Nokia Phone & Windows - GPRS

[alchamy]

Right, here is a short tutorial to get your gprs connectivity on your computer using your nokia phone and bluetooth.

Obviously you will need your bluetooth installed and working.

Then you need to configure the Bluetooth modem,in Windows XP you goto the control panel select "phone & modem options" and select your bluetooth modem. In the advanced tab of your bluetooth modem properties you need to add the following to you "extra initialization strings"

+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet"

You need to replace internet with you default APN, it should be "internet" if you are using vodacom.

Once that is done its quite simple, start up your "bluetooth dial up networking" and leave the username and password fields blank. Dial this number *99#

There you go, your are now connected via GPRS.

So what can you expect from GPRS?

Pinging the www.vodacom.co.za will look something like this

Ping statistics for 196.28.100.13:
Packets: Sent = 91, Received = 79, Lost = 12 (13% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 550ms, Maximum = 2614ms, Average = 945ms

Pinging www.google.com something like this.

Ping statistics for 216.239.63.104:
Packets: Sent = 74, Received = 68, Lost = 6 (8% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 776ms, Maximum = 2249ms, Average = 1219ms

Ofcourse I could just have bad reception, its definately the radio side of things messing around. Although a quick look at my phone tells me I have full reception.

Ok, so obviously latency is not really your concern if your on GPRS, however speed still plays a factor so here goes.

The local Telkom speed test gives this answer (500kb file)

Your line speed is approximately 11.7 Kbps or 1.4 kBytes/sec

The International Stanford test gives this.

Oops, it won't work. Packet loss is not my friend, seemed to die on the outbound test though, will try again. I did do a int'l download which came in at about 1.2 Kbytes/sec

Ok, so its nothing special, but still great for that quick e-mail download when your company sends you on one of those team building missions in the middle of nowhere.

I could probably stick my phone out the window and get better results but then again I dont think anyone wants to run around looking for a better "spot" so this is pretty much what you can expect. Also the tests were done just after 8pm which would be peak time for the network.

Anyways just thought with the new tarriffs some people might be interested, besides the 3G modem is still a bit expensive and GPRS works fine for a mobile solution.

[Nickste]

Shot alchamy, exactly what I needed ;-)

What is the APN, and does anyone know what it is for mtn?

Chow, Nick

[alchamy]

You can check it in your settings, if you have a symbian series 60 phone, 3650,6600, N-gage etc. You select tools then settings then connection then check your default access point you will see a option called "access point name" IE your APN.

[diabolus]

Just for interest sakes, here's my GPRS stats from my Samsung E600 using usb datacable [on prepaid].

http://www.telkom.co.za/portal/page?..._schema=PORTAL

Your line speed is approximately 46.6 Kbps or 5.7 kBytes/sec

* Download time: 87.606 seconds
* Size of file: 500 KiloBytes
* Estimated line speed: 46.6 (kilobits/second)
* Estimated line speed: 5.7 (kiloBytes/second)

http://netspeed.stanford.edu/

Checking for Middleboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
running 10s outbound test (client to server) . . . . . 11.17Kb/s
running 10s inbound test (server to client) . . . . . . 9.75kb/s
Your PC is connected to a Dial-up Modem
Information: Other network traffic is congesting the link

So for me it's VERY acceptable, considering 56.6k dial-up has been my alternative at home. If you work out the costs it might actually be interesting to see that you pay Telkom [if you dial-up], easily R90 [line rental per month] + R50 [R7 callmore monthly,(this is not usage it is just to 'get' the service each month) ] + [some other "services"?] = R140+ and then you haven't even USED the services yet! [plus you're restricted to dial-up after 19:00 or loose even more]. So that's already 70 MB on GPRS right there using the R2 p/MB rate ...scary actually.

[alchamy]

Your speeds are very similar to what I get during "less" busy hours on the network. Peak times are still a bit sluggish. Latency is the only real problem. :/

Price wise I agree fully, if your not a heavy user, eg just IRC with occasional browsing than GPRS is a perfect option. IRC and light browsing will use about 30meg a weekend, R60 which is really not that bad when compared to Telkom & ISP costs. Heavier users wont find as much value in GPRS though.

[Nickste]

Hey all,
I am busy using MTN GPRS and it seems to be very stable, and speeds are pretty decent for browsing.

Also really like the quick connect time (I'm used to dial up!)

Cheers, Nick

[alchamy]

I played around with an MTN sim earlier this week, pings are not much better than vodacom, perhaps a little more stable. Speeds are about 20% faster. Not really worth R45 extra per meg

[Nickste]

OMG... please don't tell me its R45 a meg!?

*Nickste is gonna get an ass whippin when daddy gets the bill ;-)

heheh,

Chow, Nick

[ic]

Ouch Nick //my crystal ball forecasts the reintroduction of corporal punishment...

On the subject of MTN & their R45/MB charge - when exactly are MTN & CellC going to join the price war? [aka consumer party]

[alchamy]

OMG... please don't tell me its R45 a meg!?

*Nickste is gonna get an ass whippin when daddy gets the bill ;-)

heheh,

Chow, Nick

Actually its R47 a meg, which is R45 more expensive than Vodacom

You need padding for your rear end?

[ash]

wonder when those mtn prices will drop. cos at the moment all mtn users are switching to vodacom for the saving. or atleast a cheap contract with a bundle attached to it...

[ic]

Yeah well even Vodacom pre-paid GPRS is cheaper @ R2/MB than MTN's R47/MB. I seem to recall a news article / MTN press release at least 3 weeks back saying they would announce within 2 weeks... or perhaps I had drifted into an alternate universe...

[Nickste]

Oh man... this is bad... this is very, very bad...

[alchamy]

Yeah well even Vodacom pre-paid GPRS is cheaper @ R2/MB than MTN's R47/MB. I seem to recall a news article / MTN press release at least 3 weeks back saying they would announce within 2 weeks... or perhaps I had drifted into an alternate universe...

Yeah, I remember that article, R10/meg/sec or some wording blunder like that. Hmm, the other day while chatting to one of the the sim dev guys he mentioned provisioning for UTMS. Mayby soon, doubt it will be competetive though. I mean Vodacom was charging R10 a meg for ages and MTN did not bother competing, infact even before that I think it was R40 a meg (smallest bundle) So they dont seem to interested in competing, who knows.

Oh man... this is bad... this is very, very bad...

Hmm, just dont tell me you downloaded SP2 or something like that, Downloading SP2 with MTN would cost just over R12000.
Hehe, and to think we complain about Vodacom charging R600 a gig when MTN is charging R47000 a gig.

[ic]

Ouch those figures are straight from an Amitteeville (sp?) Horror...