Connecting Sony Ericsson K700i to the Internet through my PC

I was recently stumped with CSS over handheld devices. I was using Sony Ericsson J200i, an entry level nice hand phone from Sony Ericsson to access WAP pages over GPRS. Now I need to test run my web sites development and CSS on handheld devices. In a quick impulse shopping I got myself a mid entry level Sony Ericsson K700i for RM850. The phone was selected for its price and features. The guy was nice enough to throw me a free gift in the form of quite nice canvas bag. So if you are shopping for Sony Ericsson, just try your luck but don't forget to be nice to the salesperson. I also bought a DiGi prepaid, activated the GPRS account and surf away with K700i.

Data call on DiGi network cost RM0.10 per 10 Kbytes. That about 10 cents per page. Not what I have in mind to be spending since I will be continuously testing my web pages all day long with GPRS data connection. I could end up with hefty prepaid reloads before my site development is done. So there is a need to connect the K700i handphone to the Internet but not using DiGi or any other local telco GPRS networks for data connection. And the search for this quest started...

Sony Ericsson K700i must use TCP/IP for its data connection. Why not make the K700i TCP/IP connection to my local area network (LAN), and surf the Internet through my Streamyx broadband connection? I have an idea but really clueless. As usual, fire up my Firefox and started Googling around. Not as bad as I think. I found few forum postings about the same idea. Not for Streamyx of course, since those good hackers and K700i followers mostly concentrated in the Europe. One particular good post is at Esato.com. It appeared to be a good start. One link from Google to another, bits of fumbling with the small keypad and the failed and errors messages, I successfully make my K700i browsing tashNET and started my CSS fixing.

Here is my step by step note. Before you begin, make sure you are already been using your K700i connected to your PC or laptop by either data cable (I use USB Cable DCU-11), infra-red or Bluetooth. When I bought my K700i, Sony Ericsson PC Suite included in the CD provided is enough to make connection between my PC and the K700i. I installed File Manager and found Phone Monitor Options in my Windows 2000 Control Panel. After a quick COM port selection, I can transfer files betwen my K700i and Windows 2000 box. So before you begin, make sure your PC or laptop can already talking to your K700i.

1. Read this first, Release Notes - SonyEricsson SDK 2.2.3 for the Java(TM) ME Platform It will give you a quick view about what to expect before you can even begin.
2. Download and install J2SE Software Development Kit. Go to http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html and click on Download J2SE SDK. The installation file j2sdk-1_4_2_04-windows-i586-p.exe is about 51 MB.
3. Download and install Sony Ericsson SDK 2.2.3 for the Java(TM) ME Platform.
   The file semc_j2me_sdk_2_2_3.zip is big (64 MB) and I had to endure multiple tries over 3 days until I successfully get it on my Windows 2000 box to start installation. Not that my connection is slow, but it seemed my connection to the server kept dropping. Using download assisstant such as Download Accelerator didn't help because I cannot resume whenever download failed. In this case Download Accelerator cannot open multiple port for download and only has to make do with one connection.
4. When the Java ME SDK installed successfully, you should find a Connection Proxy icons on your system tray, otherwise Click Start > Programs > Sony Ericsson > J2ME SDK > ConnectionProxy to start the connection proxy which while active will show its status on the system tray. Right click on it and choose Settings. Select correct COM port for your connection. My DCU-11 data cable uses COM 3. I just leave Max Baud Rate alone at its maximum 115200.
   
   
5. Open Sony Ericsson Device Explorer.
   Click Start > Program > Sony Ericsson > J2ME SDK > Device Explorer. You should see that the software is negotiating a connection with K700i, and when successfull it will display a list of application installed. In my case it displayed all games installed in my K700i Games folder
6. In Sony Ericsson Device Explorer menu bar, click File and check Serial Networking and close and restart the Device Explorer.

Now the first phase is completed. We move on to the K700i handphone.

1. On your Sony Ericsson K700i, add new data account. Go to Connectivity > Data comm. > Data accounts > New account.
   Account type: GPRS data
   Name: Anything you want and Save it. Leave APN, Username and Password empty.
2. Go to Connectivity > Internet setting > Internet profiles > New profile
   Enter Name: anything you want
   Connect using: select the account you just added then save
3. Still in Internet profiles window, highlight the profile you going to use and press More and select Settings.
   In this window:
   • Connect using: the new data account you just added
   • Internet Mode: Http (already there)
   • Use Proxy: Change to Yes
   • IP Address: Your PC IP address (mine is 192.168.8.17)
   • Port Number: 8080 (already there, just leave it as it is)
   • Username and Password, leave empty
4. Press Save to save this profile

Opera Mini Installation

Default browser that comes with K700i just not mean to be used with this type of connection. You need to download other browser to be installed on the K700i handphone. I downloaded Opera Mini browser for my K700i here. You must download both jar and jad files. This is a quick download since the file is quite small. Now you can install Opera Mini browser into K700i.

1. Connect your data cable and K700i phone
2. Open Connection Proxy
3. Open Sony Ericsson J2ME SDK Device Explorer. The list structure of your installed applications on the K700i show up when the connection is established.
4. On the menu bar, click File > Install..
   Browse to where you save the downloaded Mini Opera jad and jar files. When done click Install. This will install Mini Opera on the K700i.
   
5. When installation successful, highlight the Opera Mini in the Device Explorer and click on "Play button", or right click and select Start to launch the Opera Mini on the K700i.
   Launching Opera Mini by using the phone itself will not work. Beats me, I don't know why?
6. Now grab the phone and try browse Google site which already listed there in the Links section.

If you still can't make it work, check every steps above again. Remember you K700i must establish connection with your PC first before you can make its TCP/IP connection to work. You may need to restart both your K700i phone and Sony Ericsson Device Explorer.

It is also possible to configure this connection to use Bluetooth. At the moment I always stuck in front of my PC so Bluetooth is not really necessary for me, but after I'm done with my current development job I'm sure to make it work with Bluetooth too. With Bluetooth, I can take my K700i and move around the house and still be able to browse the Internet with the phone through my PC, specially when visiting Big Bro John.

Nice thought.

Opera Mini is a mobile browser compatible with the latest generation mobile phones. Its special feature is the ability to reduce transferred data volume up to 80% by reformatting visited Web pages and adapting them to the telephone screen.

Its secret lies in the fact that while the page is being loaded on the device, the browser contacts the Opera servers which download the page in question and purge it of all that is excessive (animations, excessive images, etc.) then the compressed page is sent to the telephone which will now have a smaller download to support and should therefore process the data more quickly. This makes it possible to access websites which are normally accessible on a computer, read emails, refer to up-to-date information or do some research on Google.

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