Help with Nokia E61

[kingstonza]

Hi
I have a Nokia E61 and can surf the web fine using the vodacom access point. Problem is when I try and listen to streaming audio (specifically http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/realaudio/media/r1livev7.ram) using the Real Player. It downloads the ram file but after Real Player fires up it won't connect. I've tried connecting using Vodafone Live as the access point, but that doesn't work either. According to the Vodafone live website the E61 doesn't seem to be supported - is there some other way I can listen to the stream?
Any help would be appreciated. I see elsewhere in the forum the suggestion that calling 155 might help - but with issues I've had with my 3G card before I've had to phone them a couple of times and being put on hold for up to an hour at a time hasn't made that a fun option....
Thanks

 

[vodacom3g]

Hi
I have a Nokia E61 and can surf the web fine using the vodacom access point. Problem is when I try and listen to streaming audio (specifically http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/realaudio/media/r1livev7.ram) using the Real Player. It downloads the ram file but after Real Player fires up it won't connect. I've tried connecting using Vodafone Live as the access point, but that doesn't work either. According to the Vodafone live website the E61 doesn't seem to be supported - is there some other way I can listen to the stream?
Any help would be appreciated. I see elsewhere in the forum the suggestion that calling 155 might help - but with issues I've had with my 3G card before I've had to phone them a couple of times and being put on hold for up to an hour at a time hasn't made that a fun option....
Thanks

Get yourself provisioned for the 'internetvpn' apn and test with that. It bypasses some engines in the network that don't like improperly formatted (not compliant to some standard) layer-7 packets. I suspect this is what you're seeing. We've seen this with a few other streaming sites.

Please let me know if this works.

 

[kingstonza]

Tried that...

Phoned 155. Had a very pleasant 40 minutes listening to #$%!@ Mambo Number five repeatedly (was a great song....ten years ago....)

At first the friendly and helpful lady didn't really know what I was on about, but she did her best and eventually came back with the very unhelpful request that I get "the person in charge of my company" to send a fax authorising it. (The fact that I work for a large multinational with a London-based CEO who is probably more interested in billion dollar deals than a fax to Vodacom didn't matter)

So I guess all I can do is get my secretary to write the fax and send it off on Monday and then sit around twiddling my thumbs until someone receives it and does something with it.

Anyway, thanks for your help...if this is the only way I can get streaming then I guess I'm going to have to wait....and spend my time waiting wondering why it is that in an era where they can put a monkey's heart in a human and keep it alive, we still have to rely on the fax machine to get technology to work.

 

[Syndyre]

Weird, 155 usually answers pretty quickly these days.

 

[ic]

@kingstonza, if it were a personal contract, you would have been able to get your SIM card provisioned for the internetvpn over the phone with 155, but since it is a business contract, Vodacom requires all changes related to the contract to be authorised by the company, whose name the contract is in.

Weird, 155 usually answers pretty quickly these days.

Yep, it is [in my experience] unusual to have to wait for 40 minutes to get through to a 155 call centre agent, but there is always the #callback option...

 

[kingstonza]

The call on 155 got answered pretty quickly, but the call centre agent had to put me on hold for 40 minutes while she got help from someone else...

I understand the rationale for the corporate thing....it just strikes me as strange. Why should streaming be treated differently from any other kind of web surfing? My company bought me a phone with 3G capability and I surf the web with it fine...not sure I understand why special permission is required to allow me to stream audio to my phone. Its not as if its going to cost anything extra (as I understand it) and if I abuse it I would get fired...just like if I abused my phone by running up huge bills.

 

[Syndyre]

The call on 155 got answered pretty quickly, but the call centre agent had to put me on hold for 40 minutes while she got help from someone else...

I understand the rationale for the corporate thing....it just strikes me as strange. Why should streaming be treated differently from any other kind of web surfing? My company bought me a phone with 3G capability and I surf the web with it fine...not sure I understand why special permission is required to allow me to stream audio to my phone. Its not as if its going to cost anything extra (as I understand it) and if I abuse it I would get fired...just like if I abused my phone by running up huge bills.

Its not that streaming is treated differently, its just the provision of a different apn requires the contract holder's consent.

 

[kingstonza]

Hi
I understand WHY it happens. Just not sure I understand that it is NECCESSARY for it to happen. Just strikes me as being damn inconvenient...particularly since their business contract division or whatever can't do anything on it until they're open again on Monday (thought the internet and broadband was all about "on demand" gratification for the consumer. Having to wait two days and use a fax machine for something so simple is madness.
Shades of old-school Telkom beaurocracy at work within Vodacom, but I'm sure they have their reasons.

 

[vodacom3g]

Hi
I understand WHY it happens. Just not sure I understand that it is NECCESSARY for it to happen. Just strikes me as being damn inconvenient...particularly since their business contract division or whatever can't do anything on it until they're open again on Monday (thought the internet and broadband was all about "on demand" gratification for the consumer. Having to wait two days and use a fax machine for something so simple is madness.
Shades of old-school Telkom beaurocracy at work within Vodacom, but I'm sure they have their reasons.

You'll probably find that at some point something like this was done to help a specific employee and the company came down on Vodacom, resulting in all future instructions from corporate accounts to be done on paper. (Does reek of some legal eagle mumbo-jumbo).

 

[kingstonza]

Yeah, I gettit. Bit of a farce really - I am going to write the letter, my secretary will send it off and that's all it will take. Hardly a watertight system.

If Vodacom are going to have this kind of cumbersome process, they should at least soften the blow by offering some sort of email option so I don't have to fax it, and allow me to do it during regular help desk hours, not office hours.

Anyway, I have a fairly active blog of my own and will put my rants up there. Maybe the Vodacom PR guys will pick it up and realise the damage their systems do their image. Or maybe they won't.

 

[kaspaas]

You'll probably find that at some point something like this was done to help a specific employee and the company came down on Vodacom, resulting in all future instructions from corporate accounts to be done on paper. (Does reek of some legal eagle mumbo-jumbo).

This is the procedure to add databundles etc as well.

It is a lot of admin schlepp - and quite often the VC side goes bad as well. I guess it is creating a mountain of minimal income generating faxes that need to be managed.

I wish there was a better way of doing it - like the company authorising a max amount per month per line (incl an unlimited option) and the employee could then do as he pleases within the allowed amount.

 

[kingstonza]

OK Now I'm officially going nuts....
Eventually got the fax off to Vodacom. Phoned a day later, was told it had been sent to the admin dept and it should all be sorted by the end of the day. I asked how I would know. I should phone back, the man said. It wasn't sorted, didn't get a chance to phone.

So today tried again. This time the guy printed out the fax and took it off to the admin dept again. Assured me it would all be sorted and he would phone me when it was. It wasn't, and he didn't.

All I want is the access, and someone to tell me what settings I need to change on my phone for the new access point.

Aaaaaaaargh.

Am I the only one going through this hell?

If it isn't working tomorrow I'm going out and getting a MTN contract. And when my business contract comes to an end, I'm moving that too. And the contracts of all my staff. And my family. And my staff's family.

I got it baaaad!

 

[vodacom3g]

OK Now I'm officially going nuts....
Eventually got the fax off to Vodacom. Phoned a day later, was told it had been sent to the admin dept and it should all be sorted by the end of the day. I asked how I would know. I should phone back, the man said. It wasn't sorted, didn't get a chance to phone.

So today tried again. This time the guy printed out the fax and took it off to the admin dept again. Assured me it would all be sorted and he would phone me when it was. It wasn't, and he didn't.

All I want is the access, and someone to tell me what settings I need to change on my phone for the new access point.

Aaaaaaaargh.

Am I the only one going through this hell?

If it isn't working tomorrow I'm going out and getting a MTN contract. And when my business contract comes to an end, I'm moving that too. And the contracts of all my staff. And my family. And my staff's family.

I got it baaaad!

PM me the number and I'll ask the guys to check what's going on.

You change the 'internet' value to 'internetvpn'. Maybe just check if it's not working already.

 

[kingstonza]

Thanks - have PMd you my number...let me know how it goes.
I see that Damien's Top Five Things is listing Vodacom's helpdesk as something p***ing him off right now...usually a good indicator of general public sentiment....and nice to see I'm not alone....

 

[vodacom3g]

Thanks - have PMd you my number...let me know how it goes.
I see that Damien's Top Five Things is listing Vodacom's helpdesk as something p***ing him off right now...usually a good indicator of general public sentiment....and nice to see I'm not alone....

You were already provision for the apn on the 28th of April! (looks like they did it as soon as you asked!), so I guess it's a setup thing on your handset. Maybe call 155 and ask them to take you through the steps?

Thanks for the heads-up. Will look into it.

 

[vodacom3g]

Looks like Daniel also uses a company phone:

Normally they’re ok. But right now they’re pissing me off because I want to listen to streaming audio on my cell phone and their “Help Desk” (there’s a contradiction in terms….) is insisting on a fax from my employer saying it’s ok. Huh???? My employer couldn’t give a **** whether I have streaming audio on my phone or not. And what’s with the fax thing? Who uses them any more????

Reality is, if you're going to request changes to a contract, you're probably going to need the contract owner's permission.

 

[kingstonza]

hiya
OK if they had provisioned me on the 28th (5 days BEFORE I sent off the fax....sounds like a great system (not)), then why didn't they tell me on one of the two occasions I phoned 155 to check to see if I had been provisioned yet? Instead got the "sorry I'll print the fax out and take it to the admin department again" response. Weird.
Anyway, called 155 tonight and tried a different tack - instead of asking if I had been provisioned, I just told them that I had been provisioned and if they could talk me through setting up my handset. Which they did, and it now works.
Thanks for your help through a strange, mixed-up system.....

(Saw your response to Damien's comment too...I agree, yes that the contract owner should be contacted if there is a change to the contract...but my point is a different one: why should listening to streaming audio be considered a change to the contract in the first place? surely it should be part of a broadband offering and not viewed as an exception? If an end user is suddenly asking for international roaming or some other add on service I would understand....but this is a bit more basic than that. I guess one day we'll look back at this and laugh...until then we'll endure the weird system....)

 

[vodacom3g]

hiya
OK if they had provisioned me on the 28th (5 days BEFORE I sent off the fax....sounds like a great system (not)), then why didn't they tell me on one of the two occasions I phoned 155 to check to see if I had been provisioned yet? Instead got the "sorry I'll print the fax out and take it to the admin department again" response. Weird.
Anyway, called 155 tonight and tried a different tack - instead of asking if I had been provisioned, I just told them that I had been provisioned and if they could talk me through setting up my handset. Which they did, and it now works.
Thanks for your help through a strange, mixed-up system.....

(Saw your response to Damien's comment too...I agree, yes that the contract owner should be contacted if there is a change to the contract...but my point is a different one: why should listening to streaming audio be considered a change to the contract in the first place? surely it should be part of a broadband offering and not viewed as an exception? If an end user is suddenly asking for international roaming or some other add on service I would understand....but this is a bit more basic than that. I guess one day we'll look back at this and laugh...until then we'll endure the weird system....)

Yeah, looks like your bitching on the first day you called prompted the provisioning. So much for the calldesk following the process... Kinda shoots my whole argument out of the water.

I guess any change to the contract requires the consent of the contract holder. What if some obscure corporate policy states you're not allowed to use company property for private use (listening to the radio) or if there might be a financial impact (paying for the audio stream), etc. You know how anal some corporate policies can be....