GPRS Woes...

[Cortex]

Is it just me or does everyone have trouble getting data to transfer on the 1st try even after a data connection is established with a high signal strength?

I often find that either it takes several attempts to connect, or if it finally does connect, I have to reconnect several times before i can connect with MSN Messenger or pIE.

Is this happening to everyone?

[Monty Gibson]

Is this happening to everyone?

No.

[Cortex]

monte, do you have compression ON under connection settings???

maybe ill do a hard reset and see if spb GPRS monitor or something else ive installed is causing problems....

[Cortex]

i'm starting to think i didnt configure my device fully.

did everyone do this (Creating GPRS Connection) except me? :oops:

http://www.t-mobile.com/help/services/tz/tt/pocket_pc.asp#22
(scroll down a little)


can someone explain what "SAMSON SOC" is? since it seems to be important for specifying the internet connection.

also it seems to want some loggin information....

perhaps i should be wasting my minutes with the t-mobile representative...

[Cortex]

So I've been showing off the phone to people but explaining "I like it, but it doesnt connect to the internet very reliably, and when it does, its often slow"

UGH!!!

I DIDN'T SET IT UP PROPERLY!!!!!!!!

For those of you who bought the device and found that it connects to the internet as is, out of the box -- you probably are experiencing undue suffering!

goto this link
http://www.t-mobile.com/help/services/tz/tt/pocket_pc.asp#22

do what it says for setting up a GPRS connection

when it tries to connect the first time it will ask for a user name and password -- leave it blank but check the remember password box.

now you should be connecting much more quickly! and reliably!

ps. i found that under the advanced settings, turning on compression increased my speed further with a brief test.

[Monty Gibson]

So I've been showing off the phone to people but explaining "I like it, but it doesnt connect to the internet very reliably, and when it does, its often slow"

UGH!!!

I DIDN'T SET IT UP PROPERLY!!!!!!!!

For those of you who bought the device and found that it connects to the internet as is, out of the box -- you probably are experiencing undue suffering!

goto this link
http://www.t-mobile.com/help/services/tz/tt/pocket_pc.asp#22

do what it says for setting up a GPRS connection

when it tries to connect the first time it will ask for a user name and password -- leave it blank but check the remember password box.

now you should be connecting much more quickly! and reliably!

ps. i found that under the advanced settings, turning on compression increased my speed further with a brief test.




You should not have to set "anything up" in order to connect to the internet using a T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone. It already comes "out-of-the-box" with two connection settings. One is for the GPRS internet for T-Mobile which of course is their internet and the other is a VPN setting for connecting to networks and such i.e.; at work. The only time you would have to "configure" anything is if you are using this device to connect to an internet service OTHER than T-Mobile. The link you gave even stated as such when it said "ISP Provider." I've had 4 of the T-Mobile Pocket PC Phones (the first one I dropped and the others that they sent were not to my standards) and I never had to "configure" any one of these to connect to the T-Mobile GPRS internet. Now; again, if you are using this device to connect to a third part ISP then, yes, you would have to configure the settings for this. If you are simply trying to access the T-Mobile GPRS it's already configured for you. I've never had any issues with trying to connect to the internet using the standard GPRS settings that came with all 4 phones. Neither has my wife. Hers was "out-of-the-box" as well and we never had to configure the settings in order for it to connect.

As far as compression is concerned: Once you connect to the internet for the first time (and every now and again), you will receive a brief webpage asking how fast you would prefer your connection to be. There is "Fast, Faster, and Fastest :roll: ." This; to my limited knowledge, just compresses the graphics, if you use them, even more so that they load faster and of course are less detailed. I connect using the standard GPRS settings that came with my T-Mobile phone to the T-Mobile GPRS internet and receive anywhere from 40-50 Kbps every single time. Most of the time it's around 50Kbps. I would advise that you reconsider trying to configure these settings unless you're trying to use a third party ISP.

[Cortex]

Mine did work out of box and it had 2 default connection settings, one for VPN and one for Internet, but the connections were inconsistent with both reliability and speed.

I disagree that the link in the prior post is just for 3rd party ISP configuration. Scroll down to "Create a GPRS Connection" and you will see that it is not for a 3rd party.

The difference between the default setting and the instructions is that a proxy server called "getmorespeed.voicestream.com" is created and assigns it to port 8080. This has to be done manually and I was instructed to do so by T-Mobile.

As soon as I made the change my connections have been on the 1st attempt and with speeds > 40k -- a huge change!

I suspect you have great coverage, and are getting good connections without this, but you might try this or at least check and see if the proxy is already setup for you. It be even better if its not. I also got the phone from Amazon rather than a T-Mobile dealer. The latter might set the proxy up on purchase.

I am aware of the webpage asking if you want a fast connection (who wouldn't???), you can get to it at the T-Mobile site or via the T-Mobile Accelerator link in Favorites. I think this just sets up the T-Mobile server side, pehaps compressing images. I don't think it assigns the proxy or maintain compression.

The compression settings I was referring to are under Connection Settings->Internet->Advanced (next to the baud rate). I didnt do rigorous testing but using the link in a prior discussion:
http://www.texan.net/speed.htm
I went from 2 runs 36k, 40k without compression to 2 runs 45k, 45k with.

So... I still recommend assigning the proxy as outlined at T-Mobiles site and considering turning on compression under "Advanced".

Made a huge difference for me and I had assumed the device was already setup out of the box. I hope others who found the internet performance mediocre read this...

I like my "TMo" much more! :)

[Monty Gibson]

Mine did work out of box and it had 2 default connection settings, one for VPN and one for Internet, but the connections were inconsistent with both reliability and speed.

Correct.

I disagree that the link in the prior post is just for 3rd party ISP configuration. Scroll down to "Create a GPRS Connection" and you will see that it is not for a 3rd party.

Actually, the link you gave stops at a 3rd party dial-up configuration. I suppose I forgot to scroll down; my mistake.

The difference between the default setting and the instructions is that a proxy server called "getmorespeed.voicestream.com" is created and assigns it to port 8080. This has to be done manually and I was instructed to do so by T-Mobile.

Correct, that's the only difference. However, the "getmorespeed.voicstream.com" website automatically appears every now and again anyway (at least for me and my wife it does; I can't account for everyone). The port 8080 is probably a port that makes it "pop-up" everytime? I don't know but the 80 port I know does not make it come up every single time.

As soon as I made the change my connections have been on the 1st attempt and with speeds > 40k -- a huge change!


That is a change and if it works for you then GREAT! I am happy that you're getting the faster connect rates. This is what GPRS is about, but I wish it were faster :wink:.


I suspect you have great coverage, and are getting good connections without this, but you might try this or at least check and see if the proxy is already setup for you. It be even better if its not. I also got the phone from Amazon rather than a T-Mobile dealer. The latter might set the proxy up on purchase.

I did as it stated (but it was already this by default except as you said the 8080 port switch) and nothing changed for me personally. Actually, it went down a little :?: I don't know why. The getmorespeed.voicestream.com came up and I accepted the faster compression rate (dugh!) and off I went to http://www.texan.net/speed.htm. I received 32 Kbps the first time and 44 the second time (yes; I cleared the cache beforehand). So, not the usual 50Kbps I normally get. I think that if the phone is distributed by T-Mobile; regardless of the vendor (Amazon.com) that it's automatically setup at the factory; HTC in Taiwan.

So... I still recommend assigning the proxy as outlined at T-Mobiles site and considering turning on compression under "Advanced".

Well, it's always good to have options and choices. We have two it would seem. One could try it "out-of-the-box" and if it doesn't work for him/her one could try it by changing the 8080 port. Options are always a wonderful thing and it's good that this post brings this to light. Good job!

I like my "TMo" much more! :)

And isn't that what this little "hobby" is all about :drinking: Happy New Year!

[mpfeifer]

See my other post in the GPRS speed thread.

Also, t-mobile support said NOT to turn the compression options on. Guy was not sure but he had a note not to do it.

Mark

[Cortex]

although i connect with faster speeds using the proxy settings i've discovered that MSN Messenger does not like it :(

not sure if there is a way around this. if i go back to my original default settings where there is no proxy, i can get MSN Messenger to work, but still unreliable (but better then none at all).

could someone who also has the proxy set try MSN Messenger and let me know if it works for them?

[Cortex]

so i just got off the phone with the t-mobile networking tech support folks.

they basically said that MSN messenger doenst work with the proxy, but he also did not know what port MSN messenger uses.

he also wasnt sure that changing the port on the proxy setting to what MSN messenger uses would fix the problem.

is anyone else having problems with MSN Messenger while using the getmorespeed.voicestream.com proxy with port 8080?

[mpfeifer]

Cortex -

I would perform the t-mobile update again. I tried this and my data speeds stayed significantly better w/o a 2nd connection being created. I would at least try and see if it helps you out.

Make sure you use the cradle and have a fully charged battery.

Mark

[Cortex]

well just for kicks i tried reinstalling the rom upgrade. then with the machine it its default state i decided to waste even more of my data plan and run some download speed tests with http://www.texan.net/speed.htm

i discovered my t-mobile sucks :P

i tried 8 runs each for 3 different network settings. if it took more than 15 seconds to connect i called this NO CONNECT and if it didnt download the file in 1-2 minutes i called this HUNG:

1. default setting: 31.4, 16.3, 40.8, 40.8, 40.8, 45.3 (so im thinking -- hey, it worked, im connecting quickly with good downloads -- but then...), NO CONNECT, HUNG, NO CONNECT

so frustrated, i changed the connection settings to include the proxy: getmorespeed.voicestream.com, because that aways connects!...

2. proxy without compression: NO CONNECT, NO CONNECT, (grrrr -- i'll reset the device), NO CONNECT, 45.3, HUNG, 45.3, HUNG, 25.5, HUNG, HUNG, (reset)

grrrrrrrrrrrr

3. proxy with compression under advanced on: 22.7, HUNG, 27.2, HUNG, 34, HUNG, 12.4

i give up