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

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!

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

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?

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.

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

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)

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.

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.

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.