Does the n900 work well with T-mobile Prepaid

[joshv06]

Hello everyone,

I finally managed to save enough money to get a Nokia N900. I was wondering if T-Mobile prepaid was working well. I read on the T-Mobile website that T-Zones is included, does this mean I can use internet on the T-mobile 3G network? Would some advanced configuration have to be done?

Also: Will only HTTP work? Or will Skype and IM clients work as well?

Thanks

[sevdali]

only a few websites will work like m.yahoo.com and some others. No skype no regular web sites.

[hitec]

I am using this as a temporary solution until my contract is up with Alltel. It works decent on 2G. I do not have 3G here yet to test it. I am using the $1 a day prepaid sidekick plan.
For USA T-Mobile, under settings - internet connections - T-Mobile internet, put in hiptop.t-mobile.com as the access point name. Leave the user name and password blank. Also under the advanced tab, put in the ip address and port of a proxy server. Do a Google search for free proxy server. Or look here http://hidemyass.com/proxy-list/ . With all that, it is still not perfect, I can stream most internet radio stations on edge. Some do not work. It cannot resolve the name of the URL.
IM and E-mail works, Edge is too slow for Skype and SIP.

[sevdali]

I am using the $1 a day prepaid sidekick plan.


What should I do in order to use sidekick plan. I just bought a prepaid tmobile phone for its sim.

[joshv06]

Hmm, I was looking at the $1 a day sidekick play also. With that, just use Skype with the 3G and SMS/Web is there.

[hitec]

Register at t-mobile.com if you haven't. When logged in you can change your prepaid settings to sidekick. It costs $1 to every time you change. On the sidekick plan, you get free SMS and data. Calls are $.15 /minute.

[joshv06]

^^ Thanks a lot!!! Can anyone confirm that it works on 3g?

Thanks

[lemmyslender]

Good to know. I was hoping to be able to do this when I get my N900.

Leave it on the standard voice plan, then switch to the sidekick plan only when I want data, most of the time I'll have wifi available.

It was even very simple to setup my own proxy (authenticated) on a ubuntu box. I don't think my cable provided IP address changes often if ever.

[Warpt1]

Ordered a Tmob SIM yesterday with free overnight shipping.
Also signed up for Skype with a balance for landlines and mobiles.
I'm usually in a wifi spot. but should be interesting balancing all the connectivity.
The $1 a day is still cheaper than my old Verizon plan. We will see.

[joshv06]

Ordered a Tmob SIM yesterday with free overnight shipping.
Also signed up for Skype with a balance for landlines and mobiles.
I'm usually in a wifi spot. but should be interesting balancing all the connectivity.
The $1 a day is still cheaper than my old Verizon plan. We will see.

Okay, cool I also want to do this when I get my N900. I also want to try some stuff out with Google Voice.

[mhmtntky]

man, the phone is not working at all, regardless of gsm companies.

[mhmtntky]

hi do you have any problems with this phone ? i have it one week and i notice the drop calls all the time men i try to change the phone from 3g to dual mode and some thing all the time i hope still is because they upgrading the 3g network because the 3g speed is make me sick sometime i got 350kb sometimes 550kb and the first and second days i have 1mb speed before i have samsung omnia hd i8910 and was excelent never this problems i bought this phone because of 3g network but i can evan use the skype with this speed

I just bought the phone from amazon.com. I charged it to the the full before using it. the battery went almost dead in my first use approximately in 10 hours without excess usage. So i ha my first shock that how this phone is going to last in one day if i use it fully. nevertheless, then, I connected the phone to the charger at night and went to sleep. When i woke up, i wondered that why the alarm of the phone did not turn on. I checked the phone and i saw a black screen. The phone was not charging at all.

the symptoms are similar to the other people wrote here. when i connect to charger i see yellow light lit constantly, later on sometimes it start blinking and after a while it stops.

i informed amazon about that problem. they offered me two options, 1) 10% discount and keep the phone as it is 2) full refund.

overall, i have been a nokia user for 10 years. but i think this will be my last nokia phone.

actually, i suspected due to delays of the launch of N900 that something would be wrong with this phone. but i wanted it so much and took the risk and bought the phone.

now i am returning by far the worst phone that i have bought.

[weirdbeard]

I have the even more plus prepaid plan. N900 works perfect with internet. I did a few speed tests and average around 3MBit. I have seen it as high as 7.8Mbit. I think they did the 11Mbit upgrade in my area already.

http://www.mobilespeedtest.com/results/1121085405.jpg (http://www.mobilespeedtest.com)

[smolomiami]

[QUOTE=weirdbeard;435715]I have the even more plus prepaid plan. N900 works perfect with internet. I did a few speed tests and average around 3MBit. I have seen it as high as 7.8Mbit. I think they did the 11Mbit upgrade in my area already.

no way men you know why because if you try mobilespeed test.com try 100kb test then you get your real speed if you try 500kb or 1mb 3mb 5mb test the speed is going to increase look at this i did test this is 1mb test on mobile speed test i got 2827kbps my phone is showing 3.5g now the speed test 100kb is 646kb that's the real speed witch one is unstable sometimes 850kb sometimes just 540kb the last test with http://www.speedtest.net/ is
on the picture i post also i have new sim card

[weirdbeard]

no way men you know why because if you try mobilespeed test.com try 100kb test then you get your real speed if you try 500kb or 1mb 3mb 5mb test the speed is going to increase look at this i did test this is 1mb test on mobile speed test i got 2827kbps my phone is showing 3.5g now the speed test 100kb is 646kb that's the real speed witch one is unstable sometimes 850kb sometimes just 540kb the last test with http://www.speedtest.net/ is
on the picture i post also i have new sim card

yea, but you also havent tried downloading actual files then. I was using transmission and I downloaded a 119 MByte torrent at 160
KB/S. I did it at work where there is no wifi. I was also streaming hulu in HD tethered to my computer last night when I forgot to pay my cable bill and it was disconnected.

[smolomiami]

Ok today test, my roommate phone is htc touch pro 2 on t-mobile 3g, my phone nokia n900 t-mobile 3g my phone full signal 3.5g, htc 3g only 2 bars i end up on 680kb htc 1200kb i did this test several times and i tell you im very disappointed about the nokia n900, the htc always won, evan with not full signal, then we try the web browsers the speed was about the some when he used the one witch come with htc, than he try the skyfire so that disappointed me the most i finish always about 10seconds later on any web page when we try the speed test always won so i don't know what i do with this phone also i try skype no way i heard every second word all i thing i just have to wait until t-mobile upgrade the 3g network,also i try fm transmitter today no way i try at home than in my car than in my roommate car and nothing only way to make it work i have to be close next to the radio like 5inc and the quality of the sound is horrible useless so that's my test today

[joshv06]

I read that with a standard prepaid card, you get unlimited T-Zones. Does that mean, if I change the APN like the Iphone people are doing with their ''hack'' that I can achieve the same?

[Hotshot]

I was going to try the sidekick data only prepaid plan but got to thinking what if it didn't work? So I got the even more plus unlimited everything plan. No use getting a 600+ phone and can't fully use it. and with t-mobile 3G its spotty just really depends on where you live. Where I stay its fine not fast as sprint but being able to talk and use data where I live is a plus for me. And long time ago when I had my monthly sidekick data only plan I used my nokia n95 8gb all the time with it no problems but never tried with the prepaid plan. I think if anybody have problems getting data to work should call 611 on the handset and they should able to fix it.

[lemmyslender]

Just a quick update for you all.

Setup my N900 on TMobile *pay as you go*. Switched to the Sidekick plan. Set the proxy to my Ubuntu box running squid.

Went to testmy.net, did the download test and got around 680kbps (about my max upload on my cable connection) with 3.5G showing.

So I can confirm prepaid works at 3G levels if using a proxy, although limit to the proxy upload.

[bunanson]

...Setup my N900 on TMobile prepaid. Switched to the Sidekick plan. Set the proxy to my Ubuntu box running squid.

Went to testmy.net, did the download test and got around 680kbps (about my max upload on my cable connection) with 3.5G showing.
...

1) Did you get the 200 MB per month limit (30$) or the total internet (40$)?
2) is there any hidden fee, sign on fee, penalty if cancel befor certain day?
3) What is the "ubuntu box running squid"? Mind to give some details for a blind bun :) ? Thanks

bun

[lemmyslender]

@bunanson

Sorry, by prepaid, I meant Pay as You Go. I'll amend my prior post.

With Pay as You Go, I got on the Sidekick plan ($1/day, unlimited data, unlimited texts). It costs $1 every time you switch, or $1 per day charged at midnight. You can switch from voice to Sidekick and back as often as you like.

However, around August, T-Mobile closed port 80 (used for Internet access), effectively barring all the Iphone users from the Sidekick plan. But, it is possible to use a proxy that uses a different port to forward Internet requests and get around the blocked port. Earlier in the thread, hitec (post #6) mentioned this and gave a site to find free proxies. You can go into your Settings, Internet Connections, Advanced and add the proxy IP and port.

What I did: I have a computer running Ubuntu. Squid is a proxy program. A couple quick googles, and about 10 minutes, I had downloaded, installed, and setup a proxy that asks for a name and password. Put the correct settings into my N900 and when I change to the Sidekick plan, it routes all Internet requests (http) through my computer at home. I figured this might be more reliable and private than a free one out there somewhere. Fortunately, at my house I get 3/3.5G connections, but I'm limited to my upload speed on my cable connection since all the requests are routed through it.

I plan to stay on pay as you go voice, unless I need a data connection for some reason, I can switch over by calling 611 from my phone, and I get unlimited Internet for $1 (/day) until I switch back. This should make for very cheap Internet or unlimited for $30/month, although I wouldn't abuse it if you want it to keep working.

[teddybw]

@bunanson

Sorry, by prepaid, I meant Pay as You Go. I'll amend my prior post.

However, around August, T-Mobile closed port 80 (used for Internet access), effectively barring all the Iphone users from the Sidekick plan. But, it is possible to use a proxy that uses a different port to forward Internet requests and get around the blocked port. Earlier in the thread, hitec (post #6) mentioned this and gave a site to find free proxies. You can go into your Settings, Internet Connections, Advanced and add the proxy IP and port.


Thank you for your post. I am on the same boat, using SideKick for prepaid data on N900.

I tried the free proxy online, it worked but was extremely slow even if I used the first one which was supposed to be the fastest. Unfortunately I do not have access to a desktop to set up proxy at this moment, so I have to figure out another way.

The first one came to my mind was to set up a SSH tunnel with parameter D and consequently route all traffic through the SOCKS proxy on 127.0.0.1(localhost). After setting up the SOCKS proxy on the browser, I was supposed to route all the http traffic through the socks tunnel I set up using

ssh -D * username@host

where * is the local SOCKS proxy port number. I tried the 1080 (default), 143 (used by IMAP to receive email which worked fine under Sidekick), 3128 (used by the free HTTP proxy which worked fine if I set up the http proxy in TMobile Internet) and 8080 (T-Mobile HTTP proxy). Unfortunately, however, none of them worked for me to access www pages. Neither could I visit web pages even if I enabled network.proxy.socks_remote_dns on the browser.


Now that SSH did not work, another way occurred to me, namely VPN. I have access to a server using Cisco AnyConnect VPN. However, thea client installation script I downloaded to N900 kept complaining "Permission denied" even after I used "sudo gainroot". Moreover, I downloaded OpenVPN to N900, but I do not know how to find the correct configuration from the Cisco AnyConnect VPN client I successfully installed on my laptop which currently runs Ubuntu.

Any ideas? I really appreciate them.

[colnago]

I know you guys are focusing on the "pre-paid" plan, but FWIW, I just signed up w/T-Mo on the 500 minutes and "Shadow web2go" for another $10/mo. I was up in Philly (most of city upgraded/in testing) and I got 3Mb down and 1.8Mb up.

I wound up calling TMo because I was concerned that the APN used for that plan (Internet2.voicestream.com) was routing traffic thru Kansas (per speedtest.net)...they wound up bumping me up to the $25/mo "smartphone plan". :mad: However now all the APNs work, w/the epc.tmobile.com showing closer to my true location (Maryland).

That said, I'll be downgrading to the non-Shadow $10/mo internet plan next billng cycle.

[smolomiami]

I know you guys are focusing on the "pre-paid" plan, but FWIW, I just signed up w/T-Mo on the 500 minutes and "Shadow web2go" for another $10/mo. I was up in Philly (most of city upgraded/in testing) and I got 3Mb down and 1.8Mb up.

I wound up calling TMo because I was concerned that the APN used for that plan (Internet2.voicestream.com) was routing traffic thru Kansas (per speedtest.net)...they wound up bumping me up to the $25/mo "smartphone plan". :mad: However now all the APNs work, w/the epc.tmobile.com showing closer to my true location (Maryland).

That said, I'll be downgrading to the non-Shadow $10/mo internet plan next billng cycle.

i got the some problem im in miami and also any time i trying the speedtest.net it showing Kansas i just wonder how did you get 3mb download here in miami i got just something around 1mb but unstable stable speed is 600kb its really slow here let me ask you it help to change from internet2.voicestream,com to epc.tmobile.com is it faster now or the some thanx

[joshv06]

I got my N900 and I got the even more plus plan with unlimited sms, 500 mins, and 10$ web2go added.

I get about 600kbps on internet2.voicestream.com, internet1 and internet3 don't work. When I change the APN to epc.tmible.com, my browser gets redirected to a tmobile page asking me to upgrade the the ''smart phone'' date plan.

Anyone else having this problem?

[colnago]

I got my N900 and I got the even more plus plan with unlimited sms, 500 mins, and 10$ web2go added.

I get about 600kbps on internet2.voicestream.com, internet1 and internet3 don't work. When I change the APN to epc.tmible.com, my browser gets redirected to a tmobile page asking me to upgrade the the ''smart phone'' date plan.

Anyone else having this problem?

Not sure if you want to go down that route...if you want to keep that $10 plan. ;)

I called (new to T-Mo this month), and asked about the different APN names. Long story short, they bumped me up to $25 plan...working on getting that changed.

I was on the "Shadow Web Plan" (didn't know it was "phone specific") and limited to the "Internet2" APN, and was told it was "newer" and "less used". None of the other APN names worked. I was never prompted to "upgrade" before...just got connection failure messages. Now that I'm "upgraded", all APNs work. Basically the $10 plans are for "dumber phones" and have "special features" and data is presented differently than normal web. I didn't notice a difference, especially in Philly.

[Acar]

I got my N900 and I got the even more plus plan with unlimited sms, 500 mins, and 10$ web2go added.

I get about 600kbps on internet2.voicestream.com, internet1 and internet3 don't work. When I change the APN to epc.tmible.com, my browser gets redirected to a tmobile page asking me to upgrade the the ''smart phone'' date plan.

Anyone else having this problem?

In total you pay $40 (even more plan) + $10 (web2go) + $10 (unlimited sms), right?

[MountainX]

@bunanson

Sorry, by prepaid, I meant Pay as You Go. I'll amend my prior post.

With Pay as You Go, I got on the Sidekick plan ($1/day, unlimited data, unlimited texts). It costs $1 every time you switch, or $1 per day charged at midnight. You can switch from voice to Sidekick and back as often as you like.

However, around August, T-Mobile closed port 80 (used for Internet access), effectively barring all the Iphone users from the Sidekick plan. But, it is possible to use a proxy that uses a different port to forward Internet requests and get around the blocked port. Earlier in the thread, hitec (post #6) mentioned this and gave a site to find free proxies. You can go into your Settings, Internet Connections, Advanced and add the proxy IP and port.

What I did: I have a computer running Ubuntu. Squid is a proxy program. A couple quick googles, and about 10 minutes, I had downloaded, installed, and setup a proxy that asks for a name and password. Put the correct settings into my N900 and when I change to the Sidekick plan, it routes all Internet requests (http) through my computer at home. I figured this might be more reliable and private than a free one out there somewhere. Fortunately, at my house I get 3/3.5G connections, but I'm limited to my upload speed on my cable connection since all the requests are routed through it.

I plan to stay on pay as you go voice, unless I need a data connection for some reason, I can switch over by calling 611 from my phone, and I get unlimited Internet for $1 (/day) until I switch back. This should make for very cheap Internet or unlimited for $30/month, although I wouldn't abuse it if you want it to keep working.

Great post. Thanks. I'd like to try this. I have a Ubuntu server I can use for a proxy. But I can't find a good Squid tutorial that is both detailed enough and also OK for a beginner. In particular, the first question I face when looking at the instructions is how to allow several different phones (my family members) to access the proxy while still restricting access from the public.

[lemmyslender]

Here's a link I found: link (http://news.softpedia.com/news/Seting-Up-a-HTTP-Proxy-Server-with-Authentication-and-Filtering-52467.shtml)

I'm a bit of a beginner, but reading through that got me up and running in Ubuntu pretty quick. With this setup it will prompt for a name and password when you open a web page. That session should be good for the nect 2 hours with default settings.
***I don't really know how secure it is though, better than nothing though.

From what I've read, Tmobile only blocks port 80, so email, etc should be ok. I've only played a little bit as I have wifi most times. It does work though.

If you have specific questios I'll try to help. I'm currently setting up a virtual box install to better protect my system.

[MountainX]

Here's a link I found: link (http://news.softpedia.com/news/Seting-Up-a-HTTP-Proxy-Server-with-Authentication-and-Filtering-52467.shtml)

I'm a bit of a beginner, but reading through that got me up and running in Ubuntu pretty quick. With this setup it will prompt for a name and password when you open a web page. That session should be good for the nect 2 hours with default settings.
***I don't really know how secure it is though, better than nothing though.

From what I've read, Tmobile only blocks port 80, so email, etc should be ok. I've only played a little bit as I have wifi most times. It does work though.

If you have specific questios I'll try to help. I'm currently setting up a virtual box install to better protect my system.

Thanks for the link. Those are the simplest instructions I've seen yet. I think I'll give it a try.

FYI, without a proxy server, my email wasn't working, but I didn't look into it to see what the issue might be. I'm going to set up a proxy server first.

[lemmyslender]

Just remember:

You'll have to know your external IP address from your provider, and if using a router, you'll need to forward you port to you proxxy computer's local IP address. Depending on you provider you external IP may change periodically.

[dyce]

if you guys want to get a squid server running within seconds, check out webmin, it gets you running in seconds. also is nice to be able to remotely access your linux box.

[jkq]

From what I've read, Tmobile only blocks port 80, so email, etc should be ok. I've only played a little bit as I have wifi most times. It does work though.

Are you on their Sidekick plan or the pay-as-you-go/pay-by-the-day plan?

-jkq

[MountainX]

Are you on their Sidekick plan or the pay-as-you-go/pay-by-the-day plan?

-jkq

Sidekick $1/day plan.

[lemmyslender]

Sidekick $1/day is how to get data. I stay on pay-as-you-go (not the pay by the day plan) to save money unless I need data. Then a quick call to 611 and I'm on the sidekick plan for the day, and switch back before 12 midnight.

[MountainX]

Sidekick $1/day is how to get data. I stay on pay-as-you-go (not the pay by the day plan) to save money unless I need data. Then a quick call to 611 and I'm on the sidekick plan for the day, and switch back before 12 midnight.

yes, I'm on the pay-as-you-go too. I know about switching, and that's what I do on days when I need data (which is only on days when I'm not at WiFi all the time). But I did not know about switching back before midnight. What happens after midnight? Another $1 for another day?

[lemmyslender]

yes, I'm on the pay-as-you-go too. I know about switching, and that's what I do on days when I need data (which is only on days when I'm not at WiFi all the time). But I did not know about switching back before midnight. What happens after midnight? Another $1 for another day?


Correct, the charge for each day is made at midnight (from what I've read) not based on a 24 hour window from when you switch. So if you switch at 11:58pm, it'll cost $1 and then another $1 2 minutes later. Same with the pay by the day plan. Your "day" is over at midnight, not 24 hours after the first call.


I will also add that I'm using Google Voice / Gizmo to further reduce my costs. I am in the process of giving out my google number (I have my old cell number forwarding to google). So when I get a call, it rings my N900 via Tmobile (in case I'm in the car) and also Gizmo (sip). The Gizmo call shows up on top and I answer it (when on wifi at home or work), that way it doesn't cost any minutes. I also have Google forward texts to my Tmobile number, then reply via DialCentral (thanks epage), so I only pay $0.05 for incoming texts and avoid the $0.10 sending charge when I can.

I *think* if I have 3g coverage when on the sidekick plan, I could do the same thing and avoid paying $0.15/min for voice. I haven't actually tested that though, but I did get a Gizmo call on 3g once so it may at least partly work (I tried to answer, then hung up)

[MountainX]

Here's a link I found: link (http://news.softpedia.com/news/Seting-Up-a-HTTP-Proxy-Server-with-Authentication-and-Filtering-52467.shtml)

I'm a bit of a beginner, but reading through that got me up and running in Ubuntu pretty quick. With this setup it will prompt for a name and password when you open a web page. That session should be good for the nect 2 hours with default settings.
***I don't really know how secure it is though, better than nothing though.

From what I've read, Tmobile only blocks port 80, so email, etc should be ok. I've only played a little bit as I have wifi most times. It does work though.

If you have specific questios I'll try to help. I'm currently setting up a virtual box install to better protect my system.

Would you be willing to post your /etc/squid/squid.conf?
I'm still having trouble.
I'm at the [http_access allow all] stage of the configuration process and I'm getting this error:
"Swiftweasel is configured to use a proxy server that is refusing connections."

[Bugslife]

Sidekick $1/day is how to get data. I stay on pay-as-you-go (not the pay by the day plan) to save money unless I need data. Then a quick call to 611 and I'm on the sidekick plan for the day, and switch back before 12 midnight.


How do I go about this? Create a t-mobile account? I only have the standard prepaid account. Do I need to take the sim card out of my N900 when I switch to sidekick plan? Can I it be switch back and forth to sidekick via the N900 by dialing a number or I have to log in to t-mobile account. Does this work all the time? T-mobile might recognize the imei of the N900.

[geneven]

If you have the standard prepaid account, you should be able to go to the tmobile site and change to sidekick. You don't take the sim card out.

I have wireless at home and of course that is my default setup. On the N900, you should note in Settings / Internet connections that you have listed Connect automatically Wi-Fi, assuming you are set up that way. If you click on Connect automatically, you will get a list of options available. One of the options is T-Mobile Internet.

If you pick that option, it will use T-Mobile.

I'm going by my experience of the last couple of days so there might be complications I don't know about and luckily avoided.

It did occur to me that T-Mobile might figure out that I have a smart phone by my IMEI, but maybe they don't. I have had no problems thus far. At first I was set up for Pay by the Day, then I switched to the Sidekick option.

[MountainX]

Would you be willing to post your /etc/squid/squid.conf?
I'm still having trouble.
I'm at the [http_access allow all] stage of the configuration process and I'm getting this error:
"Swiftweasel is configured to use a proxy server that is refusing connections."
RESOLVED: my firewall was blocking the squid port.

[MountainX]

For USA T-Mobile, under settings - internet connections - T-Mobile internet, put in hiptop.t-mobile.com as the access point name. Leave the user name and password blank. Also under the advanced tab, put in the ip address and port of a proxy server.

I have my proxy server set up and I have entered the IP add and port.
Is hiptop.t-mobile.com still recommended as the best APN?
What are the username and password for? T-Mob or my proxy server?

[lemmyslender]

I have my proxy server set up and I have entered the IP add and port.
Is hiptop.t-mobile.com still recommended as the best APN?
What are the username and password for? T-Mob or my proxy server?

Glad to hear you got it worked out. As far as I know, hiptop is the way to go.

Under the Tmobile internet connection settings, leave username/password blank. You can/should setup uasername password for squid though. It should ask for user/pass when you open a webpage.

@Bugslife you can setup an account at my.tmobile.com using your phone number. You can easily switch there. I believe you can also dial 611 and change over the phone.

From what I've read, Tmobile blocked port 80 to discourage IPhone users (a much larger group than we are). I think it's also harder to set a proxy on the IPhone, and harder to setup your own proxy to use. Free proxies can be slow and unreliable, and insecure. I don't think TMo is worried about a small minority of users jumpping through hoops to get internet (before Aug, all you had to do was get on the sidekick plan, no proxy neede). Of course if you abuse it, they may ban you. Casual use should e OK though, I wouldn't d/l torrents or anything.

[MountainX]

Glad to hear you got it worked out.
I spoke too soon. My proxy server is not working well.
I'm reading stuff like this to try to figure it out...
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-setup-transparent-proxy-squid-howto.html

[ioan]

You guys can get any router that supports openwrt (full linux on a wireless router) to act as a proxy. Here are some information about squit on openwrt. This solution is a lot cheaper and very stable.

https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=2069

[MountainX]

You guys can get any router that supports openwrt (full linux on a wireless router) to act as a proxy. Here are some information about squit on openwrt. This solution is a lot cheaper and very stable.

https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=2069

I appreciate that, but in my case I just installed squid on my web server on Linode.com. It should be attached to a fairly big pipe, so this is much better than having a proxy server on my home DSL.

But I just cannot get squid to work well. I have no idea what to try next.

[lemmyslender]

I spoke too soon. My proxy server is not working well.
I'm reading stuff like this to try to figure it out...
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-setup-transparent-proxy-squid-howto.html

For what its worth, here's my squid.conf with all the comments etc removed:


auth_param basic program /usr/lib/squid/ncsa_auth /etc/squid/passwd
auth_param basic children 5
auth_param basic realm Squid proxy-caching web server
auth_param basic credentialsttl 2 hours
auth_param basic casesensitive off
acl all src all
acl manager proto cache_object
acl localhost src 127.0.0.1/32
acl to_localhost dst 127.0.0.0/8
acl localnet src 192.168.0.0/16 # RFC1918 possible internal network
acl SSL_ports port 443 # https
acl SSL_ports port 563 # snews
acl SSL_ports port 873 # rsync
acl Safe_ports port 80 # http
acl Safe_ports port 21 # ftp
acl Safe_ports port 443 # https
acl Safe_ports port 70 # gopher
acl Safe_ports port 210 # wais
acl Safe_ports port 1025-65535 # unregistered ports
acl Safe_ports port 280 # http-mgmt
acl Safe_ports port 488 # gss-http
acl Safe_ports port 591 # filemaker
acl Safe_ports port 777 # multiling http
acl Safe_ports port 631 # cups
acl Safe_ports port 873 # rsync
acl Safe_ports port 901 # SWAT
acl purge method PURGE
acl CONNECT method CONNECT
acl ncsa_users proxy_auth REQUIRED
http_access allow ncsa_users
http_access allow all
http_access allow manager localhost
http_access deny manager
http_access allow purge localhost
http_access deny purge
http_access deny !Safe_ports
http_access deny CONNECT !SSL_ports
http_access allow localhost
http_access deny all
icp_access allow localnet
icp_access deny all
http_port 3128
hierarchy_stoplist cgi-bin ?
access_log /var/log/squid/access.log squid
refresh_pattern ^ftp: 1440 20% 10080
refresh_pattern ^gopher: 1440 0% 1440
refresh_pattern -i (/cgi-bin/|\?) 0 0% 0
refresh_pattern (Release|Package(.gz)*)$ 0 20% 2880
refresh_pattern . 0 20% 4320
acl shoutcast rep_header X-HTTP09-First-Line ^ICY.[0-9]
upgrade_http0.9 deny shoutcast
acl apache rep_header Server ^Apache
broken_vary_encoding allow apache
extension_methods REPORT MERGE MKACTIVITY CHECKOUT
hosts_file /etc/hosts
coredump_dir /var/spool/squid

I'm not sure if that would work on a hosted server though. You might want to check with linode.com. Maybe they need to change something on their end (port redirection?). Maybe try getting it working at home first?

[MountainX]

For what its worth, here's my squid.conf with all the comments etc removed:

I'm not sure if that would work on a hosted server though. You might want to check with linode.com. Maybe they need to change something on their end (port redirection?). Maybe try getting it working at home first?

Thank you. I read thru your config and it is very similar to mine.

Here is mine:

# grep -v "^#" /etc/squid/squid.conf | sed -e '/^$/d'
auth_param basic program /usr/lib/squid/ncsa_auth /etc/squid/passwd
acl myUser proxy_auth me
acl all src 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0
http_access allow myUser
acl manager proto cache_object
acl localhost src 127.0.0.1/255.255.255.255
acl to_localhost dst 127.0.0.0/8
acl SSL_ports port 443 # https
acl SSL_ports port 563 # snews
acl SSL_ports port 873 # rsync
acl Safe_ports port 80 # http
acl Safe_ports port 21 # ftp
acl Safe_ports port 443 # https
acl Safe_ports port 70 # gopher
acl Safe_ports port 210 # wais
acl Safe_ports port 1025-65535 # unregistered ports
acl Safe_ports port 280 # http-mgmt
acl Safe_ports port 488 # gss-http
acl Safe_ports port 591 # filemaker
acl Safe_ports port 777 # multiling http
acl Safe_ports port 631 # cups
acl Safe_ports port 873 # rsync
acl Safe_ports port 901 # SWAT
acl purge method PURGE
acl CONNECT method CONNECT
http_access allow manager localhost
http_access deny manager
http_access allow purge localhost
http_access deny purge
http_access deny !Safe_ports
http_access deny to_localhost
http_access deny all !myUser
icp_access allow all
http_port 3128
hierarchy_stoplist cgi-bin ?
access_log /var/log/squid/access.log squid
acl QUERY urlpath_regex cgi-bin \?
cache deny QUERY
refresh_pattern ^ftp: 1440 20% 10080
refresh_pattern ^gopher: 1440 0% 1440
refresh_pattern . 0 20% 4320
acl apache rep_header Server ^Apache
broken_vary_encoding allow apache
extension_methods REPORT MERGE MKACTIVITY CHECKOUT
hosts_file /etc/hosts
coredump_dir /var/spool/squid

[lemmyslender]

OK by no means am I an expert but: I just tested mine with my N900 on sidekick plan (just switched). Going to web prompts for a username/password then connects, Nokia Messaging account in email appears to refresh without problems, and my "availability" flashes then show green connected. I only have the proxy setup for http and https, I've left the others blank. EDIT: Availability went green before launching the browser, so not going through the proxy.

I would try adding the first couple lines auth_param and
acl ncsa_users proxy_auth REQUIRED
http_access allow ncsa_users


When I first set it up following the link I posted, I used:
acl myusernameUser proxy_auth myusernameUser
http_access allow myusernameUser

which didn't work until I switched it to
acl myusername proxy_auth myusername
http_access allow myusername

My latest setup works as posted using ncsa_users, which should only allow a user in the passwd file. Wish I could help more, just going forward blindly on my own as well.

[MountainX]

I would try adding the first couple lines auth_param and


When I first set it up following the link I posted, I used:
acl myusernameUser proxy_auth myusernameUser
http_access allow myusernameUser

which didn't work until I switched it to
acl myusername proxy_auth myusername
http_access allow myusername

My latest setup works as posted using ncsa_users, which should only allow a user in the passwd file. Wish I could help more, just going forward blindly on my own as well.

Thanks again. I made all the changes. (FWIW, mine login/authorization was working with the original config based on "myusernameUser", but I changed it anyway.)

I'm still having the exact same problems, however. Just thought I'd report that.

[heelio]

Just curious - has anyone done a proxy server like squid on a Windows 7 or XP box with a router and gotten it to work? If so what did you do? Thanks

[lemmyslender]

@ helio

My latest setup is a virtual machine setup running xubuntu on vista using virtual box.

@ mountianx

what problems are you having? Are you getting a login request? For a while I was getting a login but couldn't find any pages. Had to do with my connection settings on the box running the proxy, gateway issues I think.

[MountainX]

@ mountianx

what problems are you having? Are you getting a login request? For a while I was getting a login but couldn't find any pages. Had to do with my connection settings on the box running the proxy, gateway issues I think.

I am not getting a login request in the browser on the phone. (I don't really want to say which browser and which phone, however...)

[lemmyslender]

I am not getting a login request in the browser on the phone. (I don't really want to say which browser and which phone, however...)

Sounds like it's an issue with your phone issue then. :)

[brbrbrad]

After trying unsuccessfully to configure squid in gedit, I gave webmin a try, and it worked great. Here are step-by-step instructions: http://rootzone.net/setting-squid-proxy-server-on-webmin/

Note: it's very important to have your port forwarding set up correctly.

Note 2: If you use autocomplete to enter your username at the prompt, be sure to delete the space that shows up automatically. That had me stumpped for close to 15 minutes.

[chet]

hey mountainx, i saw on howardforums that you were trying to get the sidekick plan working on the nexus one. i'm on the same boat. i only need the data plan a few days of the month, so it would be very useful to me. did you get it working?

[nbvora13]

Not sure if you want to go down that route...if you want to keep that $10 plan. ;)

I called (new to T-Mo this month), and asked about the different APN names. Long story short, they bumped me up to $25 plan...working on getting that changed.

I was on the "Shadow Web Plan" (didn't know it was "phone specific") and limited to the "Internet2" APN, and was told it was "newer" and "less used". None of the other APN names worked. I was never prompted to "upgrade" before...just got connection failure messages. Now that I'm "upgraded", all APNs work. Basically the $10 plans are for "dumber phones" and have "special features" and data is presented differently than normal web. I didn't notice a difference, especially in Philly.

How did you get $10 plan work on N900? It's not working for me...using APN epc.tmobile.com...

[slewis1972]

HI
I plan to get one of these sims with the sidekick option done for when I visit the US. Any settings that I need to add so I can be fully setup or will it work when I put it in?
I am currently looking at the proxy options to see if I can get it installed on my readynas duo or a similar app.

Cheers

Scott

[slewis1972]

Hi
Just got squid installed on my readynas duo - works great internally. I am going to test with my n900 in the UK to see if it can connect to it and use the proxy. Question, do I just have to route the port its setup for on the firewall or do I have to do other settings?
Also - I have no gui, so any help on settings as I have to alter the squid.conf file.

Thanks Scott

[lcyclist]

Hi
Just got squid installed on my readynas duo - works great internally. I am going to test with my n900 in the UK to see if it can connect to it and use the proxy. Question, do I just have to route the port its setup for on the firewall or do I have to do other settings?
Also - I have no gui, so any help on settings as I have to alter the squid.conf file.

Thanks Scott

I used the sidekick plan but I I use openvpn to connect to my home network. I also have squid proxy (internal) for net filtering and use that for n900, n810 and 2 laptops. It seems tmobile allows vpn on port 1194.
If you are just connecting from tmobile network, then you need open a port for squid on your firewall and use one of the open ports that the sidekick plan allows (25,110,143,465,587,993,995, 8080) and forward that to your squid proxy. Note 8080 is tmobile proxy so not sure if there will be a conflict if you use that port. I use port 995 for ssh/proxy. On the n900 connections settings, put this on the advance settings (ie. your_wan_ip port 995). Then you can surf the net, maps, etc.

I don't feel secure on the tmobile network so I vpn or ssh-tunnel to my home server to surf, usually. Also, make sure you have strong passwords on your ssh server or use public key authentication and move ssh port to other than port 22. Remember, the n900 is linux and can get rooted just like any other linux, usually through ssh.

[slewis1972]

Thanks. I have sussed how to install squid, and install openvpn on my readynas with certificates. tested it successfully with just a vodafone gprs connection, routing traffic though my readynas.

Quite pleased with myself now. Few issues with cerfificates like groups, but am quite happy and so with certificates should be more secure and should give me full web access when in the USA with one of these sims.

Scott

[chill633]

I just got my N900 today. I bought it used, off E-Bay for $460. It is in mint condition and looks barely used.

A quick trip to the mall to find a T-Mobile kiosk and I got the "Even More Plus - Unlimited" plan for $79.99 / month. Unlimited 3G talk, text & web, no contract.

www.speedtest.net shows me in Kansas City, of all places, when I'm really in Washington, D.C. Anyway, the download speed while riding on the bus back to the hotel was 2.93 Mbps and upload was 968 Kbps. I'm happy with that!

[mack07018]

Can some please tell me how they got their sidekick plan working 3g with the n900. I am lost in configuring squid....

[Tizbad2k]

Ok so I could use some help, and maybe my experience can help others.

I popped in a t-mobile pay-as-you-go sim that I had from earlier. I went online to tmobile.com and changed my account from pay-as-you-go to sidekick.

In the internet connections settings I saw the APN as epc.tmobile.com, this was the default. This would send me to a text portal no matter what websites I tried (yahoo might have worked). Then I changed the APN to hiptop.t-mobile.com, left the login and password blank. Again similar results when trying websites. Finally I installed a proxy sever on my windows PC (freeproxy) and setup my home PC IP as the proxy server.

Now I can browse to any site that I like but it is very slow. Mobilespeedtest says the value is between 80-220Kbps (slower than edge).

What am I doing wrong, why is it so slow? Under the signal bars it says 3-3.5 but I see a GPRS icon near the bars when I am accesing the net. And also on the Tmobile internet connection settings it says the method is GPRS.

Am I not getting 3G service? Is it my proxy server (shouldnt be). What can I do?

[lemmyslender]

What is your up speed on your home internet?

Mine was 768kbps, so that was the fastest I would see, generally around 5-600. Since the connection is going through your home connection, it is limited by it.

[Tizbad2k]

My home internet speed is very fast 20Mb/5Mb. So I dont think that is the issue. But the windows computer has been acting up lately, although I dont think that would be evident in some simple http proxy requests.

**Update**
The slow speeds were due to poor tmobile coverage at my apartment. i have tried it out on the road and gotten speeds at an average of 900kbps=112kBps which is good enough for me when im not in the presence of wifi.

for others my settings are:
APN: hiptop.t-mobile.com
user/pass: NA (not applicable)
http proxy: home PC IP

[Tizbad2k]

I went into a tmobile store today to ask about data plans. I wanted to pop in an employees sim to try out the data speeds. They were not allowed to do so, but there was a Nokia rep who stepped in at the same moment as me who allowed me to use his.

I ran mobile speed test and got 2300kbps, this is VS the 200Kbps i had gotten a second ago running the speed test with the proxy work around. Then I implemented the proxy (still with the nokia reps sim in my phone) and I still got 2200kbps. The tmobile guys didnt know anything but the Nokia guy said something about the sidekick plan not using real 3G. One thing which could support this notion is that Tmobile offers 2 different data plan additions to its regular plans. The cost is $10 for non smartphones and $25 for smartphones. I believe the APN you are allowed to access is different.

So in conclusion: the proxy workaround is not only speed limited by the proxy, but also the APN which you are allowed to access.

I am seriously considering getting a legit tmobile plan now.


also- the tmobile employee ran a speed test on his HTC something and got 360kbps vs my 2300kbps on the N900 (probably a fluke, but still notable)

[brbrbrad]

Does anyone know if it is possible to "spoof" the Tmobile network into thinking an N900 is a sidekick? That seems like it might be a way of getting better performance out of the sidekick plan.

[lemmyslender]

From what I have read, the sidekick uses a T-Mobile proxy. So theoretically, you could setup that proxy to work on the N900.

The downside is, the proxy is like using a wap gateway. The proxy resizes, etc webpages to better fit the sidekick screen and capabilities. In short, you don't get the "real" web, you get the sidekick web. I think that would defeat the purpose of having a N900.

[geneven]

Well, some of us usually use wireless and only occasionally need the Tmobile side of things; for us it would impair, not defeat, the purpose of having an N900 for those times that we need to use the Web while out of range of wireless. On the other hand, we would be saving something like $15 every single month.

[lemmyslender]

Well, some of us usually use wireless and only occasionally need the Tmobile side of things; for us it would impair, not defeat, the purpose of having an N900 for those times that we need to use the Web while out of range of wireless. On the other hand, we would be saving something like $15 every single month.

Fair enough, I never did find the sidekick proxy settings (not that I looked very hard, but I did look a little).

[geneven]

I am finally getting pretty good results with the Tmobile Sidekick prepaid plan. Actually, I am usually on the Pay by the Day plan, but today I decided to invest a big $1 and switch over to the Sidekick plan and give it another shot. I almost can't believe it, but I got set up very easily and I am thrilled that it is working. The key is to use Tor and don't set a proxy.

Here are some tips for others who want to duplicate my results.

1. Don't call Tmobile. On looking at your system, they will figure out you have a smart phone and will try to force you into another plan.

2. Just buy a Sim. I think I paid $5 or so for a Tmobile prepaid Sim from Amazon.

3. Follow instructions for setting up your phone from Tmobile, but never accept an option that involves calling them. If you are asked what kind of Nokia phone you have , use an ancient one like an 1100 or something.

4. You will be able to manage your account from www.my.t-mobile.com. I suggest that you start with the Pay by the Day option as I did. Get the phone working.

5. Install Tor, or rather the Tor Status application. It might be in extras-devel. The developer mentions he thinks it is optified.

6. This application puts an icon in your status bar so you can activate it. There is a site you can go to to make sure Tor is working.

7. Do NOT try setting a proxy. You can't set a Socks proxy, and you don't need one.

After I did the above, approximately, I could open a few web pages simultaneously and run app mgr at the same time, no prob.I haven't tried much else.

All this for $1!

I'll post additions, corrections when I run into them.

Edit: Web pages work fine, but some downloads don't, because the program doesn't understand that a proxy is involved. I can't download programs via App Mgr, for example. At first I couldn't use Feedingit to get rss feeds, but the developer changed his program, and now I can. The Foreca weather wouldn't work, but Omweather would.

All in all, I'm very happy with how it is working.

[slewis1972]

Hi
This looks brill as will be getting a t-mobile sim when when I visit the USA in May. I have setup a proxy at my home but this will save or give me a primary connection.

Question, what settings do I need to setup eg APN on my n900? I have a global config if it helps.

Scott

[lemmyslender]

The Tmobile sim should add the proper apn. edit the internet connection and add yor proxy info. Be sure to check the use proxy option

[Tizbad2k]

For it to work for me I have to use the sidekick APN as mentioned in my previous post. And I have to use a http forwarding proxy (my own). I dont use Tor (is it a socks proxy prog or what?).

I cannot get it to work any other way.

[slewis1972]

HI

Using Tor - do I still need to set a proxy?

Scott

[shamrock]

Hi,
have a question: I will be on holiday in LA-SF-Hawaii for a month in june and im wondering which option is best for me
to go with my N900.
I need a prepaid simcard with "unlimited"
3G data coverage and about 50 US $ for talk and text. It seems that it is a "jungle" to pick from. What would YOU get if you only needed a prepaid simcard for 30 days? And where is the best place to buy such a card web/store?
It would be very helpful and if any would need any info on the best carrier and coverage in Sweden i would be glad to help out!

Thanks
Shamrock:)

[geneven]

Answers:

Slewis1972: You don't need to set up a proxy after installing and enabling the Tor Status Area Applet.

Shamrock: Just go into a store such as Best Buy in the US and buy a prepaid T-Mobile sim. It will probably cost less than $10. I would just buy that card and after activating it I would go online to my.t-mobile.com and look at my account and decide what to do then, but you could also buy extra time while you are at Best Buy or whatever chain store you find. For one month, I wouldn't buy more than $50 worth of time at once -- I personally wouldn't buy more than about $20 worth because I'm cheap. Follow my numbered message above for more suggestions.

Tizbad2k: You are quite right, it is necessary to set up a proxy and other extra complications unless you use the Tor Status Area Applet that I mentioned. You can't do it any other way because you chose the hard way. The hard way was too hard for me, so I chose the easy way. You don't have to ask me about Tor. Google has lots of information for you.

Lemmyslender is WRONG -- if you use the Tor option as I am outlining, do NOT check the use proxy option. That will prevent you from working, in my experience. (I just triple-checked my settings to make sure.)

[Pigro]

Geneven - what kind of speed do you achieve when using Tor? I've run a few tests with it from n900 to speedtest.net and it (obviously) varies a lot. best I saw was just over 1Mbps, but that was an exception, normally lucky if you achieve > 300Kbps download speed (from UK). How does that compare with your experience?

I've also got my home BB running a proxy and that will reliably give me 500Kbps assuming the T-mob bandwidth exceeds that figure. I'll suck & see once I'm in the states with a T-mob sim in the phone, but would be nice to see your results beforehand?

One more question - can you still use data on the T-mob prepaid SIM if you DON'T have the $1/day sidekick option enabled, & if so, what does it cost?

[geneven]

Slewis1972: I forgot to answer your apn question. My apn is epc.tmobile.com, but I think tmobile provided that; I didn't have to figure it out.

Pigro: I haven't done speed testing with Tor, because right now I just want something that works and is cheap. In a few months I'll investigate speed more. I have the feeling that sometimes Tor was speedy enough and sometimes too slow for my taste. On the subject of using data: You can NOT use data if you are on the pay by the day plan, so you have to specifically switch to Sidekick to use data. Another option available is "Pay as you go," recommended by some. I haven't messed with that, as "Pay by the day" meets my needs perfectly.

Followup comment. For readers, all these plans seem confusing. Well, you get three options when you sign up for prepaid, and you can experiment with different ones for $1 per try, so there is not much jeopardy.

[shamrock]

Hi,
And thanks geneven!

I need a prepaid simcard that also includes a "unlimited" 3G data plan for 30 days or fixed price, but i couldent find any info about 3G data services...or is that maybe "sidekick"? or im I misstaken?

Shamrock

[geneven]

Shamrock: T-mobile has 3G, and use is unlimited, so the Sidekick plan should work for you, a dollar a day. Phone calls are extra, 15 cents a minute.

There are some areas where tmobile 3G isn't available -- I don't know where they are, I think there's a map.

It is possible that if you use the heck out of 3G Tmobile might object. I'm not sure how that would happen. In theory, even if that happened you could buy another Sim and start over!

After all, this plan was meant for older, less groovy phones than the N900. But it has been working fine for me.

[shamrock]

Hi,
Thanks again Geneven!

OK, so I can buy the prepaid card anywhere, bestbuy/ebay etc, and then switch to the sidekick plan.
Thats great!

Shamrock

[planetf1]

I'm off to NYC next week & thinking of trying this out. Whilst the hotel has wifi I'll be around the city during the day, and maps, route lookups, etc will be quite useful.

If I use the tor status applet, does everything work normally on the phone dat awise - maps, agps, IM, web? -
If I use a proxy (and the sidekick apn) similar question?

Additionally, if I buy a tmob sim for 10 USD, does this include 10 USD credit, or is that on top?

Finally I'll be staying around broadway (arriving in newark) - can I expect to just pay the regular 10 USD in any local store or is there a good place to pick up one cheaper
thanks

[bunanson]

I am finally getting pretty good results with the Tmobile Sidekick prepaid plan. Actually, I am usually on the Pay by the Day plan, but today I decided to invest a big $1 and switch over to the Sidekick plan and give it another shot. I almost can't believe it, but I got set up very easily and I am thrilled that it is working. The key is to use Tor and don't set a proxy.

Here are some tips for others who want to duplicate my results.

1. Don't call Tmobile. On looking at your system, they will figure out you have a smart phone and will try to force you into another plan.

2. Just buy a Sim. I think I paid $5 or so for a Tmobile prepaid Sim from Amazon.

3. Follow instructions for setting up your phone from Tmobile, but never accept an option that involves calling them. If you are asked what kind of Nokia phone you have , use an ancient one like an 1100 or something.

4. You will be able to manage your account from www.my.t-mobile.com. I suggest that you start with the Pay by the Day option as I did. Get the phone working.

5. Install Tor, or rather the Tor Status application. It might be in extras-devel. The developer mentions he thinks it is optified.

6. This application puts an icon in your status bar so you can activate it. There is a site you can go to to make sure Tor is working.

7. Do NOT try setting a proxy. You can't set a Socks proxy, and you don't need one.

After I did the above, approximately, I could open a few web pages simultaneously and run app mgr at the same time, no prob.I haven't tried much else.

All this for $1!

I'll post additions, corrections when I run into them.

Edit: Web pages work fine, but some downloads don't, because the program doesn't understand that a proxy is involved. I can't download programs via App Mgr, for example. At first I couldn't use Feedingit to get rss feeds, but the developer changed his program, and now I can. The Foreca weather wouldn't work, but Omweather would.

All in all, I'm very happy with how it is working.

I cannot get it to work..."internet connection failed. Try again?"

I have installed Tor. after installation, it is disabled. I tried to enable it, it kept giving the fail statment.

I tried to use the proxy thing which I have no idea what is that. I could have changed something ... what is the t.mobile internet connection settings?

Connection name: tmob
Connection type: GPRS
APN epc.tmobile.com
User name: blank
Password: blank

Advance

Use proxy: unchecked

Any suggestions?

I think my sim card was preconfigured for 2 tmobile something...Before I change the tmobile connection, I kind of remember it is 2.tmobile... something. Anybody know what is the APN for 2.tmobile something? TIA,


bun

[bunanson]

Ok so I could use some help, and maybe my experience can help others.

I popped in a t-mobile pay-as-you-go sim that I had from earlier. I went online to tmobile.com and changed my account from pay-as-you-go to sidekick.

In the internet connections settings I saw the APN as epc.tmobile.com, this was the default. This would send me to a text portal no matter what websites I tried (yahoo might have worked). Then I changed the APN to hiptop.t-mobile.com, left the login and password blank. Again similar results when trying websites. Finally I installed a proxy sever on my windows PC (freeproxy) and setup my home PC IP as the proxy server.

Now I can browse to any site that I like but it is very slow. Mobilespeedtest says the value is between 80-220Kbps (slower than edge).

What am I doing wrong, why is it so slow? Under the signal bars it says 3-3.5 but I see a GPRS icon near the bars when I am accesing the net. And also on the Tmobile internet connection settings it says the method is GPRS.

Am I not getting 3G service? Is it my proxy server (shouldnt be). What can I do?

Could you, or anybody feel free to jump in, how to setup a proxy on my window machine. I tried to get this tmob going for my trip next week and is getting no where.
TIA,

bun

[Pigro]

1. download then install freeProxy (should install without any interaction other than choosing install path). You then need to tell it to run as a service and to listen on port x - can't remember exact procedure for that but it was pretty intuitive. when setting up the port entry bind to local IP of the host PC
2. choose a port to use - say port x
3. port forward TCP port x from your router to the internal ip of the PC running freeProxy
4. add an exception to windows firewall to allow traffic to port x.
5. on n900 goto connections/internet settings; select your Desired connection (usually your GPRS) and edit it
6. hit next until you get to 'advanced'. hit that and choose proxies
7. tick 'use proxy' and then enter external IP of your home BB
8. enter your chosen port x
9. set IP and port for both http and https entries - thats all you need for normal browsing

that should be it - select your proxied connection and go to www.whatismyip.com or similar - if it has worked you will see the site display your BB's external IP instead of the one for your carrier (or public wifi etc)

all wriiten from memory, i'm away from home without access to the PC on which i set up freeProxy. Apologies in advance if that aspect is a bit vague :-)

n.b. the above should get a proxy working but it's not secure - if you intend doing anything beyond basic surfing you need to persevere with Tor or go for a VPN or soxified solution.

HTH

[bunanson]

Pigro: thanks for a clear step by step instructions. I still failed. Same whatever I do
"Internet connection failed. Retry?" Well, run out of trick, will put it down for awhile and try someother times. Thanks, pal.

bun

[geneven]

bunanson:

It sounds like you did everything right -- you are essentially saying that Tor just plain doesn't work for you.

You might ask the Tor folks.

I'll search through the Tor documentation and see what I can find. It works fine for me.

[geneven]

Shamrock et al.

Before you assume too much, make sure Tor works for you. I don,t have any problem with it. There is at least one Tor Status Area Applet thread here.

Thread (http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=41373)

[geneven]

planetf1:

No, everything doesn't work normally with Tor necessarily. If you read my comments in this thread you will see that I mention that Foreca weather doesn't work, for example.

Tor works fine for me when I'm using wireless or tmobile, so you can test what it works with right after you install and enable it.

For other details, see the Tor thread I linked to above.

[scifi.guy]

@Pigro

Thanks for the step-by-step details. I followed your instructions and got the basic browsing (thats all I need) working.

Btw I am on the Sidekick plan and as of today the correct APN to use is hiptop.t-mobile.com (with proxy ofcourse).

I tried to use epc.tmobile.com and it always redirected me to the t-zones webpage (walled-internet I think).

The old APN for Internet, internet2.voicestream.com did not work at all.

[planetf1]

Thanks for all the instruction. Hope to make use of them in the next few days.

How much should I expect to pay for the SIM itself. $10 was mentioned. I won't order online, more than likely will pick one up in a local store (I'll be heading to a appt in Broadway (Radio City)) late eve 9pm. Is there a good place to pick one up locally.

Does that $10 include any credit or is that on top?

In terms of tor vs proxy, I now have a proxy setup, so other than performance concerns will these mean EVERYTHING should work (if proxy is ok) or will I still have issues with tmob filtering ie bitmaps, and should I expect ovi maps/AGPS/conversations(im)/email/web to work ok?

[bunanson]

I think I do not know how to do the proxy part, to use the freeProxy program. Could some of you kind enough to write down how to run the proxy service, the root pgm, web page, redirect etc? thanks a lot,

How do I test on a PC 1st, I think that is easier, to test on a PC, to make sure the freeProxy work then I will attempt the N900.

bun

[Pigro]

Thanks for all the instruction. Hope to make use of them in the next few days.

How much should I expect to pay for the SIM itself. $10 was mentioned. I won't order online, more than likely will pick one up in a local store (I'll be heading to a appt in Broadway (Radio City)) late eve 9pm. Is there a good place to pick one up locally.

Does that $10 include any credit or is that on top?

In terms of tor vs proxy, I now have a proxy setup, so other than performance concerns will these mean EVERYTHING should work (if proxy is ok) or will I still have issues with tmob filtering ie bitmaps, and should I expect ovi maps/AGPS/conversations(im)/email/web to work ok?
i am now in NYC. Picked up the SIM ($10 at tmob store) and put $10 credit on it. that gave me a $13 credit balance. set up my account, changed to sidekick, set the APN, and everything i've tried so far is working OK (via Tor) - OVI maps; push email (via nokia messaging); full web access; skype presence.

[planetf1]

am here too. so far popped into 5 shops. only one was tmob store. none had them in stock. given free wifi in hotel and a few spots around may well skip for now but good to know.

[scifi.guy]

I think I do not know how to do the proxy part, to use the freeProxy program. Could some of you kind enough to write down how to run the proxy service, the root pgm, web page, redirect etc? thanks a lot,
bun

@bunanson - You need to install freeProxy on a PC/Laptop that is connected to Internet and let it run as a proxy server for your N900.

I will try to elaborate what Pigro already suggested, based on my testing experience :) see if this helps.

1) Download FreeProxy from here (http://www.handcraftedsoftware.org/index.php?page=4&action=file&file_id=5). Installation is fairly simple.

2) Launch FreeProxy Control Center. Click on the button 'Proxies' to add new proxy.

3) Enter a name for the configuration (eg: N900 Proxy) and leave the protocol as HTTP Proxy (for basic web browsing test).

4) For "Client Port", enter a port number 54545 that is not used by any other program/service. I selected 54545 because it was not in use on my laptop.
In windows you can use the command "netstat -a" to list all the ports in use on your computer.

5) Local binding, from the first drop down, select your network adapter (Wifi or LAN). In the second drop down, select the IP address of your PC/laptop.

6) Save the configuration.

If you are using a Wireless Router, you need to allow Port Forwarding on the router.

7) Login to your router as Admin (Generally http://192.168.0.1)

8) Add a Port Forwarding rule, to forward the port 54545 to your PC/Laptop's IP address.

9) Restart your router.


10) If any Firewall is installed on your PC/laptop, add an exception for the program FreeProxy.exe.


11) Go back to FreeProxy Control Center, Start the proxy (N900 Proxy) in a console mode.

This completes your basic proxy server setup. To test it you first need to know your Internet IP. You can get it from http://whatismyipaddress.com/.

12) In your N900 (or a PC) enter your Internet IP as the proxy server and 54545 as the port. Now if you able to browse web with this proxy, then the FreeProxy setup is working fine.

Once again, this is for basic (HTTP/HTTPS) web browsing. I have not tested with email sync or other apps. You can play around with the settings and see if they click. Let me know how your test goes.

[geneven]

I am using epc.tmobile.com and TOR and no proxy set in the settings. It works. Hiphop does not work for me, which is fine. It must depend on what SIM you have. Mine is recent.

[Intrygue83]

works well on my tmo. i have the unlimited text talk web on flexpay. my old phone was a samsung memoir. i jus took out my sim and put it in. only thing i will miss is my mobile contact backup. i unlocked my memoir and put it on att for my girlfriend. i miss it as far as my detailed call log and mms

[Swirnoff]

Sidekick $1/day is how to get data. I stay on pay-as-you-go (not the pay by the day plan) to save money unless I need data. Then a quick call to 611 and I'm on the sidekick plan for the day, and switch back before 12 midnight.

I don't get it...how the switching works, and charges

So with the Sidekick $1/day (pay-as-you-go) you can only either talk for a day, or surf the internet without receiving any calls?

If I want internet for school work, and later that day talk to a friend, I'd have to pay $2?? And then if I need internet again, I have to pay another $1? Or is it no extra to use internet as long as you switch back to voice before 12?

How do they know, the next day (at 12 when the charge me), whether to put me on the voice option of data option?

[geneven]

I don't get it...how the switching works, and charges

So with the Sidekick $1/day (pay-as-you-go) you can only either talk for a day, or surf the internet without receiving any calls?

If I want internet for school work, and later that day talk to a friend, I'd have to pay $2?? And then if I need internet again, I have to pay another $1? Or is it no extra to use internet as long as you switch back to voice before 12?

How do they know, the next day (at 12 when the charge me), whether to put me on the voice option of data option?

No, the $1 a day plan costs $1 max for all the times you use the Internet that day, PLUS a charge for calls you make (charge per minute). PLUS it costs an extra $1 if you switch plans more than once in one day.

They know what to charge you at midnight because you stay on the same plan unless you specifically change it.

The best way to understand these options is to either read the options online, as I did, or break open your piggybank and invest, say, $20 in finding out. It's cheap and easy.

[Pigro]

for anyone going to USA for a holiday and wanting cheap & cheerful net access, the T-mo PAYG SIM + sidekick $1/day plan + Tor (from extras-devel) is really the IDEAL solution.

In April I went NY - Virgin Islands (US + British) -> NY -> LA -> San Fran -> LA and (except for a couple of days in BVI) I had uninterrupted 3G web access the whole way for $1/day.

Skype out (even on a yacht in the carribean, on 2.5G and with Tor enabled) worked seamlessly - though I later realised that Tor wsn't needed as Skype was happily transiting the T-mo firewalls without any need to enable Tor. I even had Tor configured to give a UK exit point and was able to fire up iPlayer in my hotel room (over wifi) to catch up on a crappy show that the wife was b!tching about missing :-)

Like Geneven says - it's a no brainer, just pre-install Tor, go buy a SIM and have a play. Being able to fire up assisted GPS while roaming, make skype calls whenever you want, and receive incoming calls to/from US callers on your US cellphone # without the horrendous international roaming charges you get on your domestic # .... what's not to like? Just pop your own SIM back in the phone every so often in a wifi zone to check for any missed calls/texts. Simple :-)

[moisturerichsoy]

Has anyone had problems with tmobile sidekick plan in the last day or so? I got an n900 last week, and a sim card on wed that I put on the sidekick plan. It worked fine until yesterday, it said
'Sim card registration failed'
I thought I was out of minutes, cause it only came with $3 worth on the card.
I bought a $10 refill card, and successfully applied that, but I am still getting the exact same message.
I tried removing the sim card, booting the phone without it, turning it off and putting the sim back in. I still get the same error when it boots.

I am on hold with tmobile now, to try and see what is wrong. I hope tmobile didnt blacklist all the N900s from the sidekick plan. Anyone else that has an N900 on the sidekick plan, please reply and let me know if it is still working or not.

[geneven]

I am on hold with tmobile now, to try and see what is wrong. I hope tmobile didnt blacklist all the N900s from the sidekick plan. Anyone else that has an N900 on the sidekick plan, please reply and let me know if it is still working or not.

I'll pay $1 and go try this right now!

[geneven]

I'm on the Sidekick plan right now on my N900. It works normally. As mentioned on my numbered message a ways back, calling Tmobile is not what you should do about this kind of problem.

Edit: By the way, I was on wireless when I switched my plan from Pay by the Day to Sidekick and instantly got a text message confirming that the plan change had happened. That's nice.

Here's some other information. A reminder about APNs. The APN I'm using for this Sidekick thing is epc.tmobile.com.

But another thing I have played around with lately is the APN wap.voicestream.com.

It allows you to do some Internet things without an Internet plan at all. I could, for example, use m.yahoo.com and read my email. There's a recent thread about that on this site -- I think the header mentions prepaid tmobile like this one does.

[brbrbrad]

Just noticed you can use Google over SSL on T-zones: https://www.google.com

This just keeps getting better and better

[Descalzo]

Mine stopped working completely, suddenly, at about noon yesterday. I can make phone calls, do wifi, etc. But my GPRS just quit. While I was using it.

[geneven]

Mine stopped working completely, suddenly, at about noon yesterday. I can make phone calls, do wifi, etc. But my GPRS just quit. While I was using it.

I had to use mine at home last night when my cable Internet went down. It worked ok, as usual. I'm using the epc.tmobile.com apn, not wap.voicestream.com.

[Descalzo]

Silly me. Reboot fixed it.

[asasan]

I cannot use DialCentral to make GoogleVoice calls.
Using WiFi it works, but when on t-mobile 3G instead of logging in, DialCentral always says https://www.google.com/voice/m is not accessible.
Anyone using GV with t-mob + Tor? Any suggestions?

[breakd0wn]

I didn't read this whole thread. But used t-mobile prepay with the n900 up until last week.

Used the sidekick prepay, and then ran squid on a vps to get around the port 80 and 443 block.

Worked great, but there were a few issues which eventually made me get a normal plan.

3rd party apps in maemo don't respect the proxy settings. The browser (firefox also) and email and maps (not 100% sure if maps use port 80) all worked fine over t-mobile 3g. The things that didn't work would be gpodder, any desktop widgets that collect data (weather, etc), opera, and internet radio in some situations won't work (trying to grab a pls from port 80)

There are some work arounds. You can export http_proxy to get gpodder to work. You can copy the link that the pls contains, ssh into your home linux box/dedicated server/vps and wget that link, cat it, and extract the actual stream link.

But no desktop widgets, no opera, and I couldn't get mms to work.

As long as you run squid on something that has a good uplink, you will get full 3.5G speeds. And won;t even know you're on a proxy. You can also use a public proxy, but they are slow.

In the end its $30 a month for unlimited data and text, .15 a minute for calls. Better off just going with a normal plan to be honest. The even more plus plans are no contract.

[geneven]

I didn't read this whole thread. But used t-mobile prepay with the n900 up until last week.

Used the sidekick prepay, and then ran squid on a vps to get around the port 80 and 443 block.

Worked great, but there were a few issues which eventually made me get a normal plan.

3rd party apps in maemo don't respect the proxy settings. The browser (firefox also) and email and maps (not 100% sure if maps use port 80) all worked fine over t-mobile 3g. The things that didn't work would be gpodder, any desktop widgets that collect data (weather, etc), opera, and internet radio in some situations won't work (trying to grab a pls from port 80)

There are some work arounds. You can export http_proxy to get gpodder to work. You can copy the link that the pls contains, ssh into your home linux box/dedicated server/vps and wget that link, cat it, and extract the actual stream link.

But no desktop widgets, no opera, and I couldn't get mms to work.

As long as you run squid on something that has a good uplink, you will get full 3.5G speeds. And won;t even know you're on a proxy. You can also use a public proxy, but they are slow.

In the end its $30 a month for unlimited data and text, .15 a minute for calls. Better off just going with a normal plan to be honest. The even more plus plans are no contract.

Thanks for the info. If you are like me and are only likely to use the Internet when out of wireless range 5 days a month, $5 a month is a lot better than $40 or so.

[breakd0wn]

I used data over gprs daily.

I was just in a situation where getting locked into a 2 year contract and paying $80-$90 a month wasn't something I wanted to do.

Now t-mobile has those no contract plans that are really cheap. So for around the same price or a few bucks more I can talk all night and weekend for free, still have 500 minutes for the days. 500 minutes on sidekick prepay is $75.

There are also those $1 a day free nights and weekends prepay plans with t-mobile. But there is no data on those. Aside from the walled garden they offer. I tried to get around that by putting a "tmobile" subdomain on my vps, and also putting tmobile in my ptr, but didn't seem to work.

[Descalzo]

I cannot use DialCentral to make GoogleVoice calls.
Using WiFi it works, but when on t-mobile 3G instead of logging in, DialCentral always says https://www.googlevoice.com/m is not accessible.
Anyone using GV with t-mob + Tor? Any suggestions?

I use The One Ring to send/receive SMS while on T-Mobile Internet. I will try DialCentral tomorrow while I'm out and about and let you know what happens.

[masaokun]

When I dial 611 to change the prepaid rate plan, I can't choose the sidekick plan. They don't list it as an option, and if I say 'sidekick', they say it is not available for my account. Do other people still have that as an option, or did they remove it for everyone?

Note: I *can* select it from the web page, but the whole reason I want to be able to change it via 611 is if I'm someplace where I don't have access to the net at all and want to turn on the sidekick plan!

[resplendent2209]

Guys, I just got a new T-mobile prepaid sim.

While, activating - It ask for a plan and IMEI.

What should I enter?

N900's IMEI?

Which plan should I go for first?

Note that I only got this sim for 3G only. Don't wanna spend anything more that $1(Sidekick) with this sim.

Thanks!

[masaokun]

I used the IMEI of the N900, and I was able to choose the sidekick plan. (Actually, I chose the pay as you go plan and then switched because I wanted to test switching plans, but IIRC, the sidekick plan was an available option when setting things up).

However, I have been wondering if using the N900's IMEI is related to my previous post in this thread that keeps me from changing to the sidekick plan via calling 611. I've been considering getting a broken sidekick and changing to that IMEI (either on the existing sim or a new one). I'm still waiting to see if it works for others at all before spending money on a broken phone just for the IMEI.

Regardless, if you just plan to stay on the sidekick plan, you should be able to use the N900's IMEI and chose that plan. That's what I'm doing for now.


Guys, I just got a new T-mobile prepaid sim.

While, activating - It ask for a plan and IMEI.

What should I enter?

N900's IMEI?

Which plan should I go for first?

Note that I only got this sim for 3G only. Don't wanna spend anything more that $1(Sidekick) with this sim.

Thanks!

[resplendent2209]

I just changed the plan to sidekick and got the sms that it's effective.

I am suppose to use the T-mobile Internet APN right?

Any changes? What is that T-or?

[masaokun]

Since you're using the sidekick plan, you use the APN for sidekick users: hiptop.t-mobile.com . Remember, that this plan blocks port 80 for almost all sites. You can, however, use a proxy to get around this. Just do a search for 'free proxy' to find places that offer one.

Here's a good site for more info:
http://wiki.howardforums.com/index.php/T-Mobile_Data

[Pigro]

T-or is Tor: the onion roluter. you can get it from extras-devel and once installed it 'anonymises' your session. as a by-product, your traffic is routed over ports which T-mo don't block. end result is that you can do all web browsing and most other stuff on the $/day plan. only downside is that Tor is a volunteer operation and the speeds are slower & variable relative to full fat 3G.

[geneven]

Here's a Tor speedup tip I just learned today.

You can edit the file /etc/polipo/config with leafpad or vi or some other editor.

Polipo handles the proxy-like features for Tor.

If you look in that config file you will find the lines

Uncomment this if you have plenty of memory

followed by lines with # marks in front of them.

Removing the # activates that line and the speedup was very noticeable for me.

[bunanson]

This is OffTopic. You mentioned edit text file like the config file. If you dont mind to do it on the N900. It is fine. I have since been spoiled with winSCP. I fire up winSCP from my desktop. I can edit any file from my desktop, using an explorer GUI, and save it to N900 effortless. Try it, you're goin to like it.

to setup winSCP (http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=23932&highlight=winscp+step).

bun

[gm_w]

can some one tell me how to change APN and setup proxy for my tmobile connection?

i don't see anywhere in the settings where i can put them in

[ioan]

can some one tell me how to change APN and setup proxy for my tmobile connection?

i don't see anywhere in the settings where i can put them in

Go to Settings->Internet Connections->Connections

Click on T-Mobile Internet and then press Edit button
Access point name: epc.tmobile.com
leave Username/Password empty and "Prompt for password" unchecked.
Next... and then click on Advanced, now you have the proxy settings.

[gm_w]

ok i have got tor working. I can browse all sites with sidekick $1/day plan.

There are several problems with this. not all applications work. For example, Assisted GPS doesn't work. it seems supl.google.com is not recognized. i am getting same locked time as my internal GPS.

Also SIP (gizmo and sipsorcery) doesn't work, gmail (using n900 email client) doesn't work...

Interestingly Skype worked without Tor enabled...

[geneven]

Yes, if you look at my messages about this in the thread you will see I mentioned that some things don't work. It's good to get specific reports, though. Some developers will fix those problems if you send them information about them.

The polipo tip I mentioned above has made my Tor connection actually pretty fast!

[geneven]

Thanks for the Winscp tip, bunanson. I'm installing it now. It happens that I have an irrational love of VIM, so I use it whenever I can! But I'm sure that winscp will come in very handy.

[kev187]

I have a t-mobile sidekick and I am under contract with the sidekick data plan.

I tried using it with my N900 with no luck. Set the APN to hiptop.t-mobile.com and the internet just would not work at all, but I had phone and text?

Any suggestions?

[breakd0wn]

Because port 80 and 443 are blocked on the sidekick prepay plan. You need to use a proxy, or another way to get around the port 80 and 443 block.

Also, most 3rd party apps aren't proxy aware so they won't work at all.

[gm_w]

looks like TOR no longer works... and https no longer works too

[crasbelize]

I got a sidekick pre-paid plan...and the unlimited web doesn't work....some mobile site work...like m.yahoo.com works.

This doesn't do me no good! Am popping my At&t sim card back in!

T-mobile is tripping!

[pctek]

I have a n900 and I have t-mobile here in california USA for like 5 years already but I dont and never got any data plan, is there a way to setup for free internet like it was possible in the 2009 year or no more? Thanks

[jerryfreak]

quick Q. is there a data-only plan on t-mo? i dont need phone necessarily but would like to use 3G data for limited times.

[sela]

Does the sidekick+proxy trick still works for any of you (for t-mobile in the U.S)?

I tried it today, tried several public proxies, each using a different port (tested the proxies on my PC, and they all work), but I couldn't connect anywhere.

[breakd0wn]

It should, I don't see why not.

They only block port 80 and 443, so from the terminal try to telnet to a mail server on port 25, or mysql server on 3306, or ssh into somewhere, etc. All those should work without a proxy.

[modular]

Is there any news on this? Any of you benchmark the sidekick plan at 3G speed and get all of the apps to work with it? T-Mobile told me it was a "prepaid data plan" and that it would work with any smart phone - disingenuous advertising!

[Nazrax]

I set up a new prepaid card on my N900 today. I started it off on the Sidekick plan.

If I use epc.t-mobile.com as my APN, I can browse within their walled garden. However, I can't connect to my OpenVPN server at home.
If I use hiptop.t-mobile.com as my APN, OpenVPN works great, and I'm able to use the workarounds listed on other threads to fix my default route so all traffic goes over the VPN. Unfortunately, if my VPN isn't connected, I can't get to *anything* - t-mobile.com, t-zones.com, and web2go.com are all blocked.

My general plan is to stay on payg unless I need data, so the VPN won't be an option most of the time. I'd prefer not to have to switch the APN back and forth when I do need data (though I guess if I'm already going to the trouble of changing my plan, changing my apn isn't a huge deal). Anyone else run into this? Any solutions?

[asasan]

If I use hiptop.t-mobile.com as my APN, OpenVPN works great, and I'm able to use the workarounds listed on other threads to fix my default route so all traffic goes over the VPN.

Could you please point me to the threads where the workaround for full tunneling is documented? I am desperately trying to set up OpenVPN server on Windows Home Server with N900 client.

[Nazrax]

Actually, now that I review my steps, I don't think I had to manually do the workaround.

To get OpenVPN to take over the default route, include the following lines in your openvpn config:
route-gateway <the gateway>
redirect-gateway def1

Unfortunately, redirect-gateway relies on the presence of an existing default route, and when you're on a cell connection you don't have one. You can use the workaround listed at https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7596#c9 (make sure to put those two lines above the redirect-gateway line). Or, you can use the openvpn-applet - it automatically fixes the default route so that you don't have to do it in your own configuration files.

[asasan]

.....Or, you can use the openvpn-applet - it automatically fixes the default route so that you don't have to do it in your own configuration files.

Thanks! But that's a pretty BIG "Or."

Are you saying either add the two lines plus try to make sense of all the things discussed in the link you have......OR do nothing and use OpenVPN applet?

Or are you saying the applet replaces just the stuff in the link?

[Nazrax]

Sorry, I'm not very coherent today.

If you just want to connect to your home network, you don't need the workaround or the gateway lines.

If you want OpenVPN to take over the default route, you need route-gateway and redirect-gateway. You also need to use either the workaround or the applet.

[CyberDec]

Answer to simple side issue question on this link, will really help me.

Will the N900 function as a WiFi connected PDA without any sim card or cell phone service?

My PDA died and I am looking for a replacement. I do not want phone service and the cost thereof. N900 looks like it will function like an HP iPAQ 110/210 or iPod Touch, but be better with great expansion capabilility if I need it.

I really would appreciate getting the answer to this question.
Thanks.

[Marlon]

Will the N900 function as a WiFi connected PDA without any sim card or cell phone service?


yes it does

[sjgadsby]

Will the N900 function as a WiFi connected PDA without any sim card or cell phone service?

Yes, though with the original firmware at least, there were two known issues:
Due to a bug, battery life was slightly worse with no SIM than with one. That's likely been fixed in later firmware, but I've not seen confirmation of that.
Nokia Messaging could not be set up. I don't expect that's changed, but the email application works the same as with a SIM otherwise.


EDIT: Oh, and you'll have a small, white SIM icon with a red line through it in your status area all the time. If it bothers you, you can likely replace that icon with a blank one easily enough, though I haven't investigated that.

[CyberDec]

Thank you for the replys. It appears I can use it without the phone service, but, I detected another question possibly, can the phone be upgraded via wifi or is a phone service needed. Sorry about a second question. I'm a complete newbie, old, but totally new to the smart phones.

[cBeam]

CyberDec, the N900 updates via WiFi, no need for a data plan if you don't want one.

Actually, I still use my N900 without dataplan (I have WiFi available almost everywhere I go), however I do have a T-mobile prepaid. For about $90 (if you look out for an offer) you can use the N900 as a cell phone (gives you 1000 minutes and is valid for 12 months). This is for the US.

[CyberDec]

CBeam that is good news on the WiFi updating and the $90 looks very good also.

How do you avoid T-mobile switching you to a data plan with the N900? I have read all the posts on a number of threads on this forum and they indicate this is a problem unless you go through switching or registering as an old simple Nokia phone.

Also, I have read that using things such as GPS and it loses or cannot find a signal, it will switch to Cellular automatically which could trigger T-mobile about the need for data service. I have also read that the N900 can be set for WiFi only on some functions which would avoid this problem. Is this correct?

[lemmyslender]

My general plan is to stay on payg unless I need data, so the VPN won't be an option most of the time. I'd prefer not to have to switch the APN back and forth when I do need data (though I guess if I'm already going to the trouble of changing my plan, changing my apn isn't a huge deal). Anyone else run into this? Any solutions?

You could use fAPN to setup additonal APN's to avoid having to change APN info for each connection type. Then you just need to select epc APN for garden, hiptop APN for VPN.

[Nazrax]

You could use fAPN to setup additonal APN's to avoid having to change APN info for each connection type. Then you just need to select epc APN for garden, hiptop APN for VPN.

Perfect. It's probably possible to get it working with epc - but this is just so much easier.

[ljmt01]

I cannot use DialCentral to make GoogleVoice calls.
Using WiFi it works, but when on t-mobile 3G instead of logging in, DialCentral always says https://www.google.com/voice/m is not accessible.
Anyone using GV with t-mob + Tor? Any suggestions?

Having the same issue. Do you have a fix now?

Thanks,
J

N900, PR 1.2; GV with sipgate number linked

[asasan]

There is no fix per se. We either need to use VPN or Proxy. In my case, OpenVPN or FreeProxy with the server being always-on HP MediaServer running Windows Home Server (WHS).

I have not been able to do either due to lack of clear instruction and/or clear understanding and skill :(

where are the kind and caring saviors?

[ljmt01]

One thing I am proposing is, let our concerns heard in the community and ask developers to make their product proxy aware.

This part of the code should not be difficult to write. Let's take initiative to do the following things:

1. Identify what apps cannot be run without proxy support in our N900/N810 etc.. So far The One Ring, DialCentral, system's app manager, gPodder, etc.

2. Get resouces to help with the issue and write generic codes to deal with proxy so other app developers can easily plug it into their apps.

Many of us here are developers so if anyone is familiar with proxy support for those apps, please chime in.

Thanks.

[ljmt01]

A bug was created fot The One Ring. Please add your comment if you wanted to get this fixed asap:

https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10901

[geneven]

Does the sidekick+proxy trick still works for any of you (for t-mobile in the U.S)?

I tried it today, tried several public proxies, each using a different port (tested the proxies on my PC, and they all work), but I couldn't connect anywhere.

I am typing this using the Tor Status Area Applet and a new $15 a month plan just announced by Tmobile. It appears to be just like the Pay by the Day plan, as if you choose it for 30 days EXCEPT that at $15 it's half the cost.

So I apparently don't need to switch to the Sidekick plan to get Internet access now. It took me a heck of a long time and some messing around to get Tor to connect. Some mysterious changes are afoot, but I am still happy.

CORRECTION: My cheery message above might be wrong, I discovered immediately after sending it. I am investigating now and will post a clarification. It appears that I accidently did something tricky that helped till I got a TTL EXPIRED message a bit later.

UPDATE: I switched to the Sidekick plan and am typing from it. However, I am not sure right now what that did to the $15 a month plan I just signed up for. All I can say for certain is that the Sidekick plan is working for me. As always, I am using Tor and my N900 settings are NOT set to say I am using Proxy (in the Internet Connections Advanced settings). More info to come as available.

[Nazrax]

I can no longer switch to the Sidekick plan from my phone, either by dialing 611 or by going to wap.t-zones.com. I can switch to the other prepaid plans, but Sidekick isn't listed any more. From my computer, I can go to my.t-mobile.com, and Sidekick is still listed - but I can't get to my.t-mobile.com from my phone when it's on PAYG. I've tried wap.voicestream.com, hiptop.t-mobile.com, and epc.t-mobile.com. They get the SSL cert, but the page never loads.

Is there another trick for changing plans from my phone?

[geneven]

Nazrax:

I have no problem changing to Sidekick from my N900. I can't imagine what you see when you look ao the Prepaid tables at my.t-mobile.com. There are two tables. You are saying that the one listing Pay as you go and Pay by the day doesn't list Sidekick at all?

So when you go to my.t-mobile.com from a desktop computer you CAN change to Sidekick?

In other news:

I am doing fine with the $15 plan mentioned above. Once I had to reboot to connect to the Internet, but in general things improved over the temporary problems reported above. I wonder if the fixed version of the Tor status program solved my problem -- Tor seems to connect faster now.

[Croman777]

So if I have this correct. I can get a prepaid sidekick plan for my N900. Then use proxy servers to get around all the stuff the plan will not allow me to do?

[ioan]

So if I have this correct. I can get a prepaid sidekick plan for my N900. Then use proxy servers to get around all the stuff the plan will not allow me to do?

Here is my setup:
I have on the office computer (windows computer which stays always on) openssh and privoxy. Open ssh listens to port 1194 (probably any other ports will work). On my phone, I created 2 scripts, first one is in
/etc/network/if-up.d

#!/bin/sh
#
# Start ssh tunnel for GPRS.

set -e

if [ "$IFACE" = lo ]; then
exit 0
fi

if [ "$MODE" != start ]; then
exit 0
fi

if [ "$ICD_CONNECTION_TYPE" != GPRS ]; then
exit 0
fi

ssh -p1194 -NL 8118:localhost:8118 user@111.111.111.111 &

exit 0

(replace 1194 with whatever port you want to use, 'user' with the user on your computer and 111.111... with your computer's IP)

and the other one in
/etc/network/if-down.d

#!/bin/sh
#
# Stop ssh tunnel for GPRS.

pkill -x ssh


When I connect to the internet using GPRS, the ssh tunnel starts automatically (and ends when I disconnect).

Here are some links that will show you how to install sshd on your desktop:
http://pigtail.net/LRP/printsrv/cygwin-sshd.html
http://www.plenz.com/tunnel-everything
http://magicmonster.com/kb/net/ssh/auto_login.html

[ILikeMaemo]

Geneven, does the $15 monthly plan work just like the sidekick plan did i.e. unlimited internet via tor or a proxy?

BTW, I THINK the sidekick data plan option is dead. Nazrax mentioned that he wasn't given the sidekick data plan option except when he tried switching plans from his PC via my.t-mobile.com. It seems things might have changed since then as I no longer get the sidekick option on my.t-mobile.com. The options listed there are:
1) monthly prepaid $50
2) monthly prepaid $15
3) PAYG
4) Pay by the day

also, no mention of sidekick data plan on
http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/prepaid-plans.aspx
The sidekick data plan option used to be mentioned under the 'more prepaid plans' section but it isn't there anymore. You just get the same 4 options mentioned above.

At the bottom of that page, under 'other services available', a 'webdata hour pass' service is listed:
Web access—Data HourPass $0.99 for one hour of unlimited Web access.
Available on select phones.
This appears to be new.

[geneven]

Sidekick 15¢/minute Unlimited (text only) 15¢/minute 15¢/minute 15¢/minute nationwide calls $1.00/day Choose this plan

The above is listed on MY my.t-mobile page. It's listed under OTHER prepaid plans, which is pretty much where it was alwayslisted.

By the way, if you sign up for the ipv6 beta test, you get Internet access without using Tor, and it's fast.

I am currently using the $15 monthly plan and that was enough for me to be eligible for the beta test program. It works great. There's a thread about it.

So, the statement that the Sidekick plan is dead appears to be false.

Now, to answer the question about the $15 plan. Results are inconsistent as to whether it comes with Internet access like the Sidekick plan does. I think it's not supposed to.

But the ipv6 beta + the $15 monthly plan is a really good deal for right now. A really super-duper ultra good deal. I don't know how many they are letting in to the beta test -- get them while they are hot! I hope I can keep mine forever.

[geneven]

By the way: someone above was saying they couldn't get to the Sidekick plan FROM THEIR PHONE, as if that was the end.

1. I can get to the Sidekick plan from my N900.

2. You don't have to change plans from the phone anyway. Just use a computer. I'm in Ubuntu right now, it works fine; I'm sure it would work fine from Windows 7 too.

Sorry that things can get a bit confusing in Prepaid land. That's why we don't have to pay the big bucks. Besides, I think being cheap is fun!

[geneven]

So if I have this correct. I can get a prepaid sidekick plan for my N900. Then use proxy servers to get around all the stuff the plan will not allow me to do?

Croman: That's pretty much correct. However, using Tor is easier than using proxies--it just works. But it can be slow.

But the big advantage of using Sidekick is that on the days you AREN'T using the Internet from Tmobile (because you are using your home wireless, for example), you can switch to other plans that aren't $1 a day like the Sidekick plan is. In other words, if you play your cards right, you can pay $1 on the days you use the Internet from Tmobile and $0 or almost $0 on the days that you aren't using the Internet from Tmobile.

[FreeThinker]

I can't see the Sidekick plan either, be it on my desktop on on the phone:

http://ubuntuone.com/p/Ee3/

If it matters I'm using Chromium on Ubuntu Lucid here, but I get the same results with MicroB on the phone.

[tpaixao]

I can't see the Sidekick plan either, be it on my desktop on on the phone:

http://ubuntuone.com/p/Ee3/

If it matters I'm using Chromium on Ubuntu Lucid here, but I get the same results with MicroB on the phone.

yeah, I get the same, It used to be there but it's not anymore. I can't change to sidekick anymore...

[ceroberts75]

get simple mobile if you are in the USA.

$60 unlimited prepay, nation-wide, on t-mo network and even allows for 3g access.

no contract.

[sjgadsby]

get simple mobile if you are in the USA.

$60 unlimited prepay, nation-wide, on t-mo network and even allows for 3g access.

That may be a good deal for some, keeping in mind that "unlimited" is 1000 MB (http://consumerist.com/2010/07/simple-mobile-unlimited-data-plan-is-of-course-secretly-limited.html) in this case, but if you weren't using more than 3 hours of voice minutes per month while on the Sidekick plan, there's a price gap there. Much of this thread has been focused on how to use Sidekick only when necessary too, which widens that gap further.

[fwrnando]

At the bottom of that page, under 'other services available', a 'webdata hour pass' service is listed:

This appears to be new.
Did anyone else try looking into this? I was wondering for a while if I could get it working, so I grabbed my T-Mobile pre-paid SIM, tethered my laptop to the N900, connected through the regular epc.tmobile.com APN, and used User Agent Switcher with a cheap Samsung T-Mobile phone UA (SAMSUNG-SGH-T239/T239UVIC6 NetFront/3.4 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1) on my computer.

http://imgur.com/p77Ex.png

Clicked subscribe, and web worked fine, if not a little slow.

With my theory (they only scan the UA) proven, I tried browsing on my N900. Seems they noticed the user agent switch and "cancelled" the plan. No problems, I used an about:config preference to set the Samsung UA on MicroB.

http://imgur.com/oeKle.png

Now I just get this, no matter where I browse to when using the T-Mobile access point. Shouldn't MicroB display xhtml WAP pages normally? I tried installing wmlbrowser (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/62/) on MicroB, but nothing changed.

So my questions are:
Anyone got any further than I did messing with this? Is my MicroB borked? And if so, how do I fix it? :P (removing the useragent pref fixes it, but then it doesn't offer the plan anymore)

(if any T-Mobile people are reading this: I know I'm probably breaking a couple TOS sections, sorry! I promise not to abuse it!)

[ioan]

So my questions are:
Anyone got any further than I did messing with this? Is my MicroB borked? And if so, how do I fix it? :P (removing the useragent pref fixes it, but then it doesn't offer the plan anymore)

Try adding

application/vnd.wap.xhtml+xml=hildon-browser.desktop

to /usr/share/applications/defaults.list

Let us know if this works.

[geneven]

yeah, I get the same, It used to be there but it's not anymore. I can't change to sidekick anymore...

Interesting. I STILL have Sidekick as an option. I am using Chrome, the Windows version.

The page I am on is

https://my.t-mobile.com/Plan/Prepaid/Default.aspx

[geneven]

What I am currently doing is paying for the $15 a month plan (on the little prepaid table) and am signed up for the ipv6 beta test (you can probably sign up for it too -- do a power search for ipv6 to find the thread explaining how).

This gives me blazingly fast internet access for $15 a month.

[rabilon]

yeah, I get the same, It used to be there but it's not anymore. I can't change to sidekick anymore...

I was out of the USA for a week and had switched from the sidekick plan. When I came back (Sept. 15), I went to my.t-mobile and the sidekick option was gone. Now there are only two prepaid plans.

I ordered a sim from Simple Mobile and will try the $50 per month option (voice, text and 100mb of data). So much for t-mobile in the US.

When I was in England (London), I went to a nearby t-mobile store. The sim was free and for 10 pounds (~$16) I was able to get Internet access, voice and text. I was also able to make incredibly cheap calls back to the US (pennies per minute). I was there 7 full days and still had about 3 pounds left. Because when I got the sim, I had added 10 pounds for service on a weekday, when the weekend arrived I was given (automatically) an extra 10 pounds worth of time. I couldn't use all of the service I had during the trip and the Internet access was fast. Why can't it be this easy in the US???

[rabilon]

By the way: someone above was saying they couldn't get to the Sidekick plan FROM THEIR PHONE, as if that was the end.

1. I can get to the Sidekick plan from my N900.

2. You don't have to change plans from the phone anyway. Just use a computer. I'm in Ubuntu right now, it works fine; I'm sure it would work fine from Windows 7 too.

Sorry that things can get a bit confusing in Prepaid land. That's why we don't have to pay the big bucks. Besides, I think being cheap is fun!

At my.t-mobile, the sidekick option no longer appears for me. As explained in a related post, I had switched off sidekick for a few days and when I tried to switch back, it was gone.

[rabilon]

What I am currently doing is paying for the $15 a month plan (on the little prepaid table) and am signed up for the ipv6 beta test (you can probably sign up for it too -- do a power search for ipv6 to find the thread explaining how).

This gives me blazingly fast internet access for $15 a month.

Could you explain where this $15 a month plan is? I find the t-mobile site incredibly useless. My my.t-mobile web page no longer gives me sidekick as a prepaid plan option. There are only two options now. I have not been able to find any really useful information on exactly what prepaid plans are available. Is the $15 plan a "flexpay" plan of some kind? The web pages never give you the opportunity to activate a new plan.

[rabilon]

yeah, I get the same, It used to be there but it's not anymore. I can't change to sidekick anymore...

OK, I could not see sidekick any longer. So I paid for a Simple Mobile $50 plan + sim.

Maybe I signed up too soon. I called t-mobile 611 a few minutes ago (it took forever to get thru to prepaid). I explained I could not switch to sidekick and she switched it for me. Now I have my Internet access back. At least so far it seems to work. I'm able to see web pages, login to my delta airlines account, etc.

However, when I look at the change plan website, no plans show up! The box is entirely empty.

[rabilon]

OK, I could not see sidekick any longer. So I paid for a Simple Mobile $50 plan + sim.

Maybe I signed up too soon. I called t-mobile 611 a few minutes ago (it took forever to get thru to prepaid). I explained I could not switch to sidekick and she switched it for me. Now I have my Internet access back. At least so far it seems to work. I'm able to see web pages, login to my delta airlines account, etc.

However, when I look at the change plan website, no plans show up! The box is entirely empty.

Now the t-mobile web site shows the correct plan (sidekick) and all three plans including sidekick show up. Although now I'm not sure I want to switch out of sidekick. Internet access seems to work as before.

[zerocool2k]

I use the portal from this page (http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1599765-Attention-All-T-Mobile-Pre-Paid-Customers!) and can access almost every site through the proxies, not just the T-zones one. And it's unlimited for prepaid customer, so I'm quite happy about it :).

[FreeThinker]

Yesterday they started offering some plans for prepaid plans. I'm using the $1.50 unlimited day pass plan. I can access pretty much anything, even stuff that didn't work with the Sidekick plan, like e-mail and maps. Skype and Gtalk work too.

I have my APN set to internet2.voicestream.com. Then open a web page; any non-WAP page should work. You'll be rounted to a page that will let you buy the day pass. Once you go through the prompts and hit Accept, you should have working internet for the day.

[rabilon]

Yesterday they started offering some plans for prepaid plans. I'm using the $1.50 unlimited day pass plan. I can access pretty much anything, even stuff that didn't work with the Sidekick plan, like e-mail and maps. Skype and Gtalk work too.

I have my APN set to internet2.voicestream.com. Then open a web page; any non-WAP page should work. You'll be rounted to a page that will let you buy the day pass. Once you go through the prompts and hit Accept, you should have working internet for the day.

I keep the N900 on Sidekick and almost everything works including e-mail and all web pages. What doesn't work includes updating/installing applications and mail for exchange (which I use to sync my google calendar). I can live without that so I think I get my money's worth for $30 per month (on average) total. Text messages are free. I don't remember what phone calls cost (either 10 or 15 cents per minute).

When I was in London in September I put in a UK t-mobile sim. It was cheap (~$16) and I had unlimited Internet. The week I was there I could not make enough phone calls (including back to the US) to use up all the credit. Plus I received another $16 worth of credit when the weekend came. I almost regretted coming home to the US. I just went to the near-by t-mobile store - the sim was FREE, they asked no questions (although they offered to put in the sim). If you pay 10 pounds on a week day, you get another 10 pounds worth over the weekend (which must be used on Saturday and Sunday and then disappears). Why can't it be that simple and cheap here in the US?

[rabilon]

BTW, I'm using hiptop.t-mobile.com as the access point name.

[lucisandor]

FYI:
http://wapreview.com/blog/?p=8077
"T-Mobile introduced a new Web Day Pass option for its prepaid users this week. It provides 24 hours of unlimited data access for $1.49. [...]T-Mobile mentions a 30 MB daily soft cap on the Terms and Conditions page that you click though when activating a DayPass. After 30 MB, download speed is supposed to be slowed. I tested that by downloading over 200 MB and I don't seem to have encountered the cap. Even after 200 MB I was getting speeds in the 300-500 kbit/s range. While that's slower than the best speed (1859 kbit/s) I saw, it's still 3G performance."

I got this working on the new APN, epc.tmobile.com , with the icon for network speed showing "3.5G". I don't know about others.

[ArchT]

Awesome!! I'd like to kown step by step how to setup APN....mine seems like stucking with 2G and it dosen't go anywhere to access online. BTW, am using N900 with $100 Gold Rewards pay as you go sim.

Thanks in advance!

DH

FYI:
http://wapreview.com/blog/?p=8077
"T-Mobile introduced a new Web Day Pass option for its prepaid users this week. It provides 24 hours of unlimited data access for $1.49. [...]T-Mobile mentions a 30 MB daily soft cap on the Terms and Conditions page that you click though when activating a DayPass. After 30 MB, download speed is supposed to be slowed. I tested that by downloading over 200 MB and I don't seem to have encountered the cap. Even after 200 MB I was getting speeds in the 300-500 kbit/s range. While that's slower than the best speed (1859 kbit/s) I saw, it's still 3G performance."

I got this working on the new APN, epc.tmobile.com , with the icon for network speed showing "3.5G". I don't know about others.

[Pigro]

resurrecting this old thread for a bit of reassurance ... I did the prepaid SIM + sidekick + proxy/Tor thing last summer on a trip to USA and it was all good. Am visiting again shortly, and I had a look on the T-Mo website and saw this new $1.49 day web pass.

So, it sounds like I can buy a new prepaid SIM in a T-Mo store on the most basic PAYG plan, whack on say $10 in credit, and then pay $1.49/day for each of the 5 days I'll be in NY in order to get full web access with enough left over for the odd voice call & text?

The only thing I'm not clear about is whether this is now "legit" on an N900 (i.e. a smartphone) or if the day web pass is supposed to be for dumbphones only. I don't really care either way (as I'm sure it'll work regardless) but I'd like clarity so I know whether I can take my N900 into the store and pop in the SIM immediately - or whether I should just buy the sim and take it aweay to install later (if the plan is not intended for smartphones). There's nothing I can see on the website that would preclude using the web day pass for a smartphone ... can any one advise?

[Changegames]

@ Pigro to make it short... yes it works.

[Pigro]

Excellent, I'm happier using a genuine tarrif with a fair price for its intended purpose - much easier than jumping through hoops to hack cost effective short term web access!

Thanks for the feedback :-)

[asasan]

Buck49/day IS for Smartphones. What makes Dumbphones dumb is not being capable of using such access.

However, the question is if N900 is considered a Smartphone or the next data-hungry category like those two other lame phone types out there. I would not take my N900 to a t-mobile store to get a SIM. Either buy from retailers or jump through that very easy hoop.

[Pigro]

sorry - you suggesting that the plan is only meant for iPhone/Android, and telling them I will be popping the sim in my n900 would cause problems? I don't intend to advertise the fact either way, but last year I understood the need for subterfuge - now, it seems superfluous?

[bunanson]

...So, it sounds like I can buy a new prepaid SIM in a T-Mo store on the most basic PAYG plan, whack on say $10 in credit, and then pay $1.49/day for each of the 5 days I'll be in NY in order to get full web access with enough left over for the odd voice call & text...

1) Do as you what you are doing to get web access from your n900.

2) tether to your netbook/laptop as follow:

- install ovi suite 3.1 (http://europe.nokia.com/support/download-software/nokia-ovi-suite)
on your netbook; connect n900 with USB/BT, ovi suite>tool>internet access>GPRS, tada, you now surfing the web with your n900! Absolutely no parameter settings! All other settings, 3G, tmob, ATnT what nots wont work. None of them work. Only GPRS works.

Oh sure, if you know how to tweak your netbook and n900, feel free to hack it wihout using ovi suite. I report it here as it seemed way too easy. I have tried to tether n810 with PC by brute force in the early days and it is not simple.

enjoy,

I agree it is 'better' to buy your own sim card and activate by yourself. Just follow instructions on the card. No need, and better not, to deal to CSR.

bun

[Pigro]

Not planning to tether, just use data on n900. i have no intention (or need) to discuss anything with the in-store staff, but forewarned is forearmed re. whether it is intended for smartphone use. I got very good 3G service on T-mo last year, I am expecting the same on this plan unless you know different?

[woody14619]

telling them I will be popping the sim in my n900 would cause problems?

Just tell them you'll be using it with "my Nokia phone". For most stores, the conversation will end there, as they will assume you have a dumb phone. If the sales person is semi-smart, they may ask if it's an N-guage, which of course the N900 is not. :P

In any case, enjoy T-Mobil while you can. If the merger goes trough as planned with AT&T, this time next year you won't have the option of using anything nearly this cost effective in the US. (And that's coming from a current US AT&T customer...)

[Pigro]

Bought SIM yesterday, but no web day pass seems to be available? SIM is fine for voice calls and a connection "t-mobile internet" with the epc.tmobile.com APN (blank user/password) When I select that connection I get 3.5G and the data symbol, but when I open a browser window I don't get offered the web day pass - I get nothing at all, just a blank window. i've registered the SIM at myt-mobile.com, but there is nothing configurable on the prepaid plah that i can see. i have plenty of credit too. anyone got any ideas?

[FreeThinker]

Web day passes have been messed up for a while, but if you go directly to m.web2go.com in the browser, and then go to My Account, you should get an option to buy a day pass.

[Pigro]

I did go to m.web2go.com, and found the page for web day pass - but when I tried to subscribe nothing happened (no confirmation & no debit from my credit; no data access from phone). I spoke to the t-mo store where zi bouight the SIM and they said there were a few phones (inc. androids) which were doing this & were just "incompatible".

but i don't understand how my n900 is affected when other forum users are OK? could browser agent be the problem?

[FreeThinker]

Try setting your APN to internet2.voicestream.com

[cBeam]

I did go to m.web2go.com, and found the page for web day pass - but when I tried to subscribe nothing happened (no confirmation & no debit from my credit; no data access from phone). I spoke to the t-mo store where zi bouight the SIM and they said there were a few phones (inc. androids) which were doing this & were just "incompatible".


By the way, my N900 started to act out too. I usually had no problem to purchase the day pass, but now after clicking the green "Subscribe" button nothing happens.

Tried it for epc.tmobile.com and internet2.voicestram.com. No success, this is weird as I am not aware that I changed anything.

[bunanson]

Bought SIM yesterday, but no web day pass seems to be available? SIM is fine for voice calls and a connection "t-mobile internet" with the epc.tmobile.com APN (blank user/password) When I select that connection I get 3.5G and the data symbol, but when I open a browser window I don't get offered the web day pass - I get nothing at all, just a blank window. i've registered the SIM at myt-mobile.com, but there is nothing configurable on the prepaid plah that i can see. i have plenty of credit too. anyone got any ideas?

http://m.web2go.com/myaccount/hourpasssubscribe.do

Just click the above link, only once. That will cost you $1.49 from your account
and you should see something like that, "Thank you for buying the daypass...." Cant remember exactly, but you should see that if you are successful in purchase

bun

[te37v]

Would someone please explain when to use "epc.tmobile.com' and "internet2.voicestram.com"?

Thanks!

[cBeam]

http://m.web2go.com/myaccount/hourpasssubscribe.do

Just click the above link, only once. That will cost you $1.49 from your account
and you should see something like that, "Thank you for buying the daypass...." Cant remember exactly, but you should see that if you are successful in purchase

bun

Thanks, but does not work either:

Error 500--Internal Server Error
From RFC 2068 Hypertext Transfer Protocol--HTTP/1.1:
10.5.1.500 Internal Server Error
The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request.

[bunanson]

Thanks, but does not work either:

Error 500--Internal Server Error
From RFC 2068 Hypertext Transfer Protocol--HTTP/1.1:
10.5.1.500 Internal Server Error
The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request.

Is your cellphone hooked up? did you leave user/password blank? Try to use the 'other' APC.

tmob does not sell daypass any more, it is now call hourpass, and from .99 to 1.49; they changed the title but not the calling programming. Anyhow the link works for me, up to 2 wks ago. I have moved and tmob is NOT available here, cant check for you.

bun

[petermaritimus]

A variation of the link posted above worked for me on a Nexus S:
(using this link from your phone will cost you $1.50)

http://wap.t-zones.com/myaccount/hourpasssubscribe.do

resulted in a message confirming the subscription and a working access to the web (at least I was able to do a new search on google).
I do not know yet whether that will work for 1 hour or one day. We will see.

[ArchT]

Thanks...your link below is surely work. Great find!
my N900 has been down without webdaypass in two weeks.


A variation of the link posted above worked for me on a Nexus S:
(using this link from your phone will cost you $1.50)

http://wap.t-zones.com/myaccount/hourpasssubscribe.do

resulted in a message confirming the subscription and a working access to the web (at least I was able to do a new search on google).
I do not know yet whether that will work for 1 hour or one day. We will see.

[bunanson]

They called hourpass now, still, it works for 24 hr :)

bun

[lkravovicz]

A variation of the link posted above worked for me on a Nexus S:
(using this link from your phone will cost you $1.50)

http://wap.t-zones.com/myaccount/hourpasssubscribe.do

resulted in a message confirming the subscription and a working access to the web (at least I was able to do a new search on google).
I do not know yet whether that will work for 1 hour or one day. We will see.

YES, thank you! This link works here too. Their wap portal is apparently programmed crappy enough that it simply does not work on regular web browsers. I had to use a special T-Mobile My Account app on Android to at least have that working.

But going directly to that URL in Opera works, all IM accounts immediately connected, and web pages load.

[rotoflex]

Looks like no more internet with T-Mobile prepaid Pay-As-You-Go:
http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-2865
Web DayPass is No Longer Available
VERSION 2
Created on: Nov 2, 2011 4:09 PM by johnr - Last Modified: Nov 14, 2011 7:55 AM by tj

As of October 16, 2011, Web DayPass was grandfathered and is no longer available. Customers who wish to use data services must choose a rate plan that comes with data. See T-Mobile No Annual Contract to locate a rate plan that includes data.

Sort of stinks if you took advantage of their Gold Rewards program & have a huge balance waiting to be used.

Next least expensive plan with data is Pay-By-The-Day:
http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans

Besides figuring cost versus prepaid, switching plans with T-Mobile can be rough. When I switched from Monthly to Prepaid, my balance on the website showed 0, then a month and a half later I got a letter saying my bill was past due. The website didn't reflect the last month of Monthly after I switched, so it just waited until it was past due & required a few long phone calls to customer service to clear up. They even sent two separate, simultaneous bills from Texas & I think Virginia to compound the confusion.