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I have a j2ME phone.
When I pair it with my laptop, I can use the phone to connect to connect internet using mobile broadband connection (I pick my provider in a list on the laptop to autocomplete the parameters).

However when I pair it on my Samsung Galaxy tab S, I don't have this option, even when there is no Wi-Fi access point.
There are lot of apps to convert you android phone into a server for this. But I own a tablet with android 4.4 (only Wi-Fi and bluetooth connection), and I would like to use my classic mobile phone as access point over bluetooth. I know how to configure the phone since I already use it on my Linux laptop. But I don’t know how to use my tablet as a DUN client, and I couldn’t find an app on the play store for that.
For those who still can’t understand what is beeing asked here, here’s a tutorial I use for a non wizard tethering on Debian (I couldn’t find an android equivalent).

So, how I can connect Samsung galaxy tab S 8.4 to internet over bluetooth with my mobile phone's connection?

Here’s my provider parameters in my case :
dial-up number value : "*99#"
APN value : "Free"

Authentication method : Store
Username value : "Free"
Password value : "Free"

DUN channel value : "0"
Connection method : GPRS
PIN method : Store
PIN value : null
Provider proxy address value : "212.27.40.225"
Provider proxy port value : "80"

But on most OS, (for laptop, including old windows) you just get a country selector, then you pick-up your mobile provider in a list and the connection parameters are filled up for you.
This is done with an official bluetooth profile which is described here (since there are non-standard methods which require to install software on the phone).

Update : I finally discovered that my tablet can thether using bluetooth PAN but that my phone only support bluetooth DUN. So an alternative would be to find a j2ME app for make the phone bluetooth PAN enabled.

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  • BT/DUN is born togheter with Bluetooth, and quite ANY 2G/3G phones with BTooth should implement it (iPhones and android phones do not implement it off the shelf)looks like they also don’t implement client on tabs.
    – user2284570
    Jan 6, 2015 at 13:16
  • @fixer1234 Why? This is a software problem. I would have said the same for changing the keyboard layout on windows. the answer doesn't bring any solutions and is wrong by saying it is impossible to do anything without rooting (at least not for free).
    – user2284570
    Jul 8, 2015 at 23:53
  • @fixer : Yes but at that point a j2ME solution would be better, and android users simply tell to enable Wi-Fi on the phone which I can't do. There is no place for Super User questions about j2ME.
    – user2284570
    Jul 9, 2015 at 8:16
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    @fixer1234 Solved.
    – user2284570
    Jul 9, 2015 at 12:50
  • Sorry, but this is a site for computer problems and not *"electronic devices, media players, cell phones or smart phones, except insofar as they interface with your computer" while your tablet may the technically be a computer it has the same limitations as a smartphone. In this case though the problem is with your "j2ME" phone and Android which places it even further off topic. If you were asking about your desktop then this would be the right place but as you mention that just works...
    – Mokubai ♦
    Jul 18, 2015 at 7:20

1 Answer 1

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Let me see if I understand what you're trying to do.

1) You have a non-smartphone (feature phone) that has data capability for things such as its mini-browser, and also can provide an Internet connection via Bluetooth.

2) You want to use the Internet connection on the feature phone to connect your tablet to the Internet, i.e. your tablet does NOT have a cellular internet connection of its own.

3) Your logic is that the feature phone can provide an Internet connection via Bluetooth to a laptop computer; therefore, it may be possible to do the same to an Android device.

What you're asking to do is in theory possible, but from my own research does not appear to be possible without rooting the Android device, and even then is only possible for wired, not Bluetooth, devices.

Here's why: To connect to the Internet over Bluetooth from, say, your laptop, there's two possible protocols. One is using the Bluetooth Serial Port protocol, which basically causes your phone to emulate an old-fashioned modem, and two is the Bluetooth Personal Area Networking protocol, which causes the Bluetooth device to behave like a network card. Since you've indicated "dialing" numbers (e.g. *99#) it is clear that your feature phone uses the modem protocol.

So what's basically happening is that your Feature phone, which has an Internet connection, is "pretending", over Bluetooth, to be a traditional telephone line based modem. Your laptop is "dialing" that modem, which instructs the phone to make an Internet connection and offer it over this virtual modem.

The protocol used to provide Internet connectivity over serial links is called PPP (Point to Point Protocol). Back when most people dialed into the Internet over the phone, it's what almost everyone used to get online. Today, it survives largely in the form you're referring to - as a way to push an Internet connection from a relatively cheap, less powerful phone to a more powerful computer. (It's also used for VPN's, but I digress.)

Here's the problem. Android, since it's designed to be the device with the Internet connection (and it would usually be the one to share it, as well) does not come with native support for "dialing" an "external modem". Android is based on Linux, and as an operating system Linux certainly can support this - it used to be used this way all the time. However, modern versions of Linux have tended to omit features that have little or no practical application today.

The only tool I did find online that can enable PPP and dial-up support on an Android device is called PPP Widget, located here: http://www.draisberghof.de/android/pppwidget.html

This tool won't meet your requirements, however. One, it requires rooting the device, and two, it's for USB modems, not for Bluetooth "modems". This doesn't mean it's not usable for your purpose, because a lot of feature phones that provide Bluetooth modems also can provide a "modem"-like interface via the USB port. This will depend completely on the make and model of your phone.

I have not been able to find any further information to indicate that it's possible to enable PPP and dial-up support without rooting. This is because providing an Internet connection on a Linux device usually requires root access at some level, since the network software has to be reconfigured to work with the new connection and this requires root access.

In theory, someone could write and publish an app to the Play Store that supported exactly what you wanted (Bluetooth modem support with PPP), but given the low demand I sadly don't think it's going to happen.

I hope I've at least enlightened you a bit, and if you need more info reply and I'll help if I can.

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  • The three points are correct, I want to use the phone INTERNET connection when there are no Wi-Fi access points, so I can write e-mails while being in transport (bandwidth provided by GPRS makes the only really reasonable thing).The phone provide NetFront and a custom IMAP client, but it doesn’t have not enough enough memory to worth using the built-in software.You are probably correct about the fact Android doesn’t support this natively (I read comments reporting users can’t do it any longer since Android 4.2).
    – user2284570
    Jan 6, 2015 at 22:15
  • But your are probably wrong about the fact there is no possible way to do this without rooting the phone. In fact their is an app which probably allow to do what I described. The trial version trigger makes the phone asking if I authorize the tablet to use it’s modem, but the app doesn’t let to test the connection (when the connection is deemed to be established, it prompts to buy the commercial version). I am not sure it really works and implement the PPP part. The phone feature a S20pin port which can be converted into USB 2.0.
    – user2284570
    Jan 6, 2015 at 22:51
  • The problem is Samsung sells the converter separately, and I don’t know where I can buy it. Windows>=XP SP2 dropped support for this type of connection and only allow classic 56K modems (so it try to use the GPRS modem as a classic modem which doesn’t work). Linux as of next-20150106 still allow Bt/DUN (You enable the profile in the bluetooth support section while compiling the kernel).GNOME and KDE feature the best wizards, which screen a mobile provider list immediately after pairing with the phone when their is no INTERNET connection for filling the connection parameters automatically.
    – user2284570
    Jan 6, 2015 at 22:57
  • The program you pointed out looks like it actually might work - so I would thus stand corrected. It appears that the program opens the Bluetooth link, "Dials" the modem, then directs that link into the Android-stock VPN stack. As I said, PPP is still used for VPNs, so this is an interesting "hack" solution. Although, I did not download the app itself and haven't been able to easily find the cost of it...
    – fdmillion
    Jan 7, 2015 at 8:27
  • I don’t like an app which can create a VPN without knowing/trusting what it can send (because it isn’t open-source). I dislike to buy something for finding it doesn’t do what I need. So, I would need an open-source equivalent. But this might prove it is possible to do this without rooting. The app is on the play store.
    – user2284570
    Jan 7, 2015 at 12:39

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