Tethering With Samsung Focus Finally Working!

After 3 days of troubleshooting and digging around on the web, I finally got my Samsung Focus, a Windows Phone 7, to start tethering... In fact, I'm tethering right now to write this blog!

If this post isn't your first step, then you've probably seen the instructions online that look like this:

- Open the phone dialer and tap: dial ##634# and press call
-Once you are in diagnosis mode, dial: *#7284# and you will then have to select Tethered, Modem Call.
-Your device will then have to reboot. Once it is done just plug your device to you PC and and a Samsung driver should install automatically.
- Once it’s done just go to Control Panel / Network and Internet / Network Connections and should see the Samsung Omnia7 or Focus Modem connected.You will then have to change the settings of your Samsung Modem and add your carrier’s info. if required. Here are AT&T’s:
number: *99***1#
user name: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
password: CINGULAR1

My trouble first started because nowhere did I ever see anyone say that you have to have ZUNE installed to get the drivers to download correctly... maybe because it isn't totally true. You DO however need to have an internet connection. It was a huge hurdle for me because tethering on my iPhone 3GS was my main connection to the internet. In order to get the Samsung Drivers to install correctly on my laptop, I had to use a Wifi network to connect to the internet and THEN plug my phone into my laptop. After that, it worked just fine. I also installed Zune, just in case.

After the drivers were installed correctly, I kept getting an error when I would try to connect. Error 628 which said something about my connection being terminated by Arnold Schwarzenegger or something like that. After much more digging, I found the answer on a MobileTechWorld thread:

Oh, solved my own problem.

In Devices and Printers, right-click on the Samsung Mobile Modem device. Go to Properties / Hardware tab / Properties / General tab / Change settings / Advanced tab. Enter the following in the Extra initialization commands field:
AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","wap.cingular"

Select Ok, and then in Network Connections, right click on the new connection you created and select Connect.

When trying to find the device to alter, I noticed that there were 3 associated with my phone. I chose the first one "Samsung CDMA Modem", and it did the trick!

Oh, and word to the wise, your cell phone will compress data when you browse the web on it, but not when you use it as a modem. It would be wise to be sure you have a smart phone tethering plan through AT&T before you try to tehter your phone. It's $45 for 4GB, which is the same price as the normal $25 2GB plan plus the extra $20 for the additional 2GB, just like usual. The only difference is that it unlocks the tethering feature on your phone. I don't think you HAVE to have it to get the Samsung Focus to tether, since you have to change the configuration of the phone to begin with, but it would be better to have since you're probably going to be using 4 or more GB every month anyway... I, for example, use about 10GB a month by tethering my phone.