I've just resurrected my VM sim as a backup for when MTN goes down and one the problems I've always had is having to change the APN name from 'internet' (MTN, Vodacom) to 'vdata' (Virgin) every time I swap the sim card.
I gone and done a bit of digging and came up with the following solution.
First off, your phone/modem must be able to store more than one APN, else it won't work. I discovered my Nokia 6230i could only store one APN setting while my Motorola V360 can store three APN's. To find out how many APN's your device can store you need to connect to it using a terminal program such at Hyperterminal on Windows and type AT+CGDCONT? This command will return a number of lines that look like this:
+CGDCONT: 1,"IP",,,0,0
+CGDCONT: 2,"IP",,,0,0
+CGDCONT: 3,"IP",,,0,0
The number of lines you get back tell you how many APN's your phone can store. If you only get one line returned, stop reading now, this won't work for you.
If you get more than one line returned, well done, your device can store more than one APN, which means you can store the 'internet' and 'vdata' APN's in separate slots. To actually store the two APN's on the phone you need to enter the following initialisation string under Control Panel... Phone and Modem options for for your modem.
+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet"<cr>AT+CGDCONT=2,"IP","vdata"<cr>
Note that the initialisation string should ordinarily have an AT on the front but Windows adds it automatically for you.
Now you've set up the modem to store 'internet' as the APN for setting one and 'vdata' for setting two. Next you have to tell the modem which settings to use when connecting. To do this, you specify the APN position in the dialup number. So to connect using the 'internet' APN use *99***1# as the dial up number, to connect using the 'vdata' APN use *99***2# as the dial up number.
Usually you would set up two different internet connections with two different dial up number, but you could just use the same connection and change the dial up number each time. Windows will send the initialisation string to the modem each time you connect so you don't have to keep repeating that step.
Hope this helps.
I gone and done a bit of digging and came up with the following solution.
First off, your phone/modem must be able to store more than one APN, else it won't work. I discovered my Nokia 6230i could only store one APN setting while my Motorola V360 can store three APN's. To find out how many APN's your device can store you need to connect to it using a terminal program such at Hyperterminal on Windows and type AT+CGDCONT? This command will return a number of lines that look like this:
+CGDCONT: 1,"IP",,,0,0
+CGDCONT: 2,"IP",,,0,0
+CGDCONT: 3,"IP",,,0,0
The number of lines you get back tell you how many APN's your phone can store. If you only get one line returned, stop reading now, this won't work for you.
If you get more than one line returned, well done, your device can store more than one APN, which means you can store the 'internet' and 'vdata' APN's in separate slots. To actually store the two APN's on the phone you need to enter the following initialisation string under Control Panel... Phone and Modem options for for your modem.
+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet"<cr>AT+CGDCONT=2,"IP","vdata"<cr>
Note that the initialisation string should ordinarily have an AT on the front but Windows adds it automatically for you.
Now you've set up the modem to store 'internet' as the APN for setting one and 'vdata' for setting two. Next you have to tell the modem which settings to use when connecting. To do this, you specify the APN position in the dialup number. So to connect using the 'internet' APN use *99***1# as the dial up number, to connect using the 'vdata' APN use *99***2# as the dial up number.
Usually you would set up two different internet connections with two different dial up number, but you could just use the same connection and change the dial up number each time. Windows will send the initialisation string to the modem each time you connect so you don't have to keep repeating that step.
Hope this helps.
