I think I found the cheapest tetherable internet in Canada - and its prepaid [Archive] - maemo.org

overfloat

11-15-2009, 03:07 AM

7eleven SpeakOut Wireless currently offers unlimited browsing via the rogers goam.com APN for $7 per month. I have tethered this from my old Motorola MPX220 to my n800 and my laptop.

The only catch is that everything has to go through a http proxy - fine for most browsing though. (no voip/im people!)

The best part about this deal is that SpeakOut credit lasts 365 days - so if you travel to Canada a few times a year, you can activate and deactivate the internet as required - a $25 recharge would cover you for 3x30 day blocks spread over a year.

I never so much as saw a contract or any terms of use or anything (for the phone or the internet) - i just rang up and literally said "can I disconnect the browsing service at anytime" she said "yes, do you want me to set it up for you", I said "yes" she said "restart your phone in 15 minutes".

My speed is limited because the MPX220 is only gprs, but apparently the goam.com APN supports full 3G speed according to howardforums.

EDIT: they may be increasing it to $10 next year - still a bargain in my books

grog

02-26-2010, 02:56 PM

I finally bit the bullet & ordered my N900 today from Newegg.ca (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16875205178&Tpk=n900). Even paid the extra $20 for express shipping :). Checking out the Speakout (http://www.speakout7eleven.com/) page & if I got it right, I plop down $59 phone + $50 airtime - $20 promo ($89) + taxes for the cheapest phone, transfer the SIM to my N900 & call to activate the unlimited browsing for $10/month & I'm good to go, right?

Anyone actually using this with a N900?

grog

02-28-2010, 11:00 AM

Anyone actually using this with a N900?

Ah, c'mon! Nobody!? Don't tell me I have to be the guinea pig? :(

Bingley Joe

02-28-2010, 11:48 AM

My speed is limited because the MPX220 is only gprs, but apparently the goam.com APN supports full 3G speed according to howardforums.

Rogers' network only supports 3G over GPRS, so the N900 will only be able to use 2.5G speeds.

Currently the only network in Canada that provides AWS 3G is Wind Mobile, and they're an upstart, so coverage is limited at the moment.

7-Eleven's still offering a great price though -- thanks for the tip!

grog

03-03-2010, 10:58 AM

Bump again. I should get my N900 tomorrow (there was a mix-up in billing, so I had to cancel & re-order on Monday, my fault), so I want to be READY!!! :)

Fargus

03-03-2010, 11:13 AM

Best of luck with the testing of this - I am hoping ot get sensible coverage and ability to use my N900 when in Vancouver/Whistler but suspect I am living in fantasy land! :(

Bob G. Troutman

03-03-2010, 11:59 PM

Let's get a cost/benefit thing here via the actual $ per month for services used- 7-Eleven may rock with this.

I detest phone companies and contract plans- I just want to pay for phone minutes used and data used. Phone company plans suck and restrict you. Apple's IPhone concept sucks in relation to lockin with phone companies/sucks you dry/and restricts you/and their IPhone isn't a data swapping and data friendly computer. The N900 looks to be the answer- portable computer and phone/when I can't get the net and Skype for free over open WiFi.

Opinions please- and no, I don't want tto kill phone companies- just pay the minimum for wireless when I absolutely must use wireless and WiFi isn't available for Skype/downloading data/and position location via a built in GPS.

This is being sent over WiFi from my N800 by the way- a terrific machine except with no wireless phone and no built in GPS-

Lord Raiden

03-04-2010, 12:46 PM

For those who use these unlimited data plans, but are forced to go through an http proxy to do anything, which in turn blocks everything but web surfing, you should look into either finding or building your own port relay. Essentially what a port relay is, is a server that's setup to take connections on one port and forward them to the appropriate destination. It's really easy to setup and will solve all your service limitations. :D

grog

03-05-2010, 12:30 PM

me2000

03-05-2010, 03:18 PM

Subscribed.

timwatt

03-05-2010, 05:10 PM

Subscribed.

and... whats the verdict? can i drop Fido?

gabby131

03-05-2010, 05:13 PM

Ah, c'mon! Nobody!? Don't tell me I have to be the guinea pig? :(

also located in winnipeg, canada, but im sorry to let this down, the 7$ per month in rogers only works on WAP browser phones i believe.

EDIT: i think its here (https://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless-products/addons?tab2_content)

timwatt

03-05-2010, 06:07 PM

EDIT: i think its here (https://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless-products/addons?tab2_content)

thats WAP not the hard core real data hungry HTML.

gabby131

03-05-2010, 06:25 PM

thats WAP not the hard core real data hungry HTML.

i hope so,

and also hope that this $7/month that will be $10/month on the 6th of march also support xHTML which is the smallest data transfer the n900 can support.

WAP browsing is supported in 5800 xm which is also a smartphone like n900, i still doubt it, coz until now, im cracking wap browsing on my n97 without using a data plan.

gabby131

03-05-2010, 06:27 PM

gabby131

03-05-2010, 06:44 PM

Ah, c'mon! Nobody!? Don't tell me I have to be the guinea pig? :(

hmmm, let me try that one for a month and see if this fits me

ralphie02

03-07-2010, 09:29 PM

can someone help me in setting this up?? i need details as i have no idea on how to set APN goam.com or any of these crap.....
Thanks guys.

grog

03-08-2010, 12:25 PM

grog

03-10-2010, 01:08 AM

So guys, what's the verdict? Finally got my N900 today. Looks good on wifi, how's it work on SpeakOut? Or is the Rogers Pay as You Go (https://www.rogers.com/web/Rogers.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=WRLS_PREPAID_LANDING) better?
Well,dropping by a Rogers store answered that question. They only allow Rogers phones on their plans. So I took the plunge & got a SpeakOut phone.

SpeakOut is incredibly easy to set up as a phone, works great. The data escapes me though. The customer service girl said I have to dial 0 to start it, but that
gives an invalid # error. I noticed that I now have a Rogers connection available, so I used it, but can't browse to any sites. The Dataplan Monitor widget shows bytes, but pages arent being served. Couldnthat be the WAP?

Any help greatly appreciated. TX

Bingley Joe

03-10-2010, 09:45 AM

@grog

Have you verified you've got the correct APN settings on the N900? That's all I can think of, really..

I'm curious -- did you have to port your phone number over to SpeakOut to get this all set up, or does there seem to be a way to use them for data without having to go through all that?

grog

03-10-2010, 11:59 AM

Have you verified you've got the correct APN settings on the N900? That's all I can think of, really..

By APN do you mean Access Point Name? I hadn't set it explicitly, right now it's "internet.com", not encouraging :confused:. What should it be?

I'm curious -- did you have to port your phone number over to SpeakOut to get this all set up, or does there seem to be a way to use them for data without having to go through all that?
I checked into that before. When you activate the phone the automated service assigns you one of their numbers. After that you call customer service & they arrange your number transfer. I won't be going through that for a while, my current contract has a ways to go. I'm just forwarding my calls to my SpeakOut # for now. A waste I know, but my phone is my N900 now :).

Bingley Joe

03-10-2010, 01:46 PM

By APN do you mean Access Point Name? I hadn't set it explicitly, right now it's "internet.com", not encouraging :confused:. What should it be?

Ahh, ok -- it looks like these are the settings you should use:

Apn: goam.com
Username: wapuser1
Password: wap
Proxy IP: 10.128.1.69
Port: 80

And yes, APN = Access Point Name. The proxy settings should be available under the Advanced section of the Internet Settings for that connection..

Give that a try and let me know if it works..

I checked into that before. When you activate the phone the automated service assigns you one of their numbers. After that you call customer service & they arrange your number transfer. I won't be going through that for a while, my current contract has a ways to go. I'm just forwarding my calls to my SpeakOut # for now. A waste I know, but my phone is my N900 now :).

Hmmm interesting.. I'm curious to try SpeakOut myself just for data, but I'm not terribly keen to give up my current plan which is no-contract and grandfathered (so effectively not available anywhere else). Forwarding isn't a bad idea though..

Not sure if you've found this unofficial site, but it could be helpful:

http://www.speakoutwireless.ca/speak/

mtran66

03-10-2010, 02:12 PM

So any info regarding setting up a port relay?

qole

03-10-2010, 02:15 PM

I am currently using Fido, they're the cheapest plan I know of.

Set-up fees: $35 for the SIM, $35 to set it up, plus taxes, comes to about $80 just to start to use the service on the N900.

Monthly fees: I get the cheapest voice plan, 50 minutes, 50 SMS, for $15. I then add-on 500MB of data for $25.

After taxes, I pay about $45 per month. This gives me full Internet on the N900. I have yet to ever use more than 250 MB in a month.

All that being said, if you can get this Speakout plan working, I'd be very interested. I guess you'd have to SSH to a home PC over port 80 (the aforementioned "port relay") to get full Internet, however...

grog

03-10-2010, 02:43 PM

Ahh, ok -- it looks like these are the settings you should use:

Apn: goam.com
Username: wapuser1
Password: wap
Proxy IP: 10.128.1.69
Port: 80

And yes, APN = Access Point Name. The proxy settings should be available under the Advanced section of the Internet Settings for that connection..

Give that a try and let me know if it works..

How did you know what settings were needed? Works good for what I've tried so far. Should I able to send & receive gmail email via the mail app? As far as I can tell, I can retrieve messages but not send. What about map GPS data & maps? I tried ssh, doesn't go through. I agree with mtran66, what's involved in setting up a remote proxy? I've no clue. :)

Not sure if you've found this unofficial site, but it could be helpful:

http://www.speakoutwireless.ca/speak/
Yah been there. But thanks for posting it.

qole

03-10-2010, 02:56 PM

Is only port 80 open for this service? If so, you have to set up SSH on a computer that is connected to the Internet, then make it available on port 80 (instead of or as well as port 22). You can do this via a router or you can do this in your sshd_config file. Then you use ssh and tsocks on the N900 to get access to everything over your encrypted ssh tunnel.

grog

03-10-2010, 06:00 PM

Is only port 80 open for this service?

Seems so. The HTTP proxy is the only one that Bingley Joe has given so far. I notice our setup has proxies for HTTPS, FTP & RSTP (?). I assume if there were any others that they'd be supplied by SpeakOut/Rogers (you can tell I don't know much about proxies).

If so, you have to set up SSH on a computer that is connected to the Internet, then make it available on port 80 (instead of or as well as port 22). You can do this via a router or you can do this in your sshd_config file. Then you use ssh and tsocks on the N900 to get access to everything over your encrypted ssh tunnel.
I set up my home linux box to accept that no problem. I understand that you compiled tsocks for fremantle, correct? Not sure if I'm getting close to understanding all of this, but I'll do some digging & see if I can get this set up. TX

Bingley Joe

03-11-2010, 09:48 AM

How did you know what settings were needed? Works good for what I've tried so far. Should I able to send & receive gmail email via the mail app? As far as I can tell, I can retrieve messages but not send. What about map GPS data & maps? I tried ssh, doesn't go through. I agree with mtran66, what's involved in setting up a remote proxy? I've no clue. :)

Ah, glad to hear that worked for you! I came across those settings in a thread somewhere while looking into this service -- would have been either at Howardforums (http://www.howardforums.com/) or the unofficial site I linked to above.. can't remember which offhand (maybe both!).

As for setting up your proxy relay, I'm just as curious as you about how to do that on the N900 side.. I've got DD-WRT on my router configured for it, but running data through an SSH tunnel on the N900 is something I'd very much like to know how to do.

AFAIK though, that's the only way to get full internet through Speakout as it's strictly limited to port 80.

akorvemaker

03-11-2010, 10:33 AM

AFAIK though, that's the only way to get full internet through Speakout as it's strictly limited to port 80.

Does port 443 (https) work as well?

Bingley Joe

03-11-2010, 12:22 PM

Does port 443 (https) work as well?

According to reports in this thread, (http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1586861) what works and what doesn't seems to be a bit hit-and-miss.

Looks like HTTPS via browser works in some cases, but not for everyone.. Not sure what to make of that.

grog

03-11-2010, 02:35 PM

Ah, glad to hear that worked for you! I came across those settings in a thread somewhere while looking into this service -- would have been either at Howardforums (http://www.howardforums.com/) or the unofficial site I linked to above.. can't remember which offhand (maybe both!).
Thanks for the link. I hadn't browsed HowardForums before.

According to reports in this thread, (http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1586861) what works and what doesn't seems to be a bit hit-and-miss.

Looks like HTTPS via browser works in some cases, but not for everyone.. Not sure what to make of that.
I assume you're referring to this HowardForums post (http://www.howardforums.com/showpost.php?p=13304503&postcount=40)? In any case, HTTPS does NOT work for me. Neither does the mail client with either port 465 or 587 (set according to this Gmail Help Page (http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=78799)).

I'd really like to get at least the local mail ap working with Gmail. Basic browsing is great, but getting new mail notification & mail access is a very close second for me. I've found the Maemo tsocks gargage page (https://garage.maemo.org/projects/tsocks) & the tsocks homepage (http://tsocks.sourceforge.net/), but a lot of it is over my head. is there a simple how-to for Maemo anywhere? There's this Maemo forum thread (http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=38726), but it seems to be just targeted for the browser.

TX

grog

03-11-2010, 04:27 PM

Actually re-reading the previous thread (http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=38726) I mentioned in my last post I came across this post again. Is it really this simple?

set the tsocks.conf default server to 127.0.0.1 and the port to <yourPort>.

then start ssh socks proxy with
ssh -D <yourPort> user@server.

then run tsocks <yourApp> and tsocks will intercept comms and point them to your ssh.
So if I run "tsocks modest" after setting all of this it'll work? I'm going to try this as soon as I can. :cool:

TX

qole

03-11-2010, 06:41 PM

try:

tsocks modest -s

mtran66

03-11-2010, 09:39 PM

I cannot SSH into my machine while using the rogers wap thing.

I tested the ssh connection over a remote connection, so I know it works, and I set the ssh port to port 80.

anyone else having any luck?

I'm a bit of a novice myself. But would anyone know if this could possibly help?
http://www.agroman.net/corkscrew/

it's supposed to be something to help tunnel through http proxies.

grog

03-11-2010, 10:12 PM

I cannot SSH into my machine while using the rogers wap thing.

I tested the ssh connection over a remote connection, so I know it works, and I set the ssh port to port 80.

anyone else having any luck?
Exactly the same for me. I set the remote server's ssh port to 80, tested it from a different server & worked fine, then I tried from my N900 connected via Rogers:
ssh -p 80 remoteuser@remoteserver.tld uname -a
And the command just eventually times out. :(
I even double-checked a web page just to make sure nothing had changed & that came up fine.

:(:(

mtran66

03-11-2010, 10:15 PM

I think we need to be able to specify to ssh that we are using a proxy. and it seems one way to do that is to install and use corkscrew... But I can't install it after trying for about an hour. I'm pretty lost

it depends on some packages like autoconf and I can't install it on the n900

edit:
here's some more information on corkscrew..
http://wiki.kartbuilding.net/index.php/Corkscrew_-_ssh_over_https

is there any way to install it onto the n900? where would I start?
I unzipped it and ran ./configure, but it tells me:
http://media.share.ovi.com/m1/s/1842/aba11afd742c4e3d847433b27eebe04e.jpg

grog

03-11-2010, 10:37 PM

I think we need to be able to specify to ssh that we are using a proxy.
I would've thought that having the proxy settings at the connection level would have been enough, but it seems not.

and it seems one way to do that is to install and use corkscrew... But I can't install it after trying for about an hour. I'm pretty lost
it depends on some packages like autoconf and I can't install it on the n900
I don't believe you can compile programs directly on the N900, you need a development environment on a pc. I could be wrong, I haven't yet explored that option at all.

grog

03-11-2010, 10:51 PM

I think we need to be able to specify to ssh that we are using a proxy. and it seems one way to do that is to install and use corkscrew...
I can see why you're interested in corkscrew. Here's a very comprehensive setup guide (http://www.mtu.net/~engstrom/ssh-proxy.php), if we can get it installed :)

mtran66

03-11-2010, 11:17 PM

I'm stumped

edit:

actually, someone ported corkscrew to OS2008
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=8710&highlight=corkscrew

I installed it and it seems to be ok...

but I'm still stuck. I don't quite understand how to use corkscrew.

I was playing around with it and tried:
corkscrew [proxy ip] [proxy port] [ssh server] [ssh port - which is 80] ~/.ssh/proxyauth

inside proxyauth I put wapuser1:wap

the output I got was:
Proxy could not open connection to [ssh server]: Forbidden

edit2:

maybe I'm making some progress. Now I'm getting an additional error:
ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host

mtran66

03-12-2010, 12:05 PM

here's an article by someone who was able to do what we're trying to do, but on an iPhone

http://www.combinedeffort.com/content/articles/default.asp?id=5

I've done everything he did except I didn't try changing my ssh port to 443, right now it's running on port 80. However, I don't see how it would be any different. I'll test it tonight anyway though.

edit:
so I changed the port to 443 and I've made some progress.

when I run:
corkscrew [proxy ip] [proxy port] [my ssh server] 443 [proxy auth file]

I get:
SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_5.1pl Debian-6ubuntu2

then it hangs for a while and goes back to the command line. One time it also said "Protocol mismatch"

However, when I try to use ssh, it still times out.

ie. ssh -p 443 [user]@[my server ip]

grog

03-12-2010, 12:09 PM

here's an article by someone who was able to do what we're trying to do, but on an iPhone

http://www.combinedeffort.com/content/articles/default.asp?id=5

I've done everything he did except I didn't try changing my ssh port to 443, right now it's running on port 80. However, I don't see how it would be any different. I'll test it tonight anyway though.
I'm not sure if it'll work. Not being able to use port 443 is part of the reason for my interest in this in the first place. But if you're inclined to try, please post your results. TX

mtran66

03-12-2010, 12:58 PM

OMG I got it working

so I was putting the ProxyCommand in the wrong file. I was supposed to put it into /etc/ssh/ssh_config

but instead, I put it into /home/user/.ssh/config

now to figure out port relay/tunneling...

mtran66

03-12-2010, 04:53 PM

OK partial success

I installed squid on my ubuntu machine, which is also my ssh server.

I set SSH to 443 and Squid to 8888 on the server.

on my N900

I use in the terminal:
ssh -N -p 443 -L 8888:localhost:8888 username@myserver -vvv

you can omit the -vvv, but it helped with debugging.

I then went into n900 settings > internet connections > selected the WAP connection > advanced > proxy information

I put 127.0.0.1 and port 8888 for each entry

After I did all this, I managed to get onto the internet, however, it is a lot slower. I am also able to connect to MSN (pecan), but it's a bit buggy... usable though. My first 1 or 2 messages sent won't go through, but after that, they do.

I say it's a partial success because I had to change Pecan to HTTP mode in order for it to connect. My skype and gtalk accounts did not connect, but I'm hoping it's just a setting in squid....

grog

03-16-2010, 11:54 AM

Hey mtran66, any further updates? And qole, you haven't anything to add? Do you think mtran66 is on the right track? Is there any reason we shouldn't be able to ssh to a server listening on port 80 without any fancy bells-n-whistles? TX

mtran66

03-16-2010, 03:49 PM

I think you can ssh into port 80. My problem was that I was putting in the configuration in the wrong file.

I haven't looked into this further yet, been busy.

qole

03-16-2010, 05:22 PM

grog, mtran66: I'm not really interested in trying this out, since I don't have those limitations so I would be doing it purely as a technical exercise, but the whole corkscrew and squid proxy thing to me seems way overkill.

You should just have to:

1. Set up ssh on your host to listen on port 80.
2. Install tsocks on the N900 and edit the config file /etc/tsocks.conf to look like this:

server = 127.0.0.1
server_port = 3120

3. Then, on the N900:

ssh username@host.addr.ip -p 80 -D 3120

That should get you logged in to your host.

4. Now open a new terminal, and run:

tsocks modest -s

grog

03-17-2010, 03:39 PM

Thanks for the responses. I haven't had any luck at all. As I had posted before, even a simple:

ssh -p 80 username@my.home.box uname -a
While working fine using wifi just times out over gprs. Really strange, 'cause it's port 80, I would've thought that any data sent over the port would get through?

Or is it maybe just the response isn't allowed back? I don't know enough to hazard a guess but I then realized that I hadn't yet transferred the N900's public key to my server, therefore it was expecting a response. So I gen'd & copied my key over, confirmed that it worked without a password prompt over wifi, but it still failed over gprs. I even tried the IP of the box instead of the hostname, thinking that it may be a DNS issue. It wasn't. I then tried adding the -n & -N switches along with -D to ssh, thinking that perhaps they were required. They don't seem to be, still failed with a time out.

So it looks like I may have to live without email away from wifi :(. It seems that Maps works, although maybe this is more a reflection of it's offline capability, I don't know. Still strange to me how ssh, or rather non-HTTP protocols, are blocked even over port 80. Maybe someone can venture a guess on that.

Thanks guys

grog

03-17-2010, 04:18 PM

I am currently using Fido, they're the cheapest plan I know of.
Nice (http://www.fido.ca/web/page/portal/Fido/MonthlyPlans?forwardTo=monthlyPlans). I noticed that they're currently waiving the $35 setup. Is that a month-to-month or a contract? Seems the former, not sure. TX

qole

03-18-2010, 12:18 PM

me2000

03-18-2010, 02:01 PM

Is there any data plan that allows good quality VOIP calls ?

Thanks

grog

03-18-2010, 02:17 PM

The plan is month-to-month with no extra fees (no supposed "911 fee" etc), only taxes (PST/GST). Honestly, Fido is the cheapest plan with real data (you can even make poor-quality Skype calls over it) in Canada right now.
Considering the advantages over Speakout, it seems definitely worth the extra $10 or so it would cost me (based on my past usage).

Does Fido provide an email-to-SMS address? That's another thing Speakout doesn't. If they do, then I'm definitely sold.

TX

qole

03-18-2010, 11:54 PM

I have no idea about email-to-SMS, since I have sent a grand total of 8 SMS messages in my entire life. The N900 has all of the IM protocols available, and I use those.

grog

04-10-2010, 10:17 PM

Well I just switched over to Fido month-to-month with the 500mb data & I'm pretty happy so far. I did find out the email-to-SMS adress I was looking for from this Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_carriers_providing_SMS_transit) (#@fido.ca), but unfortunately you get the "you must send a reply to get the actual message" BS, so it's not at all useful for what I had in mind.

I was formerly using SMS as a make-shift emergency paging system from the office. Any of the systems I monitor would send me an SMS if anything was down & I'd turn my phone on silent @ night for anything except SMS. Not perfect, but it worked. So I guess now the systems can't wake me in the middle of the night anymore. Oh well :).

Interestingly I found after reading this Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_gateway) that there is also a way to send an email message via SMS. It works but I don't see what I'd ever use it for, but hey, it's interesting :).

I still have some confusion I'll have to clear up with Fido about their plans. I signed up for the $20 month-to-month (http://www.fido.ca/web/page/portal/Fido/MonthlyPlans?forwardTo=monthlyPlans) instead of the $15 'cause it had unlimited evenings & weekends, but the sales clerk pointed out that it would cost $10/month to get voice mail & call display (the only two things out of that package I want). That's $25/month. Well, if I were to instead use the $19/month prepaid plan (http://www.fido.ca/web/page/portal/Fido/PrepaidPlans?forwardTo=prepaidPlans) which has the same day-time minutes & includes 300 minutes e/w (more than enough for me), that includes the two above addons, so I'd be $6/month ahead :). The only two things I find funny is that it shows the prepaid plan $6 more if I wanted automatic billing :confused: & it doesn't list the data plans as addons, so it may be that I'm already as good as it's going to get.

Of course customer service is closed for the evening, so I'll have to make time to call clear this up tomorrow.

TX

grog

04-12-2010, 10:05 AM

I did find out the email-to-SMS adress I was looking for from this Wikipedia page (#@fido.ca), but unfortunately you get the "you must send a reply to get the actual message" BS, so it's not at all useful for what I had in mind.

I was formerly using SMS as a make-shift emergency paging system from the office. Any of the systems I monitor would send me an SMS if anything was down & I'd turn my phone on silent @ night for anything except SMS. Not perfect, but it worked. So I guess now the systems can't wake me in the middle of the night anymore. Oh well :).
Fido.ca/emailtotext (http://www.fido.ca/web/content/messaging/email_to_text). It costs $5/month to receive the message w/o having to respond. mmm? Well, if work wants to pay for my service, I'd consider it :).

TX

qole

04-12-2010, 05:51 PM

grog: as far as I'm aware, you can't get data add-on with prepaid. Otherwise I would have gone that route too, since I almost never use the mobile phone.

What about having your servers send you messages via e-mail, Jabber or GTalk? Then you could have your N900 alert you when one of those comes in, instead of SMS. The best thing about the N900 is that it can be on the 'Net 24/7.

I haven't tried it yet, but couldn't Tweakr be used for that purpose (selective notification)?

grog

04-13-2010, 03:30 PM

grog: as far as I'm aware, you can't get data add-on with prepaid. Otherwise I would have gone that route too, since I almost never use the mobile phone.I'm assuming that's the case. I haven't had time to call to confirm it.

I haven't tried it yet, but couldn't Tweakr be used for that purpose (selective notification)?I already use Tweakr for just that kind of thing. I've got several profiles set up - daytime, nighttime, quiet, etc. there's different settings for email, SMS, email & ring tune & volume.

What about having your servers send you messages via e-mail, Jabber or GTalk? Then you could have your N900 alert you when one of those comes in, instead of SMS. The best thing about the N900 is that it can be on the 'Net 24/7. That's an interesting idea. I've never played with sending IM from the command-line. Any idea what's involved?

TX

grog

04-13-2010, 04:51 PM

What about having your servers send you messages via e-mail, Jabber or GTalk? Then you could have your N900 alert you when one of those comes in, instead of SMS. The best thing about the N900 is that it can be on the 'Net 24/7. That's an interesting idea. I've never played with sending IM from the command-line. Any idea what's involved?
I've done little digging & came up with a Pidgin (http://www.pidgin.im/) of all things :), which is available for Solaris (http://www.sunfreeware.com/programlistintel10.html#pidgin) (our server's OS). It seems the hardest thing form here would be to convince our admin's to install it for me :D :(.

Anyway, I think I've gotten us far enough off topic. I'll pick this up in other threads if I get ambitious enough. Thanks for the help.

anthony_barker

04-14-2010, 09:18 AM

Even cheaper is via Cogenco One Zone_High Speed Internet
http://www.onezone.ca/

Limited coverage in downtown toronto - but the cost is $5 per month unlimited wifi

You need to change your useragent to iphone

1) install User Agent Switcher
2) Change user agent to something like
| Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1C6 Safari/419.3 |
3) Sign up (page is a bit flaky)
4) Browse!

anthony_barker

04-14-2010, 09:24 AM

I am currently using Fido, they're the cheapest plan I know of.

Set-up fees: $35 for the SIM, $35 to set it up, plus taxes, comes to about $80 just to start to use the service on the N900.

Monthly fees: I get the cheapest voice plan, 50 minutes, 50 SMS, for $15. I then add-on 500MB of data for $25.

After taxes, I pay about $45 per month. This gives me full Internet on the N900. I have yet to ever use more than 250 MB in a month.

..
At $45 per month Wind Mobile is the same or cheaper if its available for you

Wind
$15 50 Canada/U.S. texts, 100 minutes calls prov wide
$30 unlimited data (5 GB)

Plus they give you $150 setup

anthony_barker

04-14-2010, 09:28 AM

That's an interesting idea. I've never played with sending IM from the command-line. Any idea what's involved?

TX

Here is a perl script to send a Jabber message (gmail/facebook)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2074991/How-to-send-syslog-messages-to-jabber

EIPI

04-14-2010, 09:30 AM

I think the data plan at Wind is $35 if I am not mistaken ;). And Nokia Canada will not sell the N900 as of yesterday's news from Wind.

http://www.windmobile.ca/community/WIND-news/detail/coming-soon-nokia-5230/

qole

04-14-2010, 12:25 PM

Wind is certainly not the cheapest tetherable Internet in Canada.
That being said, it is the only 3G compatible with the N900 currently available in Canada.

If you live in Toronto, Calgary or Edmonton. And some people do, or so I hear.

grog

04-14-2010, 12:44 PM

If you live in Toronto, Calgary or Edmonton. And some people do, or so I hear.Up to now I never understood why anyone would :)

grog

04-14-2010, 12:52 PM

Anyway, I think I've gotten us far enough off topic. I'll pick this up in other threads if I get ambitious enough. Thanks for the help.Ok, I can't resist :)

Here is a perl script to send a Jabber message (gmail/facebook)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2074991/How-to-send-syslog-messages-to-jabberThat's specific example for a syslog monitor, but it did lead me to sendxmpp (http://sendxmpp.platon.sk/), which seems exactly what I'd need. I checked jabber.org & they're closed for registration, but it is mentioned that I'd be able to send to a Gtalk account. So that lead me to this simple howto (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=8876182&postcount=3):

1. make sure that you are using latest sendxmpp (I have sendxmpp 1.20)

2. add your Google Talk account info to the .sendxmpprc file:
your_name@gmail.com;talk.google.com your_password

3. use the following command to send message to Google Talk user someone@gmail.com:
$ echo "GTalk test" | sendxmpp -t -u your_name -o gmail.com someone

Example:
.sendxmpprc: john@gmail.com;talk.google.com password

$ echo "GTalk test" | sendxmpp -t -u john -o gmail.com someone
Which doesn't give an error, but how do I get the message to my phone? I created a new IM account using the gmail address that I sent the message to, but what now?

TX

additv

04-02-2012, 03:24 PM

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but seeing as it's high on google, I thought it might be useful for newcomers to know that I've discovered that you can get around the speakout proxy and get full internet by either making a ssh tunnel or a vpn connection on port 53 (usually used for DNS)!
You just need to change your resolv.conf to an external dns server (like 8.8.8.8).

Kangal

04-02-2012, 05:25 PM

Wow from 2009, someone sure fired up the De Lorean!

fffffred

04-08-2012, 12:43 AM

but time travel is a good thing if you change it for the good of the future, he's got my vote for useful information :P

spamaverter

04-10-2012, 11:42 PM

Hi there,

Can anybody explain step-by-step how they got Speakout bluetooth tethering to work on their N900? It doesn't work at all for me. :(

I followed the instructions here for Windows 7: http://myn900.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/tethering-the-n900-part-3-bluetooth/

... and the N900 succesfully pairs with the my laptop but when I click "Connect to the internet" in Step 3, it says "SIM card is missing. Insert SIM card and try again".

I've tried changing the "Connect to Internet" options (in Tools > Options) to various things like:

* Rogers (Internet Tethering)
* Rogers (Rogers Internet)
* Manual:
- Access point: goam.com
- User name: wapuser1
- Password: wap
- Additional initalisation commands: (not sure? I left this blank)

... but none of the above work. It still says I'm missing a SIM card. :(

If anyone has any ideas, I'd be most grateful.

Thanks in advance!

fffffred

04-11-2012, 12:04 AM

is internet working normally on the n900?

spamaverter

04-11-2012, 12:15 AM

Yes, it is connected via Speakout (the connection is called "Rogers Internet"), although I must admit I don't have a very good signal right now so the connection is a little flaky.

Interestingly enough, if I connect via USB "PC Suite Mode" and then click "Connect to Internet", it allows me to connect (it says "Connected to Rogers") but when I try to open any website, it times out.

spamaverter

04-11-2012, 04:11 PM

Damn, I just tried it downtown with a perfect signal and it still doesn't work (even through USB cable). :(

Anyone have any ideas?

spamaverter

04-11-2012, 05:01 PM

Nevermind, I figured it out - yay! I just had to manually configure the proxy in Firefox.

For anyone else struggling with this, here are step-by-step instructions on how to connect your PC to the internet via USB tethering your N900's Speakout GPRS connection:

1) Connect to Speakout ("Rogers Internet") on your N900 (make sure it's actually using the GPRS connection and not WIFI!)
2) Download and install the Nokia Ovi Suite
3) Connect your N900 in "PC Suite Mode"
4) Go to "Tools > Options > Connect to internet"
5) Select "Canada" for "Home country" and "Rogers (Internet Tethering)" for "Home operator"
6) Select "Tools > Connect to internet"
7) In Firefox, open "Options > Advanced > Network" and click "Settings..."
8) Choose "Manual proxy configuration", enter "10.128.1.69" as the "HTTP Proxy" and "80" as the "Port". Also check the box that says "Use this proxy server for all protocols" (this will make sure SSL works so you can visit "HTTPS" sites).

That's it! Please note: you will have to change your proxy settings in Firefox back the way they were to browse the internet on a normal WIFI connection!

I'll have to try it with Bluetooth on my laptop when I get the chance but I think it should work now...

spamaverter

04-11-2012, 09:38 PM

Damn it! It still doesn't work via bluetooth... only works via USB cable.

I can pair the N900 with my notebook just fine (browsing files works) but when I try clicking "Tools > Connect to internet", it's still returning the same error: "SIM card is missing. Insert SIM card and try again" which is bizarre since I'm able to connect via the USB cable.

I'm officially stumped. Any smart people out there who can help me? Sad face.

spamaverter

04-12-2012, 01:59 AM

Nevermind, I've figured it out! Here is a step-by-step guide on how to connect your Windows 7 PC to the internet via Bluetooth tethering your N900's Speakout GPRS connection:

1) Connect to Speakout ("Rogers Internet") on your N900 (make sure it's actually using the GPRS connection and not WIFI!)
2) Install "Bluetooth Dial-Up Networking (http://maemo.org/downloads/product/Maemo5/bluetooth-dun/)" on your N900
3) Pair your N900 with your PC via Bluetooth (if you don't know how, just download, install & run the Nokia Ovi Suite)
4) Click Start > Devices and Printers
5) Right-click your N900 and choose "Dial-up Networking > Create a dial-up connection..."
6) Enter *99# as the Dial-up phone number and leave the rest blank
7) In Firefox, open "Options > Advanced > Network" and click "Settings..."
8) Choose "Manual proxy configuration", enter "10.128.1.69" as the "HTTP Proxy" and "80" as the "Port". Also check the box that says "Use this proxy server for all protocols" (this will make sure SSL works so you can visit "HTTPS" sites).

That's it! (Again, please remember you need to revert your proxy settings when connecting your PC to the internet via WIFI.)

It should work now. Yay, I'm so happy. :)

fffffred

04-12-2012, 02:17 AM

well done :) I knew you could do it...

provided you have a stable connection where you are, what's your advantage of using bluetooth over the usb?

I would be under the impression that usb tethering would be far superior to the bluetooth and the option of keeping your battery charging while you surf the net.

On the other hand, if you're like me and you live in a blackspot and the best connection is at the window, I would be tempted to use my n900 as a wifi hotspot. Search Joikuspot or QT hotspot or mobile hotspot. I believe wifi is superior to bluetooth.

Cheers,
Fred