MTN APNs & Restrictions / Facilities...

M

Menageryl

Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2006
Messages
20
Reaction score
0
Location
Centurion, S.A.
' Here's a (another!) question for MTNDD and / or anyone else in the know...

' What are the various MTN APNs available to the public? And what are their specific restrictions / uses / purposes / abilities / facilities?

' In other words - are there APNs which allow for (for example) external connections to be initiated - say, for example, to allow for hosting of sites (FTP / Web / etc.) via the 3G / GPRS / EDGE networks... With the hosted site sitting on said network and accessed by / via / through the "external" or public Internet (anyone and everyone NOT on the MTN network)?
' And are there APNs which specifically deny such things. Due to, for example, security concerns (virii, hacking, etc.)?

' Would love to get a detailed and thorough breakdown of the various MTN APNs available and have any other information relevant to the subject at hand shared with me / us - any development, say, in this are which may not yet be definitive or in-use.

' Many thankings in advance! ;-)
' ~Moi
 
Hi,

The 2 publicly available APN's are "internet" and "myMTN", they both utilise a private address ranges, and as such are not reachable from the internet, however communication between devices is possible if the IP addresses are known, and they are both using the same APN.

There are no traffic restrictions on these APN's, except for a block on unassigned port 8198 due to a worm virus.

We do not have a publicly available APN that assigns public addresses to the handsets and allows all traffic back towards the handset, which is what will be needed for allowing of hosting, however this is currently being investigated. (the risks involved are huge, as we charge by volume, if someone gets attacked from the internet, they will be charged for that traffic, and will not be able to stop it before it is charged for).

MTNDD
 
' Again my man, thanks PLENTY for the prompt and pertinent reply!!!

' Quick question: What, then, is the difference between the two APNs then (mymtn & internet). What's the reason for the two different APNs, their purpose?

' I'm VERY glad to hear that public-Net-accessibility is being investigated. Good to know y'all are looking ahead. I / One would hope / think that anyone wanting to use such a connection or having a specific need for such, would naturally be aware of the dangers involved - the bandwidth / data and accessibility to maliciousness you mentioned just being two very good, prime examples.
' But, in theory at least, those requesting or using such an APN specifically should be well aware of such problems and should be both willing and prepared to deal with them.

' But then, I suppose we're talking "perfect world" vs. "real world" assumptions, aren't we? Assuming everyone relevant to the conversation would actually be clued-in. :-D

' Thanks again. Do us a flavour though would you, and keep us in the loop regarding this situation and the investigation and any / all decisions or changes that may come from it, please? I'd much appreciate, as I'm afraid I myself would be one of 'em people I've been talking about - willing (and ready!) to deal with and handle the associated problems and issues as long as I get the functionality I need and desire.

' ~Moi
 
Menageryl - MTN has got another apn namely 'MTNVPN' aswell. This for secure vpn connections but AFAIK the MTNVPN apn is NATed so you won't be able to connect to it from outside (Saix,etc) the APN. MTNDD feel free to correct where wrong.

The way I see it there are two ways of beating this problem. (for hosting web servers, ftp, etc.)

1 - Setting up your own APN on the MTN Network. AFAIK the cost is about R6000p/m.

2 - Setting up a VPN server via DSL or DigiNet (or anything else cheap non-cellular) and connecting to it with your VPN client (Or WinXP)


debug
 
Menageryl said:
' Again my man, thanks PLENTY for the prompt and pertinent reply!!!

' Quick question: What, then, is the difference between the two APNs then (mymtn & internet). What's the reason for the two different APNs, their purpose?

' I'm VERY glad to hear that public-Net-accessibility is being investigated. Good to know y'all are looking ahead. I / One would hope / think that anyone wanting to use such a connection or having a specific need for such, would naturally be aware of the dangers involved - the bandwidth / data and accessibility to maliciousness you mentioned just being two very good, prime examples.
' But, in theory at least, those requesting or using such an APN specifically should be well aware of such problems and should be both willing and prepared to deal with them.

' But then, I suppose we're talking "perfect world" vs. "real world" assumptions, aren't we? Assuming everyone relevant to the conversation would actually be clued-in. :-D

' Thanks again. Do us a flavour though would you, and keep us in the loop regarding this situation and the investigation and any / all decisions or changes that may come from it, please? I'd much appreciate, as I'm afraid I myself would be one of 'em people I've been talking about - willing (and ready!) to deal with and handle the associated problems and issues as long as I get the functionality I need and desire.

' ~Moi
Click to expand...

Hi,

There is no real difference between them, the myMTN APN was created to cater for roaming where it looked like the APN "internet" was going to be used worldwide as a roaming APN. this has since fallen by the way side. The internet APN was never removed, as there are too many people out there who still have it in their config. another reason, is to allow for more users. the way we try to put it to the market, although it makes no difference, is that the APN internet is used for general surfing, and the myMTN APN is used for WAP and MMS. The only limitation is that the internet APN does not allow MMS. you can WAP and surf from both, but MMS is only available from the myMTN APN. They both share the same bandwidth and routing, so there is no advantage gained by switching between the 2 APN's.

Regards,

MTNDD
 
Currently right now as I sit here, if I logon using the myMTN APN I get NOTHING happening... now and again a page will load on my Opera Mini, or Mxit might login (slowly) or my wap browser on the N95 will actually respond, but choosing the internet APN I get immediate response.

Why is that?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X