If you're on a monthly contract, chances are your Nokia C5-03 deal will come with a 3G data allowance. But by using Wi-Fi to tap into your home wireless network, you can browse to your heart's content while at home without going anywhere near your allowance. Let's take a look at how to go about it.
Check out our full Nokia C5-03 Symbian S60 5th Edition User Guide
On-board Wi-Fi is one of the useful smartphone features that makes the Nokia C5-03 tremendous value for its affordable mid-range price tag.
With Wi-Fi you can hook up to any wireless network within range and enjoy web access without depleting the generally quite limited monthly quota of data that comes with your price plan. Not only does this make a big difference when downloading large files or premium apps, but generally broadband internet connections are considerably faster than their 3G counterparts too.
We're going to focus here on getting your Nokia C5-03 set up on a typical home broadband connection, but the procedure is generally much the same whether you're looking to connect at home or at a coffee shop, hotel or any kind of mobile hotspot while you're out and about.
First things first, you need to make sure WLAN scanning is switched on so you can find the wireless network you're looking to connect to. Depending on the homescreen theme you're using, you may have the option to connect directly from your homescreen.
If so, and scanning is switched off, you'll see a message labelled WLAN scanning off on your homescreen. Simply tap the message to switch on scanning, and it will refresh itself and – providing a network is within range – change to WLAN networks found.
Tap the message again, and select Start web browsing. This will both connect you to a network and open your Nokia C5-03's web browser. If for some reason you just wish to connect to the network without browsing the web, select Connect instead.
Either way, you will then be presented with a list of available networks, together with a couple of symbols to give you more information. In most cases, the first icon will be that of an antenna with a small padlock against it, while next to it will be an indication of signal strength.
The padlock icon shows that a wireless network is protected by some kind of password encryption. A home network should always be protected to stop anyone and everyone being able to connect when they're in range, so now's the time to take action should this not be the case!
Select your home network, then tap Connect. At this point you'll be asked to enter the Pre-shared key for WLAN. Depending on your home wireless provider, this might be found on the back of your wireless router, or on a separate piece of documentation.
If you've entered the WLAN key correctly, your Nokia C5-03 will now be connected to your home wireless network. Your phone will now remember these details, so you shouldn't have to enter this password again in the future.
Should you now open your web browser, you'll be asked to select the connection you wish to use. Select your home broadband connection from the options available, and off you go!
Just how your Nokia C5-03 will behave when it discovers new wireless networks, or comes back into range of your home network after you get home from the office, for instance, depends on how it has been set up in the Connectivity section of your phone's Settings menu, so it's worth taking some time to go through the menu options and make sure everything is set up the way you want it.
However, one useful point worth mentioning is that provided WLAN scanning is switched on, your phone will immediately identify any network it recognises as soon as it's within range, and give you the option to connect immediately from the homescreen.
So connecting to your home network needn't require more than a couple of taps from the homescreen no matter how you've configured the settings.
