Bluetooth DUN

Bluetooth DUN (dial-up networking) allows one to set up Bluetooth networking using a cellular device and a device supporting Bluetooth SPP/DUN profile.

While Bluetooth PAN offers slightly faster connection speeds than DUN, but DUN does not require having to install any extra software packages. This method also works for software versions older than OS2008.

Nokia N900

As the N900 now has its own GSM/3G capability, Bluetooth DUN may have two different meanings for this device :

  1. if the N900 is not equipped with a data SIM, it may use another GSM/3G phone as a modem to access the network.
  2. if the N900 has net access itself, another Bluetooth-equipped device (such as a PC or laptop) may use it as a modem. In this case it plays the role of the mobile phone in the previous scenarios.


This does not work out of the box (at least in early versions of Maemo5, as of December 2009). A tweak is needed to enable it, which has been described and packaged by Philip Langdale as “Bluetooth Dial-up Networking”. Installing this package from the Extras repository is all that's required.

If the device that's being tethered runs Windows, there may be additional complications. Installing a recent version of Nokia PC Suite (with partial N900 support), and connecting it to the N900, may be necessary to create the relevant "Bluetooth Modem" in Network Connections; for others, simply pairing the N900 with the Windows Bluetooth stack is enough.

Additionally, the "modem" may need to have an "init string" set. In the Control Panel, choose phone and modem options, bring up properties for the bluetooth modem under the modems tab, and then go to advanced. In the init command field enter something like this:

at+cgdcont=1,"IP","your_apn"

...where your_apn is the APN for your carrier that you can get from the network connections list in your N900 settings.

If the dial-up connection goes through most of the steps: find port, dial number, log in, but stalls at the very end (on "Registering your computer on the network"), setting the init string is probably the last missing part. Thanks to Kyle for that one !

Nokia N8x0

  1. Goto 'Menu → Tools → Control Panel → Bluetooth → Devices → New'
  2. You should see your phone or PC, pair up with it. I recommend using a 10-digit or greater pairing code
  3. Set it as a "Trusted Device"... I haven't tried it the other way yet
  4. Goto 'Connectivity → Connections → New' in the Control Panel
  5. Choose GPRS → Next
  6. Leave Access Point and Tel# at defaults, leave user/pass blank → Next
  7. IF you chose not to specify the remote IP on the PC side (see above) THEN choose Advanced → IP Addresses and put in an appropriate IP and DNS servers.
  8. Goto 'Phone' in the Control Panel
  9. Choose your new Device from step 2. It is now 'selected'. If you don't do this then it won't show up in the Connection Manager.

Nokia 770

  1. Goto 'Menu → Tools → Control Panel → Phone → New'
  2. You should see your PC. Make a pairing with it. I recommend a PIN of at least 10 characters.
  3. You will get a warning that you can only use the phone for Dial-Up Networking, not transferring files. Use class 0x120108 in /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf and set up OBEX if you want file sharing, see http://www.mulliner.org/bluetooth/sobexsrv.php
  4. Goto 'Connectivity → Connections → New' in the Control Panel
  5. Choose 'Packet Data' → Next
  6. Leave Access Point and Tel# at defaults, leave user/pass blank → Next
  7. IF you chose not to specify the remote IP on the PC side (see above) THEN choose Advanced → IP Addresses and put in an appropriate IP and DNS servers.
Retrieved from "http://wiki.maemo.org/Bluetooth_DUN"