A Great Way To Keep Track Of Your GPRS Usage

[Brad Adrian]

<a href="http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&amp;platformId=2&amp;productType=2&amp;catalog=0&amp;amp;sectionId=0&amp;productId=43793">http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&amp;platformId=2&amp;productType=2&amp;catalog=0&amp;amp;sectionId=0&amp;productId=43793</a><br /><br />If you're looking for a way to monitor how much data you send and receive with your wireless Pocket PC, the new GPRS Monitor from Spb Software House is just the tool for you.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/adrian/gprsmonitor.gif" /><br /><br />"Spb GPRS Monitor is a complete solution for measuring the amounts of data transfers via your GPRS, WiFi, CDMA or GSM network connection and calculating network usage costs. Spb GPRS Monitor watches all data transfers you perform and calculates the cost of your GPRS usage taking into account your service plan details such as inclusive data amount, data block size. etc."<br /><br />The information displayed includes:<br /><br />• Amount of data transferred today and its cost<br />• Current GPRS data block usage<br />• Current data connection speed<br />• Suggested daily inclusive<br />• This month's inclusive left<br /><br />A bunch of us Microsoft MVPs have had the opportunity to try out this software, and the overwhelming response is that it is one piece of very useful, very well-written software. It can be used with all types of Pocket PC 2002 devices, but if you happen to have a Pocket PC Phone Edition, this is a must-have application.<br /><br />If you'd like to read a bit more about it, Arne Hess has written a <a href="http://www.ppcw.net/stories.php?story=02/09/16/9879789">detailed description</a> at his PPCW.net site.

[Ed Hansberry]

Very very cool software. You do communication with your PPC Phone or PPC and cell phone combo, this is must have software.

Question though - what is a GPRS BLOCK?

[Hank Scorpio]

does this software allow you to adjust the tmobiles backlight settings, cause I thought that was a complaint to alot of people had that that wasn't accessable?

[Mike Wagstaff]

does this software allow you to adjust the tmobiles backlight settings? Nope, it's still either "off" or "on" - there's nothing in between.

[Leon]

Question though - what is a GPRS BLOCK?
A block is a certain number of MB or KB. You might have a subscription where the first 5 MB block is 'free'. If you pass that limit additional (often higher) charges apply for every block of 10 KB, 100 KB, 1 MB etc. depending on your telecom provider.

[avoglio]

Some small bugs for the ipaq 3970 inside (taping battery opens the audio settings) but in general it works great and is a huge help. Must Have ! 8)

[QYV]

Please forgive a stupid question, but this utility is useless if I am using a CDMA connection rather than GPRS, correct? Does anyone know of a comperable product for CDMA connection monitoring?

[splintercell]

Slightly off-topic, but does anyone know of any equivalent that would run on Windows XP? I recently upgraded my phone to the Samsung a310, and signed up for Verizon's 1xRTT network, with a per-MB usage plan, and would love to have detailed stats like that for the PC. The Verizon utility has a session log with totals, but I'd need some Excel importing/scripting/charting things done, and I am a little too lazy for that as of now :wink:

[fmcpherson]

I'm thinking that you should be able to use this with CDMA too. It shouldn't matter what underlying network is being used, because it is keeping track of the data which is IP traffic that runs across GPRS or CDMA data connections.

You can configure this monitoring program to monitor any connection created in Connection Manager. That could be a analog dial-up connection, or a CDMA. Where you might run in to problems is its translation of costs, but if it reports your real data usage you can probably do the cost calculations yourself.

[Leon]

Some small bugs for the ipaq 3970 inside (taping battery opens the audio settings)...
I'm not convinced it's a bug in the application: Battery Bar has the exact same problem on my 3970. Probably a 39xx issue.

[Jason Lee]

Wow. This does everything... Now if I only had my Samsung i700 PPCPE... *le sigh*
:fadein:

[marlof]

A block is a certain number of MB or KB. You might have a subscription where the first 5 MB block is 'free'. If you pass that limit additional (often higher) charges apply for every block of 10 KB, 100 KB, 1 MB etc. depending on your telecom provider.

Data block usage can also be important on how the subscribed amount of data are used. From tariffs page (note 2) (http://www.softspb.com/products/gprsmonitor/tariffs.html) "Data block (or GPRS data block) - a value your data transfers are rounded to. For example, if your data block is 10 KBytes and you transfer 12 KBytes, you will have to pay as if you have transferred 20 KBytes. If a provider does not mantion the data block size we assume 1 KB." So if you only check your e-mail in one connection (using only 10 KB or something), but you're charged per block of 100 KB, you've lost 90 KB traffic that you didn't use, but you did pay for.

For instance Vodafone NL, my provider, regularly uses 1 KB blocks (at least they state in their .pdf file (http://www.vodafone.nl/download/pdf/vodafone_zakelmarkt_tarieven_NL.pdf) they charge per KB). But if I roam when I'm abroad (http://www.vodafone.nl/2_xx.asp?content_id=562&cnid=399), I have to pay roaming costs of EUR 12 per MB, and they use 75 KB blocks. So you can get through those MBs at a nice burn rate.

[jjk1106]

I just tried CDMA (Merlin C201), Nextel's/Motorola M1100 and Sierra 300 CDPD and all three work. :D

[Jeff Rutledge]

This looks like a great app. I'll be downloading it as soon as I get home. I assume the above is an affiliate link?

[Brad Adrian]

This looks like a great app. I'll be downloading it as soon as I get home. I assume the above is an affiliate link?
Yes, it's an affiliate link. If you don't have any other particular preference, buying through that link does help Thoughts (a little).

Thanks.

[Isaac]

Brad,

What device is the screenshot from, assuming its your screenshot and not one provided bt spb. The reason I ask is I noticed the backlight control and wondered if it gives it more than just on/off. I installed the trial of this software on a iPaq and I can go thru all levels of brightness, and I wondered how this came up on the TMo PPC.

[Jeff Rutledge]

Well, I just got it. I was going to get Scrabble too, but can't bring myself to pay US$30 until I trial it at least. I'll probably buy it too, but at least I'm being somewhat responsible by trying it out first. 8)

[Ed Hansberry]

Data block usage can also be important on how the subscribed amount of data are used. From tariffs page (note 2) (http://www.softspb.com/products/gprsmonitor/tariffs.html) "Data block (or GPRS data block) - a value your data transfers are rounded to. For example, if your data block is 10 KBytes and you transfer 12 KBytes, you will have to pay as if you have transferred 20 KBytes. If a provider does not mantion the data block size we assume 1 KB." So if you only check your e-mail in one connection (using only 10 KB or something), but you're charged per block of 100 KB, you've lost 90 KB traffic that you didn't use, but you did pay for.
Ahhh, makes perfect sense. Now, what is T-Mobile US's block policy? Nothing on their site....

[marlof]

I believe the T-Mobile block usage is integrated in GPRS Monitor. It states 1 KB on the tariffs page (http://www.softspb.com/products/gprsmonitor/tariffs.html), but that is also the setting Spb uses if they're not aware of the actual price. If you take a close look at the tariffs page, you can see that for instance in Germany, it can make quite a difference what provider you have. Vodafone rounds at 100 KB for most of their plans, where you can get 10 KB or even 1 KB with T-Mobile. These can be hidden costs for those that do not keep a connection open, but connect for all small traffic they're making. And that's what so great about Spb GPRS Monitor, that it takes hidden costs like this into consideration.

[Chronos]

I noticed that the app doesn't load upon a soft reset; I installed it to my MMC card. It worked immediately after installation, but after a reset it refuses to load. The supplied PDF manual states that it can be installed to SD/MMC, but that it may not work in all applications. I'll try uninstalling/reinstalling to main memory when I get home. So far this is the only major issue I have seen- takes up precious kb out of the 32Mb. :roll:

[Ed Hansberry]

I noticed that the app doesn't load upon a soft reset; I installed it to my MMC card. It worked immediately after installation, but after a reset it refuses to load. The supplied PDF manual states that it can be installed to SD/MMC, but that it may not work in all applications. I'll try uninstalling/reinstalling to main memory when I get home. So far this is the only major issue I have seen- takes up precious kb out of the 32Mb. :roll:
You should genereally never install an app that loads at startup on a storage card. The card may not be fully initialized by the time the Today screen and StartUp group has been processed.

[avoglio]

The bugs I earlier reported have been confirmed by the programmer and will be patched soon. There has been some library updates in the OS which give you some trouble when using the same references as in for the older ARMs. Thus ending up with audiosettings instead of battery with a 39xx iPaq.

Great app anyway.

[rafafa]

Hi,

SFR (a french GPRS provider) offers 10MB for Eur 6 and data block of 1kb but i can't figure out how to input in the soft that the minimum per connection is 10Kb.

Because, in fact when i connect and use only 8 Kb (email check) i have to pay for 10 and if i use 12kb then it is the real amount of kb transfered...

Did i misunderstood something ?

Thanks,

Rafafa