Hi Everyone
Firstly, sorry for the delay in re-posting this info (that was lost with the forum restore 2 weeks ago). I have had quite a few PMs and have seen alot of posts asking for info on a couple of things : how to tell if a cell is EDGE enabled, how to tell what Coding Scheme (CS) you are using, how to tell how many time slots you are getting, and the big one, how to manually select (force) a tower.
The info below assumes that you have a series 60 phone (like the Nokia 6630), and that you are au fait with installing sis applications on to it. It also assumes that you have the relevant data connections loaded onto your SIM, that they are configured on the cell, and that you can connect and browse normally.
And here comes my disclaimer - you make all these modifications at your own peril! Please dont point fingers at me if you bugger up your phone
So, first off : Get yourself a copy of the netmon application and install it on your phone. Here is a URL where you can download it from :
http://www.symbian-freak.com/quides/netmon.htm
To activate the application, select the "Beetle Bug" icon that says "Test" on the main menu page.
So what does the info mean? Here are the important submenus to look at with this application :
1.9 Tells you the basic info about the cell you are connected to: If you are having a problem with speed or dropped connections, this is the info that will help your network to assist you. A note on signal strength - they are negative values, so the lower they are, the better the signal is. In other words, -69 is better than -80
1.3 More detail about the cell listed in 1.9. CH = Channel, RX = Signal Strength. It also gives you the important info about neighbour cells, i.e. the signal strength and the channel. More about how this could be useful later on... (when you want to manually select a base (transmitting) station [BTS])
6.1 Tells you all about your GPRS connection. DL = Download, TS = TimeSlots, UP = Upload, CS = Coding Scheme. Some things to note here - you only use Timeslots during active data transfer, even if your connection is active. If you get a reading of 0 for timeslots, and you are not downloading anything, that is correct. Try download something to see how many TS you are getting. CS will only give you a meaningful value if you are NOT on Edge - this app for some reason puts an "X" under this field whilst on EDGE. Possible values for Coding Schemes are 1, 2, 3, or 4.
6.12 Gives you your EGPRS (or EDGE) information. The field you need to look at here is " EGPRS Support". A "1" means you are on EDGE, a "0" means you are not.
81.1 Allows you to select whether you want to use WCDMA (3G) or GSM based protocols. This is handy for a number of reasons. First off, having both WCDMA and GSM antennaes active chows battery life. So if you are running low on battery, and you want to conserve it as much as possible, switch off the antennae you dont need. Further to this, if you are on MTN (who dont yet have 3G), its pointless having the 3G antennae going all the time. Switch it off - it will save you battery life! So to do this - press "options", select "execute", and enter a 0,1 or 2 depending on what you are tring to accomplish, and select "OK". The phone will reboot - this is normal.
So, the big question.... How do you manually select an "EDGE" tower. Its all done via menu 1.12. You need to do some homework first though. Go to menu 1.3, and write down info on your neighbour cells. you need the channel number and the signal strength. Write them down! You now need to translate the channel number into HEX for input into the app. To do this, open your calculator on windows. Click "View", "Scientific". Make sure that the "Dec" radio button is selected. Type the channel number into the calculator, then click the "Hex" Radio button. Write down the Hex values for each channel that you wish to manually connect. Example = Channel 110 has a HEX value of 6E, This is the value you are going to input for 1.12.
So, to manually select the BTS :
Select menu 1.12
Press "Options"
Select "Execute"
Under "input value", enter the HEX value of the Channel you want to manually select.
Under "BTS TEST" you should now see the manually selected channel displayed in Decimal format.
To cancel a manual selection, the input value is EE
You may want to manually select all the neighbour Channels until you find one that supports EGPRS (EDGE) detailed in 6.12!
Dont forget to cancel your manual selection when you are on the move
Any queries, please let me know. Dont be suprised if you see this post edited a few times to make it easier to follow
Moderators - feel free to make
it more pretty/make it a sticky if you so wish!
Firstly, sorry for the delay in re-posting this info (that was lost with the forum restore 2 weeks ago). I have had quite a few PMs and have seen alot of posts asking for info on a couple of things : how to tell if a cell is EDGE enabled, how to tell what Coding Scheme (CS) you are using, how to tell how many time slots you are getting, and the big one, how to manually select (force) a tower.
The info below assumes that you have a series 60 phone (like the Nokia 6630), and that you are au fait with installing sis applications on to it. It also assumes that you have the relevant data connections loaded onto your SIM, that they are configured on the cell, and that you can connect and browse normally.
And here comes my disclaimer - you make all these modifications at your own peril! Please dont point fingers at me if you bugger up your phone
So, first off : Get yourself a copy of the netmon application and install it on your phone. Here is a URL where you can download it from :
http://www.symbian-freak.com/quides/netmon.htm
To activate the application, select the "Beetle Bug" icon that says "Test" on the main menu page.
So what does the info mean? Here are the important submenus to look at with this application :
1.9 Tells you the basic info about the cell you are connected to: If you are having a problem with speed or dropped connections, this is the info that will help your network to assist you. A note on signal strength - they are negative values, so the lower they are, the better the signal is. In other words, -69 is better than -80
1.3 More detail about the cell listed in 1.9. CH = Channel, RX = Signal Strength. It also gives you the important info about neighbour cells, i.e. the signal strength and the channel. More about how this could be useful later on... (when you want to manually select a base (transmitting) station [BTS])
6.1 Tells you all about your GPRS connection. DL = Download, TS = TimeSlots, UP = Upload, CS = Coding Scheme. Some things to note here - you only use Timeslots during active data transfer, even if your connection is active. If you get a reading of 0 for timeslots, and you are not downloading anything, that is correct. Try download something to see how many TS you are getting. CS will only give you a meaningful value if you are NOT on Edge - this app for some reason puts an "X" under this field whilst on EDGE. Possible values for Coding Schemes are 1, 2, 3, or 4.
6.12 Gives you your EGPRS (or EDGE) information. The field you need to look at here is " EGPRS Support". A "1" means you are on EDGE, a "0" means you are not.
81.1 Allows you to select whether you want to use WCDMA (3G) or GSM based protocols. This is handy for a number of reasons. First off, having both WCDMA and GSM antennaes active chows battery life. So if you are running low on battery, and you want to conserve it as much as possible, switch off the antennae you dont need. Further to this, if you are on MTN (who dont yet have 3G), its pointless having the 3G antennae going all the time. Switch it off - it will save you battery life! So to do this - press "options", select "execute", and enter a 0,1 or 2 depending on what you are tring to accomplish, and select "OK". The phone will reboot - this is normal.
So, the big question.... How do you manually select an "EDGE" tower. Its all done via menu 1.12. You need to do some homework first though. Go to menu 1.3, and write down info on your neighbour cells. you need the channel number and the signal strength. Write them down! You now need to translate the channel number into HEX for input into the app. To do this, open your calculator on windows. Click "View", "Scientific". Make sure that the "Dec" radio button is selected. Type the channel number into the calculator, then click the "Hex" Radio button. Write down the Hex values for each channel that you wish to manually connect. Example = Channel 110 has a HEX value of 6E, This is the value you are going to input for 1.12.
So, to manually select the BTS :
Select menu 1.12
Press "Options"
Select "Execute"
Under "input value", enter the HEX value of the Channel you want to manually select.
Under "BTS TEST" you should now see the manually selected channel displayed in Decimal format.
To cancel a manual selection, the input value is EE
You may want to manually select all the neighbour Channels until you find one that supports EGPRS (EDGE) detailed in 6.12!
Dont forget to cancel your manual selection when you are on the move
Any queries, please let me know. Dont be suprised if you see this post edited a few times to make it easier to follow
Moderators - feel free to make it more pretty/make it a sticky if you so wish!
