USB requires drivers. Most of the cables out there use the same interface chip in them, and some of these are natively supported by OSX now. No drivers required. To check if yours is plug it into the phone and into your computer and open the network control panel. If you've never opened it with it connected before you'll get a popup telling you that a new port is available. If you see this then you're half way there.

The name of the port will be different, this is actually a keyspan serial adaptor, but the idea is the same. If you don't get the popup because you have already been here (it will only show that once) you can view the list of available ports and it would look something like this:

If the port is not listed after plugging in the phone you will either need to find drivers for that cable or get a new cable that is supported. There are drivers available from the manufacturers webpage for many cables for the Mac. But it may not be linked from the phone folks website. So finding out who the manufacturer of some of the rebranded cables can be difficult. If anyone has info on cables that work or don't work or links to drivers please email that info to me so I can post it here.

More specific information on USB cables and getting them to work from your Mac can be found on John Chang's website How To Use Your CDMA Cell Phone as a USB Modem on Mac OS X He also has specific info about the various services that I do not have here. This is an excellent site, reading recommended for all!

Once you have a physical connection that everybody can recognize you'll need to setup the Mac to use it. First think you'll need to get a modem script. This outlines the conversation between the phone and the Mac while it's making the connection. The very generic one I created still works. It appears that Sprint is no longer listing the file for download, (or at least nobody can find it anymore) so I will also make their file available for download here. This is the property of Spring and I'll take it down if they have a problem with it. Remember that since they are not distributing it you can't ask them to support it. If you cause them headaches with software that they don't want to support anymore they will likely as to have it taken down.

• Generic Cellphone Modem Script (my genereic modem script)
• Generic Script with "optimal" init string (try this if the other doesn't work)
• Official Sprint Modem Script (The script that Sprint used to distribute)

Download these and place them into your "/Library/Modem Scripts" folder. If you have the network control panel open when you add this they won't show up till you quit and reopen it. Once you've done that you should be able to setup the modem as any other external modem something like this:

Make sure that you uncheck the "Wait for dial tone" checkbox as in the above screenshot or you won't be able to connect. Cellphones don't make a dial tone.

Make the rest of your modem setup as if you were connecting to your ISP via a regular modem. There are also direct dial numbers and passwords for most of these services that you can dial that will connect you directly without actually needing to connect to an ISP. These are different for the different services and you'll need to get them out of the ISP's windows setup instructions if you want to use them. Some are outlined in all the info below, but I don't know if that info is still current or not.

There are some other things you might want to know though.

• There is no dialer software or other computer stuff that you need to install on your Mac. Other than the drivers for the cable and perhaps a modem script no other software is necessary.
• The higher speed stuff that they make as a windows program will not run on your Mac. The connection speed on a cell connection is pretty slow. They make software for windows that breaks some of the TCP rules to get better throughput. This results in a faster connection but no longer has the data integrity protections that are built into TCP. But if you're just websurfing who cares if an image doesn't load properly once in a while as long as it's fast right?
• You cannot connect your regular built in modem to the audio portion of a cellphone. It simply wont work. Don't try, don't ask me about it. The answer is no.
• one last time. I don't know anything about your particular model of phone or service. I can only tell you this, and if you email me directly I'll still only be able to tell you this:
• If it is available for the PC with that phone and service it will almost certainly be able to be made to work with your Mac.
• you need a supported cable.
• you need a modem script
• then give it a try.

Update: 8/19/2002

Colin A. Smith has sent to me a terrific program called pppd Intercept. This allows the use of older keyspan PDA adaptors with cell phones under OSX. It turns out that the solution to the problem is to throttle down the baud that the phone and the computer talk to each other. This is still many times faster than the data speed of the phone, so it will not make any impact on the throughput of your connection. I am happy to host the program here! Installation requires use of the terminal, but it is well documented and nobody should be afraid to try this out if they already have a keyspan PDA adaptor. The source is also included. I have tested this here and it does indeed solve the problem under OSX.

Update: 8/11/2002

I've had several emails asking about 3g (third generation) cell phone data support. For those that dont know this is FINALLY going to bring decent speeds to data over cell phones. One product is from Sprint and it's called PCS Vision. As of yet I have no info about this or any other 3g service. I can't tell you if a specific model phone works with a specific service.

If you have this service, or have any info on any 3G service in the USA or Canada feel free to email me what you know and I'll add it to the site!

Update: 6/10/2002

William Loving writes with some updates to the information contained below:

FoneSync is no longer in business.

Belkin now makes cable kits for many popular phones. I found them selling for $65 with Win only software. Still cheaper than the $99 kits from Sprint, et al.

I found what appears to be a good source of cables in eBay. There is at least one large volume eBay seller who has the Motorola brand cables (cable only) for $25.00 on a "Buy it Now". He seems to have a lot of good feedback, so I went ahead and bought one tonight to use with my Sprint StarTac phone. To find the cable for my StarTac, I did a search on "StarTac" and "TrueSync", which is Moto's name for the cable. If it doesn't pan out I'll let you know. He has an eBay Store under "Sharknet Wireless"

http://www.stores.ebay.com/id=14947692

Please keep in mind that I do not know this person at that ebay store and can't vouch for him. Please go ahead and email me with more info positive or negative if you try ordering from him there. I know, this page really needs a whole overhaul. We'll see when I can get that to the top of my list;)

Update: 4/30/2002

I found This Excellent Page where John Chang outlines how to get the USB cable for some motorola phones to work with Verizon Service. The exact same technique should work for any service, and most phone cables that use a standard USB protocol. This is OSX only.

Update: 4/10/2002

I've finally got it up and running on OSX. The problem that I was having was that the keyspan PDA adaptor did not want to work. There is a shell script out there that does work to make the machine connect with the PDA adaptor, but unless you have some comfort with the command line and are willing to mess around rather than just connect I really recommend Keyspan's High Speed Serial Adaptor. This works with the regular Mac OS X gui setup stuff. Other adaptors may work, but I haven't tested them.

If you haven't already, download the "sprint pcs phone" modem script, either from Sprint's download site or the alternate one from my site below. Yes, there really is a Mac section in the download site, and I've heard now that the connection kit CD has a Mac Volume on it with their modem script! The support experience is getting better too. I've now heard from people who have called Sprint and spoken to someone who actually admitted to the fact that the Mac would work with their service!

Put that script into the Modem Scripts folder which is inside the Library Folder which is inside of your boot volume. You may need to sign on as administrator to do this!

After installing the keyspan drivers, plug in the adaptor and open up the system prefs networking pane. The program will tell you that a new port is detected. Click OK and apply to setup the system to recognize it.

In the "Show:" popup select the new port with the wacky name.

Fill in all the data from your regular dial up, or use sprints direct dial in as documented below.

Make sure that you UNcheck the "Wait for dial tone" checkbox. Your cell phone will not give a dial tone.

Click Apply to save your changes.

Open up the Internet Connect program and make sure that you select the new port from it's popup and then click connect.

Thats all there is to it.

Update: 2/14/2002

Just heard from the folks at Keyspan who are asking me to recommend specifically the High Speed Serial Adaptor instead of the PDA adaptor as I was doing. Course I started recommending the PDA adaptor before there was a high speed serial adaptor! They say that the PDA adaptor was not really designed or tested with modems in mind and that it might work fine with some phones and not with others. So if you're in the market for a USB/Serial adaptor, please look at their High Speed Serial Adaptor. I've changed the links and references further down the document as well.

Update: 3/21/2001

There are a couple of questions that popup consistently in people's emails to me. Here are the answers to the questions!

• Can I just connect the phone to my internal or PC Card modem? Why do I need to buy the special cable? The service does not use an existing modem. The phone IS the modem. It needs to be connected the same way you would connect an external modem, via a serial cable. This is why you need the special cable for the phone.

• Do I need to sign up for Sprints Wireless Web plan even if I dont plan on using the browser built into the phone? YES. Data connections from your computer and from the built in browser are billed the same. If you do not sign up for the wireless web then they will bill you $.39 a minute for data calls! The good news is that they have changed their billing plans and now you can use your regular plan minutes for data if you pay an extra $10 a month. (they could change this at any time but thats what it is right now)

• I have xxx model phone from xxx, do you think it will work? I have no idea;) I have used a samsung 3500 and a motorola timeport. They both work great. The general rule is if there is a data kit available to connect the phone to a PC then you can also use it with your Mac according to the instructions below!

Here is some new information that I've gathered from others who have had success and Sprint support over the last few months:

• Sprint now OFFICIALLY supports the Mac! You no longer have to take care of all this yourself. Their tech support know about Macs and there is an official Mac modem script that you can download from their website! The people in the sprint stores seem to be less informed about this though I still hear from people that have been told that they cannot in any way use their Mac with the service.

• This service works with ALL PCS phones that are data capable. If there is a data kit available for the PeeCee then you can also connect your Mac.

• There is a PCMCIA card connection kit that is for Nextel phones from socketcom.com Though I haven't used this myself I have heard from several people successfully using this to connect different phones to your Mac as well.

• For older Macs that already have a serial port you need an adaptor to connect the PC style DB9 on the phone cable to the Mac style serial port on your Mac. On my phone the palm serial adaptors did not work at all.

• The Palm USB adaptor does work however. You can use ANY of the USB/Serial adaptors out there. I use the Keyspan PDA adaptor
  NOTE: The folks at keyspan have asked me to recommend their High Speed Serial Adaptor instead of the PDA adaptor. If you already have the PDA adaptor I would give it a try before ordering the other one, as it might work fine, but it may not work for your particular phone so if you're buying a new one the High Speed Serial is the one that works with modems.
  I have heard from people using the Palm USB, as well as the Griffin ones and they all work just fine. The Palm is a little more difficult to install as you have to put in just the extensions that support the connector and not the palm stuff.

• There are several sources for cables now. You can order them from radio shack and I've recently found a web company that sells them as well as a lot of other interesting things at: Supply Net They also sell special cables for connecting these phones directly to Palms and other neat stuff.

• You no longer need to dial into your ISP. Sprint supports a direct connection to the internet. To use this just set your remote access to dial "#2932" and use "web" as your userid and password. I've had some mixed success with this in various areas but generally it's great. The only real problem is that your ISP will probably not let you send email via their SMTP servers unless you are dialed into their service.

  If you're connecting via Verizon instead of Sprint the proper setting are to dial "#777" with a login ID and password of "qnc"

All the other information below is still accurate and the setup is the same. In the last year this page has helped almost 10000 people get their Macs online!

Thanks to everyone who sent in their experiences and information,
James

---

Though the Sprint documentation and web site clearly say that you cannot connect your Mac to the internet via their Digital PCS phones. The reality, as is so often the case when someone tells you that you can't do something with your Mac, is that it is quite easy. The Sprint web site now sells the cable for $99, this is a much better price than originally when they were selling for $200. You may also be able to get just the cable, without the useless PeeCee software from Fonesync They make a PeeCee only sync product, but also offer connectivity kits that should work for the Mac as well since it's just the cable. If anyone uses these cables please let me know the results so I can post them here for everyone. Also if anyone knows who to contact at Sprint or Samsung to get a copy of the protocol for talking to phones please let me know and I'll write a shareware phone sync program for the Mac. I have dropped several messages to their support people and never gotten a response.

!NEW INFORMATION! The Keyspan folks at MacWorld were good enough to give me a new keyspan PDA Adaptor and I have tested it with the sprint phone. The PDA Adaptor works great with the phone and since it has a DB9 adaptor on it no other cabling is necessary. Buying this adaptor will get you around all of the DB9 to DIN9 issues that I talk about below.

In addition to the SprintPCS service this script also works with Qualcomm QCP-2700 phone and the Bell Mobility PCS service in Canada. Motorola TimePortal phones will also work with this script.

Another adaptor that will work for connecting the serial PCS phone to a USB mac is the USB adaptor that comes with the new Palm Mac Pac. This is NOT the serial adaptor that came with the older package, but the USB adaptor. (Special thanks to Kristin Green for this info!)

Looking for scripts for Motorola's IR Phones? Check out Ross Barkman's home page.

What You Need:

• Any Mac running OS9. I dont know any reason you shouldn't be able to use earlier versions, but I can't tell you how to set it up for them. 8.6 is probably identical in it's setup.
• Any SprintPCS phone capable of internet connectivity. View List
      also works with the Qualcomm QCP-2700 phone!
• The SprintPCS Internet Connection Kit.
      or whatever kit you need for your particular phone.
• If you have a mac without serial ports you'll need a USB-Serial adaptor like Keyspan's A better choice is keyspans PDA Adaptor since it has a DB9 connector no other adaptors are necessary.
• Any other adaptors necessary to get the phone's PC Serial cable connected to your Mac's serial port.
• Download the Modem Script for the phone.

Connecting the phone to your Mac:

In my case I had some difficulty connecting the phone since my Powerbook is a Lombard G3 and does not have serial ports. So I also have a Keyspan USB-Serial adaptor installed.

Configuring the Keyspan Adaptor
Setting up the keyspan was the easiest part of the whole project. Dont even bother with the install disk just plug the adaptor into your mac and a dialog will popup telling you that there are no drivers available for it and asking you if you want to download them. Click yes and 3 software pieces will be listed, one extension and 2 control panels. Go ahead and download them, no restart is necessary and your Mac now has 2 serial ports. You should then run the control panels and change the names of the ports to something more sensible than the defaults and make sure that "emulate Printer Port" is turned off. (unless you're using this for something else then it is probably ok to just plug the phone into the emulated printer port)

Making the Connection:
The next bit of fun is connecting the PC Serial port to the Mac port. My first idea was to use the adaptor that came with my Palm Mac Pac. However this did not work at all. What I finally got to work was to use a normal Mac external modem cable and connect that to the phone cable via a db9(?) to db25(?) adaptor. This worked great!

A better choice is the keyspan PDA Adaptor that I mentioned above as it has the proper kind of connector on it. You can just connect the sprint cable to the keyspan adaptor and it will just work.

Testing the Connection:
Your PCS phone responds to AT commands the same way that a regular modem does, so the best way to test the connection is to just send it an AT and see if it responds with an "OK" the way it should. You can skip this test if you think that you're connection is good, but if you're running through a keyspan and as many adaptors as I am at the moment you might want to check this. You can do it via any serial comm app like MacCommCenter, ZTerm, or Appleworks/Claisworks. you'll need to select the serial port and set the speed to 19200. Then just type "AT" into the terminal and the phone should respond with "OK" if so then all is going well!

Configuring your Modem, Remote Access and TCP/IP Control Panels:

Modem:
Download the Modem script that I created for the SprintPCS phones and drop that into your "Modem Scripts" folder inside of your extensions folder. It is almost identical to the generic Hayes modem script that comes with your mac with new serial port settings and init strings for the phone. You should use the Location Manager to create a new location for wireless calls so that you dont have to mess around with your current settings. I wont document that here, if you're not using it yet to manage your accounts and such you should really check it out!
Create a new modem setup that selects the proper serial port and the SprintPCS modem script. Also check the "ignore dial tone" button.

Remote Access:
you'll still need a regular dial up account with an ISP. This way you can even use this with AOL if you want to or your companies private dial up. There really isn't anything different for this setup, you're dialing the same number that you do over a regular phone line.

TCP/IP:
Again, no changes necessary. All your settings from your regular dial up will be the same here.

Trying it out:

The phone that I'm using is the SCH-3500. All in all I'm happy with it and the service. You dont need to do anything to the phone to prepare it for making a data call or a fax call. Just connect the cable and click connect on your Mac. It will dial the number and connect just like when making a call over a regular phone line. However it will be slow. The PCS network is currently limited to 14.4k though this may improve at some point in the future. I have found it very useful for email and even web surfing if you're patient. However when you're travelling it may actually be cheaper to check your email using the cell phone than with the charges that some hotels charge. However you'd need to travel a lot to make up the $200 price of the cable. But the Coolness factor aught to be worth something:)

If you've got additions or comments about these instructions please send them to me

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Feel free to contact me with questions if you like. I will try to get back to everybody, but I can't promise as I'm not being paid to do Sprint's tech support for them:)

Last Updated: 10/21/2003