Setup for Using Your Verizon Wireless XV6700 Pocket PC Phone as an Internet Modem

Bret Fisher

• 6 min read

Setup for using your Verizon Wireless XV6700 phone as an Internet modem (using EV-DO or 1xRTT) over Bluetooth or USB with Windows XP (may work with Sprint PPC-6700 and other HTC phones as well)

Update August 2009: Much of this information is out of date.  Verizon Wireless now blocks  you unless you pay up, and supports tethering with their windows app VZAM.
This how-to is designed for someone who has a Windows XP (32-bit only) computer and a new 6700 series phone, and wants's to get everything setup from start to finish. This document was written in Summer 2006 as a reminder to me on how to setup my laptop for Internet using my Verizon Wireless phone, all the other fluff is for your benefit. I ended up reinstalling Windows eight or so times in the last year due to experimentation with Vista betas, Windows XP x64 (64-bit), etc. and was tired of re-learning this process every time.

Disclaimer: as is most everything on the Internet and the blog-o-sphere, this has no warranty assumed or implied with it. Do not blame me if your carrier doesn't like what you're doing and charges you extra or disconnects your service because these procedures below are against your contract or EULA.

Things I ought to mention first:

  • There are three ways to connect your 6700 phone to a computer: Infrared (IrDA), USB, or Bluetooth. I didn't test the Infrared since the other two seem much more prevalent and reliable.
  • This didn't work for me on Windows XP x64. I have a Belkin Bluetooth USB Adapter (F8T003 v2) and used the built-in x64 drivers to link the phone to the computer. But when trying to enable the Dial-Up Networking Bluetooth profile, I would always get error or unresponsiveness, making me think the BT stack in x64 isn't as refined or tested as 32-bit. You may get better results with other Bluetooth adapters. I also learned that x64 doesn't have a 64-bit Infrared driver and hours of Google searching shows dozens of people with the same issue and no resolution. Lastly, the .inf file that is used below to install the phone as a USB modem is 32-bit only as well. In the end, I couldn't get any method for emulating a modem to work on x64/64-bit Windows. I hope this will not be the case with Windows Vista x64.
  • I found that after using this setup for 6 months, I use both Bluetooth and USB depending on the situation. If your phone has a full battery, then Bluetooth is easier (phone can stay in your pocket). But, using Bluetooth and the data connection will wear your phone battery down in a few hours; so by plugging in the USB cable you can actually charge your phone off your computer while you use the connection. If you've got a short laptop battery, Bluetooth may still be the best option, so I recommend setting up both and choosing which one to use based on the situation. It sucks to be on the road and have to figure this stuff out offline.
  • With Verizon Wireless (not sure about Sprint), they currently disable this ability to use a pass-through data connection. Directions below will change these settings on the phone, but once you do this you're supposed to pay Verizon Wireless $60 a month for your phones data plan (rather then the $45 a month unlimited phone data plan). Verizon Wireless calls this BroadbandAccess Connect and it may not be obvious on their site as to how this affects you. I have meetings with Verizon Wireless data sales people due to my job, and was told that it's not easy for them to tell if your using your phone with a computer; but if they see very high data rates constantly, that they will want to bump you up the $15 extra dollars (the idea is that a computer will use the connection much more then a phone would on it's own, and that the $45 unlimited plan is only designed for phone-originated data connections).
  • Speed results in Hampton Roads, Virginia (Southeast Virginia) average 414 kb/s down and 115 kb/s up. This was with 90% signal strength (using Microsoft Voice Command answer to what is my signal strength), and being stationary in my home the whole time. 6 tests were done using http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ to Washington, DC over an hour (on a Sunday night) where the min was 334 kb/s and max was 538 kb/s. I found no noticeable difference using USB or Bluetooth, but did find better results using specific driver settings, which are found below.
  • Wmodem is an app on your Pocket PC phone that allows you to use it as a modem device for a computer. Details on how to set it up are below; but some explanation on it is in order. Before you can use this app, you need to disconnect any existing data connection (each time). So if you have ActiveSync setup, or if you just recently used the phones data connection, you'll see the yellow box lit up in wmodem when you first run it (but you haven't yet hit the Start button in wmodem). You need to stop any other exiting data connections on the phone before selecting Start in wmodem, as this program monopolizes the data channel.
  • EV-DO and 1xRTT are your options for Verizon phones at the moment. I have been in a vehicle at 70mph using EV-DO (as a passenger only :P ) and it works fine, even as it falls back to 1xRTT. Obviously the speed difference between the two is very noticeable but still usable.
  • Proper device settings for USB modem in XP (or Bluetooth modem in XP). Once you install the drivers for either scenario below, make sure that the speed setting in your dial-up profile is set to a port speed of 230400 and hardware flow control and compression are on. These settings gave me the most consistant speeds above 400kb/s. In the end, none of these settings may matter, but they don't hurt.
The One-Time Setup on the Phone to Enable Data Pass-through This is to allow the phone to accept data/modem connections from a computer. With Verizon, they turn this ability off by default, so you'll need to enable it the first time.
  1. Go to the PHONE application (hit the green phone button on the XV6700)
  2. Enter ##3328873 (or ##feature) and press TALK (or Send)
  3. Enter six zeros for the code (000000)
  4. Now Enable both the BT DUN and Wmodem
  5. Tap OK several times and OK to soft reset your device
  6. Once restarted, look for wmodem in the \windows folder on the device. If you can't find it be sure in File Explorer to select "show all files".
Additional Setup for Using Bluetooth Dial-Up Networking
  1. Pair up phone and XP Bluetooth
  2. Go to properties of phone Bluetooth device in XP's Bluetooth Settings and enable the Dial-Up Networking profile, this will install XP's Bluetooth Modem driver.
  3. Create a DUN (Dial-Up Networking) profile in Windows XP and use the newly created Bluetooth modem device rather then your standard telephone modem device.
  4. Phone number is #777, username is XXXXXXXXXX@vzw3g.com, password is vzw (X's are your wireless phone number) Now just launch the newly created DUN in XP like you would normally dial-up over a standard modem.
Additional Setup for Using USB Dial-Up Networking
  1. Start wmodem on your phone and set it for USB
  2. Plug in the phone via the supplied USB cable to the computer
  3. XP will try to install the new 'usb modem' it sees, if it gets an error, just unplug and try again
  4. Once it asks you for a driver, point it to the .inf file CDMA1X_USBMDM.INF (you can find this file all over the Internet, often bundled with a .exe for starting the connection, but don't use the .exe, as it's old and unnecessary, and I didn't have the best speed test results with it.) This will finish your modem install in XP and it will show up as a new device in Device Manger.
  5. Create a DUN (Dial-Up Networking) profile in Windows XP and use the newly created USB modem device rather then your standard telephone modem device.
  6. Phone number is #777, username is XXXXXXXXXX@vzw3g.com, password is vzw (X's are your wireless phone number)
  7. Now just launch the newly created DUN in XP like you would normally dial-up over a standard modem.
Short list for connecting each time you want to use it (Bluetooth or USB)
  1. Disable ActiveSync on the phone (or stop data connection)
  2. If using Bluetooth, enable Bluetooth on the phone
  3. Run Wmodem and click Start for either USB or Bluetooth
  4. Either plug in the USB to computer or enable Bluetooth on Computer
  5. Connect the Dial-Up Networking profile you created on the computer, ensuring it's using the proper modem device for your scenario