I have been trying for ages to get my Nokia E51 to connect to the internet from my PC. Under Windows this requires a piece of software called PCSuite but try as I might it would not work. I knew that the latest version of Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid, had support for this sort of connection so I popped in a live CD and gave it a go. Sure enough, I plugged in the Phone, it was recognised immediately and I had a connection. Now why could Windows not be that easy?
But I really did not want to use the live CD so I turned to my second favourite piece of software, VirtualBox. If you happen to have been asleep for the last few months you may not have heard of Virtualisation. Put simply, one OS runs on another in a ‘virtual’ machine (a PC inside a PC). Now I have installed VirualBox on several platforms and it just works. I already had it on the laptop, so I loaded up Ubuntu into a new VM (Virtual Machine). Installed the Guest Additions and restarted the VM.
Next plugged in the E51 and bingo, I now have a 3G connection on my laptop!