WAP, GPRS, and all that crap

Royalanguish · 07-21-03, 06:20 PM

Ok, Sony/Ericsson say that I can use my T306 to surf the web via GPRS on my Ax, but to call Cingular (my provider) to get the details. Well, Cingular says to call Dell, Dell says Cingular, Cingular says Sony/Ericsson and on and on and on.... According to S/E the T306 cannot be used as a modem to dial an ISP for my AX...thats no problem, esp since i cant find a free dial up ISP that works with PPC anyway. But it is supposed to connect using WAP or GPRS or whatever acronym fits the situation, using a cable or IR. I have used the WAP browser on my phone and I dont understand what good it is for. All I get is a few selected channels, no real web access. Am I doing something wrong? Is it possible to connect to the internet it this way?

Gators86 · 07-22-03, 07:59 AM

I'll try and help. I use Cingular Wireless in Atlanta. You are correct in that you only get a few channels using your phone (wap) to surf the web.

I believe that you will need a phone that is data capable? Until I went and found someone at Cingular who understood what I wanted to do regarding using my Ax I thought that if you had wireless internet that's all you needed. Wrong. As you know WAP only lets you check things like weather, stock prices, etc. Not full internet surfing. The salesperson at Cingular said that I needed a data capable phone and that it should do what I want. I use a Nokia 6340i and connect to my AX using IR. I setup my AX to dial my ISP local number and enter my user id and password. It's works fine other than you have to keep the two lined up. A draw back to using IR.

I hope this helps?

Royalanguish · 07-22-03, 10:01 AM

thanky you, the T306 is data capable, and I am suscribed to one of Cingulars data packages, right now I get 1mb per month. I assume that WAP and Data are two different things? about the ISP, what ISP are you using that works on a PPC? Im not sure if this phone is able to communicat as a modem (S/E say that its not, but that doesnt make since to me), but if it is, that is exactly what I want to do

Royalanguish · 07-22-03, 10:03 AM

subscribed, not suscribed :)

teaberry · 07-22-03, 10:25 AM

Guys please keep me posted on how it worked out. I have a Sony/Ericsson T300 (similar to T306) and i tried to send a pic via IR from the phone to axim...the axim immediately said communicating with T300 but the phone failed to recognize connection. from the sound of it Gators is using his phone as a dial-up modem but what Royal want is the highspeed connection b/c I think Cingular and T-mobile have 2.5G network (Sprint has 3G). Another proposal is to get a bluetooth ready phone like S/E T68i and get the bluetootch card for axim (anyone tried this yet?). More to explore I guess...:rolling:

Royalanguish · 07-22-03, 05:08 PM

well, as for bluetooth, its too expensive for me, and i like to keep my wifi card in rather than swapping out. as for sending picks, contacts and stuff like that via infared, that is no problem with my phone...i select the pick on the phone, hit the menu button, select send, select via IR and then aim the phone at the AX...and it works just like that, same with contacts and such. im lookin for, i think, some software or something that will install on my AX and let me use the phone as a modem...this software comes with the nokia 6341, according to their site. and, according to an email that i recieved from S/E they do not have, and are not planing on releasing, any software to do this with a PPC or Laptop...but, i know there has to be a way around this. S/E say that the T306 is not capable of acting as a modem, but i think that that is because they do not have the software available, as i said. However, on the ATT wireless site, they have step by step instructions for how to set up the T306 Specificly for the AX to use as a modem, however, as best i can tell, it requires their software, which is good only with their phones. my next plan of actong is to find a Cingular rep who is not a flaming idot and understands what im trying to do to help me.(I had a cingular tech guy tell me that i could go to any website i wanted via WAP, what a bunch of crap). a big part of the problem is, although PPC and PDAs in general are popular, these in depth uses of them are not, so many people do not even understad what im asking.

Royalanguish · 07-22-03, 05:29 PM

OK, well this seems to be cingular's solution to the problem. I dont minnd payig for the service, thats fair, but dones any one here have this software who can offer me a *ahem* free solution? if so, PM me and well talk

Gators86 · 07-22-03, 05:44 PM

Teaberry is correct. Cingular in Atlanta does not offer data connections at this time (according to their website). Coming soon I am told. For me to get a internet connection I have to dial up my ISP. The Cingular rep said we may have data by later this year. Cingular is behind the others in this area.

Sounds like you live in an area that Cingular offers Internet Express where you pay by how much "data" you send and receive. This sounds like what you want to set up? If so, I would contact Cingular as to how you access it. Might be something like #77#???

Then setup your AX to dial that number. You will want a data cable to connect your phone and AX.

I have BellSouth DSL and I am using the local dial up number as my ISP. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Royalanguish · 07-22-03, 06:49 PM

Gator, how do you use your dial up ISP with the AX and cell phone? I have Road Runner and they offer a free dial up service but it is only for 56K and they do not offer a DL for PPC. With Bellsouth, did you load anything from them into your AX? Also, I talked to Cingular just a few min ago and the rep told me that with my features I get 1mb of data per month. using this service I can view web pages, but only HTML and WAP content, not graphics and such. What does this mean? I am not very familiar with these theings, I know what HTML and WAP are, but why can only these items be transmitted through the phone? Gator, on your phone, using you dialup ISP, do you get FULL internet access, graphics and all? According to the rep, the limitation is due to the protocol of the phone (i guess thats WAP?). Hmm, im still confused.......

Gators86 · 07-22-03, 10:35 PM

Royalanguish,

I guess what I mean by full internet access is that I can view just about any web page I load. I can check my corporate e-mail using web base Microsoft Outlook, view the Dell Home page and the this site. Whereas if I use my cell phone phone I am limited in what I can view.

All I did was set up my AX this way. Start, Settings, Connections, Connections. "When needed, Automatically connect to the Internet using these settings:" New and enter a name like RoadRunner. Modem - New and enter a name. Modem choose Generic IrDA and for Baud Rate I went with 115200. As I understand it with Cingular they work at 14.4! You should be able to leave the setting under Advanced alone. Click next and enter the phone number you want to dial. Click Finish. Make sure you have the dialing patterns correct.

Now place your phone so the IR port has a view of the IR port on the top of the AX. With my phone I have to start it looking for an IR. While it's doing that I have the AX to connect to my ISP. My phone will show "call" and my AX will ask me for my user id and password. After I enter it I am connected to the internet and I open PIE and enter a web site that I want to view. When I am ready to disconnect I tap the IR icon and disconnect. With this setup I am using my anytime minutes.

Again this works for me because Cingular doesn't offer some of the services that other companies do in my area. Maybe soon???

Hope this helps?

Royalanguish · 07-22-03, 11:09 PM

Gators86,

Yeah, what you are saying should work for me to, the problem im having is, who actually provides the access. Through Cingular, as i understand, I get only limited access. So that leads to a dial-up ISP, i need to find an ISP that is free:) and does not require software so that i can access it from the AX.

A second problem is with the data accounts. I dont know which data account to use ( i have Express, Photo Msg, Home, Rome, and i think anothe one or two). When i tried from Express and Photo Msg, nothing happend. According to the AX, they were connected, the connection icon showed, but i could not view ANY pages. The phone also, when using the Photo Msg account showed that it was connecting-and it beeped as if a connection was maid...however, no internet icon appeared on the phone, as it does when viewing the 'internet' on the phone.

When I used the Express account, which the cingular rep said was the correct one, the connection icon apeared on the AX but noghing on the phone. Again, i could not view ANY pages.

To add one more piece to the puzzle, Cingular provides (for $20) connection software for PPC. Is this the piece that I am missing? I know that you have the Nokia 6340i and it comes with software, did you load it to your AX or does it work without?

teaberry · 07-22-03, 11:29 PM

i got it! its simple as heck. I have a T300 with IR port and my axim i setup the dialup isp: just number, username, and passwd. Then point the IR ports then connect (must enable IR port on phone). Then the axim start talking to the phone (pretty neat it started dialing by itself). Then launch PIE, voila, internet access. Seems very slow though (i guess 14.4k) but its a solution. I cancelled my T-zone wap service....it wasnt doing anything for PPC. Instead i increase my voice minutes+ free nights and weekends. I may get the cable if it will increase the performance. At home I should have my wifi setup by this weekend. Thanks all.....now in about 6 months i imagine the bluetooth on US cellphones will be more useful then I'll upgrade :D

Gators86 · 07-23-03, 07:29 AM

Royalanguish,

It looks like for you to use your AX with your Cingular Internet Express account you need to get their software (Cingular Data Connect Mobile Office Kit). It can be used with IrDA or a data cable. Cingular will be your ISP. Should give you what you want regarding surfing the net. Let me know if it works.

TopDog · 07-23-03, 08:39 AM

If your mobile provider supports GPRS, use that! Much cheaper in the long run, and a little bit faster.

Using the SE T306 (I'm guessing it's the same at SE T310 as it's called over here in Scandinavia) with the Ax should be no problem.

On the cell-phone you should only make sure GPRS are available and that the IR-reception is on, rest of the settings are done on the Ax, and I'm sorry, but here you must get the propper APN-string and number (usually either *99# or *99***1# from your mobile provider ;)