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June 16, 2003
GPRS, T-Mobile, and Silliness
Does anyone know how to connect a T68m phone to the internet using GPRS with T-Mobile? I just signed up for T-Mobile's unlimited access plan but I've go no clue what to do with it ;). None of the three T-Mobile dealers had any idea what was going on and in fact one said GPRS was automatic and is used to find your location in emergencies. He was very adamant about it. Also seemed to refuse to give me my phone when I asked for it back. He was too busy looking for what was not there. So anyways, PowerBook+Bluetooth+T68m (T68)+GPRS.... how? Update: Thanks to Jonathan LaCour I was finally able to get my phone to connect via GPRS. Check the comments for information. Steven Frank should get subsidies for getting people to sign up to T-Mobile unlimited GPRS. He's gotten two people to sign up so far (me and Jonathan I guess) all because he said T-Mobile had this plan available. $20 US/month is extremely cheap for inet access on the go like this and have very good coverage (if it asks, zip is 85018 city is Phoenix or you can use your own). Even though there are a LOT of holes in that map it covers all the major cities and the highways between them. At least any where I suspect I'd go in this country. Except the reception is very poor where I live and the area around it (called the Arcadia Neighborhood) because Camelback Mountain messes with the reception. Hmm, I don't suppose I could use this service in another country though. Mmm... 2k/sec inet access with huge ping times. It's all good. I feel like I'm back in 1990.   Posted by rosyna at June 16, 2003 05:11 AMTrackback Pings: TrackBack URL for this entry: Related:
Comments
Ross Barkman has a lot of GPRS/Mac information on his site: http://www.taniwha.org.uk/ Posted by: Visa on June 16, 2003 5:54 AMI have a Sony T68i with Bluetooth and a TiBook. I have been unable to get it to dial-out over standard GSM for internet connectivity (although I know this is supposed to work). It shouldn't be very hard to get it working with GPRS though. Question for you -- how much is the unlimited GPRS plan per month? I would gladly pay $10-$20 a month to get this functionality. Thanks for letting me know! Posted by: Jonathan LaCour on June 16, 2003 9:29 AM$20 per month for unlimited if you have a service plan for phone already with T-Mobile. If not, $30/month à la carte. Posted by: Rosyna on June 16, 2003 9:39 AMYou might want to try this out: http://www.novamedia.de/pages_e/e_mhs_mac.html Posted by: Andreas Tellefsen on June 16, 2003 11:44 AMWhen I pair via Bluetooth with my T68i OS X asks if I want to use it for Internet access... I have a desktop so I've never opted to. Jonathan LaCour: For some reason most carriers don't let you do this. Well, it's pretty obvious why. So you pay $20/month. T-Mobile's data plan is revolutionary... Before it was just for the Sidekick. Also you can add their hotspot services for $20 a month which gives you WiFi in like 3,500 locations. Something to check out for sure. Posted by: Jon Gales on June 16, 2003 2:18 PMGot it working! Once I heard the deal, I signed up for the unlimited GPRS, and fooled around with it on my laptop for a while. Its actually not too hard. 1. Download Ross Barkman's scripts (see comment above) It should work now! If you have any questions, post a comment here and I will respond, or email my address above. I hope I helped! Posted by: Jonathan LaCour on June 16, 2003 9:29 PMI keep getting "No Carrier Detected" Errors. Which is better than the "No communication" errors from before, Did you have to enter anything into the phone to get it to work? Any IP addresses or DNS addresses did you use? Posted by: Rosyna on June 17, 2003 9:39 AMHere are all the preferences I have set in my Network Settings in System Preferences. USB Bluetooth Modem Adapter * TCP/IP: - Configure using PPP - Everything else blank * PPP: - Telephone number: wap.voicestream.com - Everything else blank * Proxies: - Everything blank * Bluetooth Modem: - Modem: Ericsson GPRS CID5 - Enable error correction checked - Wait for dial-tone UNCHECKED (I bet this is your problem) - Sound off. That should do it for you. If you have any further questions, let me know! Posted by: Jonathan LaCour on June 17, 2003 11:19 AMYay! It works. It's impressively slow, but it works. Thanks for all your assistance. Ultimately I had to call them and they just "reset" my account and it make it work with the settings you gave me. Posted by: Rosyna on June 17, 2003 12:12 PMisn't there better speeds if you use internet3.voicestream.com instead of wap.voice... the folks in the howard forums are reporting better speeds that way Posted by: neps on June 18, 2003 10:56 PMneps: It appears that internet3.voicestream.com is an invalid APN. But, the good news is that if you use internet2.voicestream.com, things get a *ton* better. I am getting speeds in excess of 4-5 k/s, and 1.5-2.5 second ping times. And my signal strength isn't even very high! In addition, when you first fire up your web browser and try to access a URL, it forwards you to a t-mobile page that allows you to setup a browsing "Accellerator", which can be set at three speeds. I gave it a shot, and it doesn't work in Safari, but it works fantastically in Camino. I appears to be a proxy that compresses the images and sends back responses in gzipped form... I wish it worked in Safari, but I certainly can't complain. Posted by: Jonathan LaCour on June 19, 2003 4:42 PMHas anyone got this to work with Safari? Is there any way to turn off the proxy functionality? It keeps downloading all the web pages in Safari as compressed files. Posted by: Ishir Bhan on June 20, 2003 11:28 AMRE: Has anyone got this to work with Safari? Now you should be able to surf the web as usual. With the help of this board, I got the T68i working as a Bluettoth modem last night, but had the same problem. I called T-Mobile this afternoon to find out how I could set Safari to uncompress and show the files. I was pushed up to the Level 3 Tech and explained the situation to him. The tech insisted that there was no way I could be surfing the web on my 12" Powerbook via Bluetooth and a T68i because Sony doesn't make drivers for it. I couldn't convince him that Macs were already setup to talk to a T68i when they came from the factory. But I did manage to pry the URL of the settings page out of him. Now we have to convince Apple to support this feature in Safari (everyone email a feature request!) or figure out how to support the compression. It shouldn't be impossible -- I think they're tar files and OS X comes with a webserver that could be used as a local proxy that unpacks the files and servers them back to Safari. Any programmers? Posted by: G Man on June 21, 2003 7:36 PMI figured out another solution to get Safari to work: I replaced internet2.voicestream.com with wap.voicestream.com. The latter appears to default to accelerator off. Posted by: Ishir Bhan on June 23, 2003 10:54 AMFor me, internet2.voicestream.com with the accelerator turned off seemed faster than wap.voicestream.com (you can turn it off the accelerator by changing settings at http://getmorespeed.t-mobile.com/ --This page works even if the accelerator's turned on). Has any actually timed these two to see if there is a diff? I may get a chance to run some tests later today. I still want to see if we can get a working accelerator for Safari. I'll try to get some developer friends interested at the Keynote broadcast today and post back with progress. Posted by: G Man on June 23, 2003 11:53 AMThe "Accelerator" is actually simply GZIPping the HTTP responses and compressing images a bit further. This is a fairly standard thing that is possible with Apache using a module, and many web browsers (including IE and Mozilla) support it. Get on Apple's case, I am guessing that Safari 1.0.1 will support it (if 1.0 doesn't already...). Back to the Keynote! Posted by: Jonathan LaCour on June 23, 2003 1:37 PMYou can in fact use the t68i as a GSM modem. I've used it this way with my Palm IIIx over the infrared connection. Just enter your dialup number (I used a local Earthlink number) in your modem settings (on the Palm), tell it to connect over irda, and point the two devices at each other. When you do something that requires internet access the palm will dial out over the phone. This way you are just using airtime, and not being charged for data. I've not had the chance to try this over bluetooth, since this phone is the only bluetooth device I own. Posted by: Lee Phillips on June 24, 2003 3:10 PMGot mine to work just using the scripts mentioned at the top. I appears that I didn't get a DNS server through DHCP however, so name resolution didn't work. Posted by: Brett on July 3, 2003 8:29 AMI'm trying to figure out which unlimited GPRS/WAP plan to upgrade to. Here's my understanding: T-mobile has unlimited T-zones plan (T-mobile's WAP plan) for $9.99. They also have unlimited T-Mobile Internet (GPRS plan) for $19.99, as discussed above. With the WAP plan, you can use the wap.voicestream.com APN but not the internet2 or internet3.voicestream.com (which I believe you can access with the GPRS plan) to use my T-mobile phone as a wireless modem for my Powerbook. So, given the discussion above, is the only difference between the $9.99 unlimited WAP plan and $19.99 unlimited GPRS the difference in speed? Posted by: Moonhawk on July 14, 2003 7:44 PMHmm, I just bought an Ericsson T610, and I've got a Palm Tungsten C ... trying to surf using the C's browser and the phone's modem through infrared, but the Palm keeps asking me for a number - I tried the wap.voicestream.com, that did not work - any ideas? Posted by: Ronald on August 2, 2003 6:58 PMI'm not sure you're right Moonawk; I just signed up with t-mobile and got the $9.99 t-zone unlimited plan (there is no "t-internet" plan available for my phone, says their website, a Nokia 3650). It connects via GPRS when I enter the "t-zone" function. I had to convince the salespeople at the t-mobile store that this plan existed, but they eventually gave it to me -- or so they said. I guess I'll find out for sure when I get my bill. Posted by: friedClams on August 8, 2003 12:52 PMI got the $20.00 T-Mobile unlimited internet plan. I have a s-105 samsung. I downloaded the internet manager from T-Mobile and could only find a 9 pin com port cable for my samsung. I downloaded the getmorespeed and my system on my home pc seems to be ok for small pages, however if I go on ebay for example, the picture pages go real slow and makes it impossible to bid. The trouble shooting said delete your cookies and create new cookies with the T-Mobile internet access... so I did, still not luck. I have heard that it shold work better than it does for me. Any comment, I could use some help that is for sure. Thanks Posted by: P.C. Martin on August 22, 2003 7:27 PMCouple of things: friedClams: I think all data connections (either t-zones or T-Mobile Internet) make connections through GPRS. I was just referring to the t-zones plan (with $2.99 and $9.99) as the "WAP" plan, because these plans are designed for WAP access (through the browsers on the phones, rather than using cell phones as wireless modems for laptops). With these t-zones plans, I couldn't access the getmorespeed.t-mobile.com site. The connection was slow, but it was unlimited for $9.99. I think prior to the new $19.99 unlimited GPRS plan, the "unlimited" $9.99 t-zones plan was "virtually unlimited" in that the actual maximum was 10MB per month. Ronald: I have a Palm V that I successfully use with T68i/T610. The following are my settings: User Name: (blank) [Under "Details..."] 2-5k PER SECOND??? I don't know about everyone else on this board, but I was promised speeds of "around 56k" by the T-Mobile cust-service person when I signed up for this service. I pay for the same $20 month unlimited service, and I'm still waiting for the service they promised me. Tech support has told me about "known issues", blah blah blah... They've also tried to get me to use an image-compressing "proxy server" (no thank you). This service is utter crap. Get a WiFi card and find an access point. T-Mobile internet access is NOT SUFFICIENT FOR WEB BROWSING. Posted by: Soho on November 1, 2003 5:47 PMSoho, I've had the exact same experience as you. The bottom line (and its a fact that's a little hard to believe) is that T-Mobile DOES NOT OFFER INTERNET ACCESS. People have a hard time understanding this, but its 100% true. The T-Mobile salespeople will sell you internet access, the tech support people will help you set it up. But the fastest it will ever be is around 6k per second! TMobile internet access is an absolute joke, and to make it worse, they won't refund you your money. All they do is offer you free voice minutes (which if you're like me and have unlimited minutes is even more of a joke). I have saved voice messages from T-Mobile engineers which go back MONTHS now. They all say "Well... its a known issue and ... yada yada yada". Can anyone say "CLASS ACTION LAW SUIT" ??? Posted by: POPO on December 1, 2003 5:45 PMI called T-Mobile Customer No-Service just now and here's how the conversation went: Me: "Can I get a refund for the past two months of 'Internet Service'" Customer No-Service: "Well sir can you tell me what the problem is?" Me: "Well I was sold a service that was supposed to be around the speed of a 56k modem" Customer No-Service: "Actually sir, what we tell our customers is that the connection speed is 'up to 56k'" Me: "But its 4k per second. Actually to be precise I'm currently getting 3.8k per second." Customer No-Service: "I understand how that might be frustrating, but that's why we say 'up to 56k'" Me: "But... you're not even close. I mean, you're not even at 10% of 56k. And I've been using this service for months now. Its never been any faster than this." Customer No-Service: "Right... But when we say 'Up to 56k' it means it may be less." Me: "Well then, why not say 'Up to T1 Speeds'. I mean if the lower boundary can always be 0 kbps, and the upper boundary is apparently irrelevant, then what exactly are you selling people?" Customer No-Service: "Sir can I offer you some free minutes?" Me: "I have Unlimited Evenings, and I only use my phone at night". Customer No-Service: "Is there anything else I can help you with?" Me: "Sorry, I'm just trying to understand. For the last few months I've been unable to browse the web because most web servers time out on a connection that's as slow as this one is. Are you billing me for this service?" Customer No-Service: "Sir I'd be happy to give you free minutes..." Me: "And I'd be happy to add my name to a class action lawsuit. Keep your minutes, and good luck to you guys". Posted by: Fold on December 1, 2003 5:57 PMFold : you are very confused. A 56k modem is 56kbps (that is kilo-bits-per-second), or about 5KB/second (5 kilo-BYTES per second). Most of the time, a "56k" modem actually connects at about 40kbps. GPRS connects at about the same speed. If you get 4KB/s you are getting exactly what was advertised, i.e. 100% the speed of the typical 56k modem. Apparently, the customer service reps at T-mobile aren't any better at math than you, or they would have caught your error. You need to divide by 8 (well, really by about 10) to convert kbps to KB/s. Now, is GPRS suitable for high-speed web browsing? Of course not. But neither is a 56k modem. Tmobile never claimed otherwise. Posted by: mike d on December 3, 2003 1:04 AMGot my Motorola T722i working with T-Mobile service and connecting around 33k, which is fine if you turn off images in the browser. Here's my setup: It seems a lot of folks on this board are unhappy with T-Mobile's internet service. I'm wondering if the quality varies by service area, because I have a friend in Pasadena who is very pleased with it. OK, not cable-modem happy, but understanding it is like a 56K modem and actually getting speeds comparable to what he had with his landline ISP. (And no, he doesn't work for them or anything; he's an independent programming contractor.) KH Posted by: on March 27, 2004 11:22 PMmike d Here's a page that describes how to use gzip with Safari :) Posted by: Bill on April 13, 2004 7:50 PMActually, smack me, I read that wrong--it's for apache. Bah. Posted by: bill on April 13, 2004 7:52 PMNew update: T-Mobile now offers FREE GPRS access. I was paying for the more expensive data plans when I heard about this and decided to try it out. It works great and is the same speeds as the $20 dollar a month plan. You just call them up and ask for the "Free WAP" plan. They think that it only works for WAP, but I've connected my Nokia 3650 through bluetooth to my WinXP laptop, and can browse the web and everything. For me in my high-rise condo where the signal isn't as good I get about 15 kbps which sucks but down at ground level it's around 40 kbps. One of my friends also has T-Mobile with the Nokia 3650 and he connects via infrared and has reported better speeds. Maybe the bluetooth connection in the phone isn't as good in bandwidth as the infrared even though bluetooth theoretically should be a much faster connection at least on that part of the link? (to get the most out the GPRS) Don't waste your money on the more expensive data internet plan or on any plan at all. Get the free WAP access. Supposedly the difference is what ports are available, and this seems to be true when accessing website directly on the phone (I only get ports 80 for web sites, and the standard email ports on the phone through the built-in POP3 and IMAP mail client), but when I connect through the phone using my laptop, I have access to those ports and additional ones (like running AIM and FTP). So drop the internet plans. Get free wap. It appears to be the same when connecting from laptop, but isn't the same when browsing on the phone itself. But I don't do much FTPing while ON the phone. But FTP works for me THROUGH the phone when connecting from the laptop. Good luck everyone. Posted by: Jason on April 21, 2004 6:52 AMI have an iPAQ 5555 with wm2003. I have the T-Mobile Merlin 100 GPRS card. The T-Mobile Internet Manager software is not compatible with wm2003, so I have to keep my old 3600 iPAQ in service to use this. No real help from their customer service. Anyone have any data on upgrades to their Internet Manager? Ron Like Jason mentions, it looks like T-Mobile has unlimited WAP on the cheap, which can also be used through a Bluetooth connection to surf the net from a PC. I wanted a camera/bluetooth phone and after some research decided on Nokia 3650 (wish it had a flash). I went to a T-Mobile store and they told me that I could get unlimited t-zones for 2.99 a month. I knew that uses GPRS so I said "sure". Now I can surf the web through my phone using GRPS via Bluetooth connection. I've set the phone number to *99# and it is able to connect to the Internet. Like Jason mentions, I've found you're limited on what ports you can connect to (for example, you can't connect to SSL web sites) but for regular web surfing it's fine. I seem to average about 1.2KB/s (kilobytes, not kilobits), so that's the only thing. I wish I was getting closer to a 5KB/s connection. I haven't gotten my bill yet, so I sure hope the GPRS use is unlimited. Guess I'll found out, but if this works, I'll be able to get e-mail and web access anywhere. Posted by: LiquidWax on May 24, 2004 3:20 AMim having a nite mare trying to find t-mobile's "internet manager " the t mobile site wont let me download it. i guess their pushing "handango's" motorola mobile phone software. the t mobile manager works great with my phone but the tech's at t-mobile say it wont work. funny thing is i had a copy of the program for 3 months before my puter crashed and it worked just fine. now they refuse to send me a copy of the program. if anyone has any idea where i might find t mobile's intewrnet managfer 140 i'd be one happy camper. thanks i was able to download the manager from t-mobile using opera, the speed was 5kbps though Posted by: Roman on August 4, 2005 4:56 PMI had signed for unlimited GPRS too and I must say its quite good. It connects at 460.8 kbps on my Laptop. Is there a way to speed this up or any other alternative? However I would prefer mobile connectivity as I am mostly on the move. Posted by: Veron on March 4, 2006 1:14 PMI have lost my copy on "T-Mobile Internet Manager" when my computer crashed and have been unable to find it anywhere. I need it for my Merlin wireless card to hook up to T-Mobile internet service. T-mobile only offers the T-Mobile Connection for the Sony Ericksson GC89 card now and are pushing you to upgrade to that card. CAN ANYONE SEND ME A COPY of the T-MOBILE INTERNET MANAGER or tell me where I can get a copy of it? AL -- alabama@mailshack.com Posted by: Al on November 23, 2006 7:40 AMIf you have a GPRS connection and you try to do an FTP session, you have to set PASSIVE mode (PASV) in order to be able to download and upload data otherwise you can do any command you want but you cannot able to do any transfer. Posted by: Michele on February 26, 2007 1:50 AMKeep comments on topic. If a comment is unrelated to this post, it may be removed or moderated. |