Database Develop

PDA Personal – Unlimited data

This question has probably been answered a hundred million times but I just wanted to double check before trying this out. Dont want to end up with a huge bill. I have the PDA Personal – Unlimited ($30) data plan. I keep seeing 2 options throughtout the pda. AT&T ISP GPRS (isp.cingular) and MEdia Net (wap.cingular). Does my plan include both or should I just stick with MEdia Net for internet.
Thanks.

It's my understanding that the wap.cingular is for interwebs on the tilt and isp.cingular is for use with tethering and possibly internet sharing.

If you only have the PDA Personal plan, then I'm pretty sure your AT&T ISP connection won't even function. I had the same question when I first signed up and while I could get signal and connection with ISP selected, I couldn't actually get any data to come across. From everything I've read, Yusuke is right.....ISP is for tethering and you're best off sticking with Media Net........it's been working great for me.

I'm on a pda personal as well and as Valtamr said, my ISP won't even connect. I tether on media net. Been doing it for a while just make sure proxy is disabled adn haven't been charged yet. Last month i hit something around 4.5 gigs of traffic no charges!

fone_fanatic, what is the reason to disable proxy? Does Internet Sharing not work if proxy is enabled?
And I am curious about tethering. I want to try it once. Would AT&T be able to detect tethering if I used "Internet Sharing" through USB set to MEdiaNet.
Thanks

MEdia NET VS PDA Personal
Do you know if one could get away with purchasing the MEdia NET versus the doubly priced PDA Personal Plan on the HTC TyTN II? Looking at them, it looks like AT&T is just charging double for the same service, Unlimited MEdia NET access...
Thanks,
Jeremie

jlariviere said:
Do you know if one could get away with purchasing the MEdia NET versus the doubly priced PDA Personal Plan on the HTC TyTN II? Looking at them, it looks like AT&T is just charging double for the same service, Unlimited MEdia NET access...
Thanks,
Jeremie
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. All you need to do is switch your sim to a non-PDA phone call att and tell them you purchased the wrong plan because you no longer like using a pda phone. ask them for $15 unlimited medianet.

An experienced YES
I have been using Medianet on my tilt for 2 months with -0- problems. the at&t rep even suggested using it instead when i was asking about plan options for my tilt.
jlariviere said:
Do you know if one could get away with purchasing the MEdia NET versus the doubly priced PDA Personal Plan on the HTC TyTN II? Looking at them, it looks like AT&T is just charging double for the same service, Unlimited MEdia NET access...
Thanks,
Jeremie
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

MrEous said:
I have been using Medianet on my tilt for 2 months with -0- problems. the at&t rep even suggested using it instead when i was asking about plan options for my tilt.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
redbandana said:
I agree. All you need to do is switch your sim to a non-PDA phone call att and tell them you purchased the wrong plan because you no longer like using a pda phone. ask them for $15 unlimited medianet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks guys!
Jeremie

If you use the media net with internet sharing just to browse the internet and check email they will not know it. but if you start to dl lots of stuff and large files and p2p you will get charge for excessive data usage and i think they can ban you don't really know. i have been using the internet sharing in my laptop on my media net plan for almost a year now with no prob.

redbandana said:
I agree. All you need to do is switch your sim to a non-PDA phone call att and tell them you purchased the wrong plan because you no longer like using a pda phone. ask them for $15 unlimited medianet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i taught you well

$15 media net
OK guys i called ATT and told them i put my sim in another old phone and gave my tilt to my wife. They asked for my IMEI number and the number on the SIM....crap. I dont have a old phone laying around except one from a different network and its prepaid. I dont think it will work will it?? If any of you have a old phone laying around that you know you wont use anymore PM me the IMEI and make model of the phone please, if it works ill send you a little donation..

simmons79 said:
OK guys i called ATT and told them i put my sim in another old phone and gave my tilt to my wife. They asked for my IMEI number and the number on the SIM....crap. I dont have a old phone laying around except one from a different network and its prepaid. I dont think it will work will it?? If any of you have a old phone laying around that you know you wont use anymore PM me the IMEI and make model of the phone please, if it works ill send you a little donation..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OMFG are you serious

Just hang up and call again till you get someone else that wont ask questions, I went threw a long process of them putting my blackberry plan on when I had one cause they were wondering why I was putting the BB Unlim. on a RAZR lol. just go online and change it, i think that works.

wireless.att.com

The Data Buffet
I've used this analogy at the at$t forums before when it comes to data plans, and why at$t would price them the way they do. The real bottom line is, they figured out a way to charge more money, but let me explain the buffet.
Purchasing data plans from at&t is like paying to eat at a buffet. In this case there is the child price, teenager price, and adult price. We could expand on this because of all the variations at&t has with data plans, but let’s stick with three to keep the illustration simple.
The child price (Media Net plan @ $15) is for all the non PDA type phones. at&t assume these types of phone will not consume that much data in a month. Much like a child would not eat that much at the buffet.
The teenager price (PDA plan @ $30) is for all the PDA phones, like a Tilt and BB. at&t assumes one would consume a moderate amount of data in a month’s time.
The adult price (Data Connect plan @ $60) is for laptop cards and tethering your phone to a laptop. at&t assumes if your using a laptop in any way it will consume a huge amount of data.
There are two APN (wap.cingular & isp.cingular). Consider them two different lines to get in when going to the buffet. isp.cingular is an express line reserved for the Data Connect plan. If you are on the Media Net or PDA plan, isp.cingular will not be provisioned for your account.
Then there is the proxy connection. Consider this a different room to go through before getting in line at the buffet. In this room would be a different buffet table with some extra stuff. And that stuff would be the Media Net home page. Whooopy!!
Just like a buffet, some will try and cheat the system. Much like lying about your childs age to get the child price. In this case, giving at&t a wrong IMEI number. Once you’re in, it's all you can eat regardless of the price you paid. Just be aware, you eat too much paying the child price, someone will take notice.

Good analogy; however, my issue is that they claim, for $15 to provide "Unlimited".
It really isn't Unlimited if they charge for different amounts.
Jeremie

Indeed. And I HATE those stupid marketing-driven "Unlimited*" plans that just mean nothing. Unlimited is unlimited. If you want to limit to 5GB, you say it clearly and state it's 5Gb. Grr.
At least it's not that way here. But if I remember well they legally can't do such a stupid thing, which is just right.
* within reasonable considerations

I recently switch to att. I am using the $15 media net w/ the tilt now. I heard ppl saying that the media net is pretty fast(thatz the main reason why I switch to att). but after I switch to att and experience the media net. I found that the speed is that as fast as what I expected. I personally think it's not that fast, it's just a bit faster than the T-zone from Tmobile. I don't know if I have the wrong setting or what. it takes about 10 sec or more to load the google.com and about 35 sec (or more) to load the yahoo.com. is this speed normal? how fast are you guys' media net on ur tilt? just wondering. Please share your experience. thank you

GWelker62 said:
Then there is the proxy connection. Consider this a different room to go through before getting in line at the buffet. In this room would be a different buffet table with some extra stuff. And that stuff would be the Media Net home page. Whooopy!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not completely right here. Since you are being filtered thru the proxy, many applications and protocols will not work properly w/ proxy enable (e.g. HTC home Weather update)

[app] attn tetherers -- bandwidth meter util for XP

Before you plug in that USB cable, join that bluetooth PAN or blaze up that WMWifiRouter demo, you'd best fire up a bandwidth meter on your lappy to make sure you don't sail too far past that 5GB or whatever carrier monthly max lest yo' ass be surcharged up the ass! Note also that if you're running XP you've probably got virii up the ass and that when you tether, when those virii spit out those dirty packets to random IPs, that counts against your cap just as much as facebook and youtube and xda and slashdot.
So put on this jimmy cap. FreeMeter, found on sourceforge (so you know it's legit), lets you monitor your throughput, it plots that **** out on a pretty tiny chart and lets you keep comprehensive yet intelligible logs of incoming, outgoing and combined bandwidth. And most importantly you can set the thing to alert you when you're approaching whatever you set it to warn you about when you're approaching, it .. you get the idea. Use it, put it in Start Up.
Doug

or...
Disable phone as modem through Diamond Tweak/Adv Config/Registry Editor and not worry about bandwidth at all

Umm.. I'm talking about a tool for those of us who want to tether but don't want to get a $4000 bill and know their carrier's cap, not a way to prevent people from accidentally tethering if that's what you're getting at.
I'm fairly certain that a carrier who wants to either tame network traffic or make more money from people downloading movies over their phone counts transmitted bytes on their own routers, not your phone, plus they probably don't warn you or clip off the connection when you hit any cap they may have set in their TOS, so this thing I posted is a tool for tethering (or just satisfying your curiosity).
Anyone know if these carriers cap just downloaded bandwidth or the combined figure for up and down data? And has anyone run into an enforcement situation and gotten a larger bill due to exceeding some data limit on an unlimited plan? And can carriers figure out whether I'm listening to Howard on SiriusWM5 versus downloading Linux ISOs on my laptop?

Unlimited data plan for the win. I'm glad I don't have to worry about caps

Well I don't know. According to this, assuming it hasn't been changed since Jan 08, if you use their Data Connect plan which I believe may be [partly] defined as using the isp.cingular access point rather than wap.cingular, you have a "soft limit" of 5GB a month. If you go over that "repeatedly," at least at the time of this policy from almost a year and a half ago, AT&T might send you a letter advising you of your overindulgance and threaten to "remove the feature" if you keep it up. And that's for legit tethering. I'm not sure if regular data, like streaming media on the phone without tethering, counts against that number which is of some concern to me as I listen to Sirius a lot and like to do it on isp.cingular because, I don't know, I just like to.
As for under-the-radar tethering without a plan using an unlimited MEdia Net plan through the natted WAP, well, I'm safely guessing that that's a TOS violation and it could get ugly if you burn through enough data to get their attention. Ugly meaning at best a warning or possibly signing you up automatically to the Data Connect plan. I'm speaking out my ass here mostly but I might be right. Anyway I think that applies to most of us here so that's why I put up the bandwidth meter (and for those of other carriers like Verizon who are more anal) to keep y'all under the radar as I don't think AT&T immediately knows (or cares) if the packets going through their routers originated originally from your phone or a computer. I imagine that takes careful packet parsing that might just be out of the question to do for everyone all the time. Tallying up gigabytes on the other hand, that they probably do. But I wish they would pour more money into infrastructure because bandwidth is getting pretty thin in my city during the day. Can barely listen to Howard without frequent buffering.
What I'm more nervous about however is Time Warner doing the same thing for my Internet like they've been doing in other markets. Latest word is that they're backing down but if they start up I'll sign up for FiOS.
Overall I've been pleased with AT&T. Today my old man needed help signing on to his company email using a Java thin-client a la citrix and couldn't get it going on my mom's Kubuntu Linux laptop. So I fired up WMWifiRouter on a train from Connecticut going around 80mph and was able to VNC (like remote desktop) to his laptop (Linux, btw) using my laptop through my phone /while actually on the phone with him/ while having two SSH terminals open behind it to fix it. That's pretty badass, to me, doing all that flying through tunnels, real and technological bouncing from one cell to the next.
</ramble>

ahh yes
I quite often forget how the majority of users here at XDA are on GSM networks. I was speaking of using "HKLM\Comm\InternetSharing\Settings\ForceCellConnection=Sprint" to force all data connections from the device to use the 'Sprint' (used for data connections on the device) connection versus the 'Phone As Modem' connection that triggers the counter for Sprint's 5GB cap. Nice app though. After using and exploring all possible upgrades and features of a P.O.S. Treo 700p as a "in between" device while I switched from T-Mobile to my Dad's corporate Sprint plan, I discovered this similar app from Sprint. Just in case any Sprint WM users wanted to be completely legit/keep track of their tethering from a non-WM device.
Sprint Connection Manager
For Windows XP/2000
For Windows Vista

Diamond question for someone familiar with Alltel

I have a Diamond that I purchased without a contract rather than through the Alltel store. I currently am on a family business plan and therefore didn't want to activate it with a smartphone plan because I need to stay on the current business plan. I only use the internet on it if there is a WiFi connection available. I also currently am using the NoData program to ensure it never charges me for any form of data. I would love to be able to start using it for data and texting, but need to stay a part of the current plan.
However, I recently became aware of the Alltel Connect Pack 3 and have some questions about how it would work with my Diamond:
1 Would I be able to add this to my Diamond?
2 Would it simply be the extra $19.99 for this one phone without affecting the other phones on the plan? (ie: The plan would stay exactly as it is just simply with an additional $19.99 per month added to it)
3 Would it allow me to fully utilize all of the data on the phone? (ie: I could quit using NoData and let the phone check my email, use Google Maps for GPS, use any program that needs data, etc)
Thanks in advance for any help!!!

Tethering: WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?

So I've been tethering my Tilt at work for over a year; it's been great to bypass the filters my employer has in place, and I only used it when I had to so I wouldn't get "flagged" by AT&T for too much data usage. Honestly, I have no idea how they enforce their tethering policies.
Or do I?
I got married earlier this year, and just last night we went into AT&T and put my wife on our family plan. She picked the Samsung Solstice, and the salesman and I chatted VERY briefly about the Tilt 2 (how expensive it is), and I mentioned that I had a Tilt.
That's IT!
This morning, I plugged my Tilt into my PC at work, and the connection looks good on my phone, but my PC says "acquiring network address" for far too long, and then says "limited or no connectivity." WHAT?!? This has NEVER happened before. This can't be coincidence that the morning after...did they look closely at the account or something? Can they disable tethering somehow?
Thanks.

i don't know for sure about data plans in the US but my provider enables unlimited internet usage (only EDGE/GPRS is available here, no 3G yet) for a per month flat rate of the equivalent of about $6.
to the best of my knowledge, the service provider can NOT tell if the phone is using the internet or a computer tethered to the phone is using the internet.
so if the internet is connecting and working fine when using apps on your phone, then the internet sharing should also work. i have noticed that the internet sharing can be finicky when trying to assign an IP to your computer when tethered...so try soft resetting your device. also, try different sequences of steps...for example, manually connect the data connection on your phone and THEN start internet sharing, or vice versa and so on.

http://www.wmwifirouter.com/
works great. can connect up to five pc's and/or cell phones.
software is 30, free trial

ASCIIker said:
i don't know for sure about data plans in the US but my provider enables unlimited internet usage (only EDGE/GPRS is available here, no 3G yet) for a per month flat rate of the equivalent of about $6.
to the best of my knowledge, the service provider can NOT tell if the phone is using the internet or a computer tethered to the phone is using the internet.
so if the internet is connecting and working fine when using apps on your phone, then the internet sharing should also work. i have noticed that the internet sharing can be finicky when trying to assign an IP to your computer when tethered...so try soft resetting your device. also, try different sequences of steps...for example, manually connect the data connection on your phone and THEN start internet sharing, or vice versa and so on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, since it was working fine for two years and just happened to break the very next time after I added someone to my plan, I just figured that's what did it. I'd like to say I was right, but I can't prove it.
You were right, it wasn't able to aqcuire an IP address, but data worked fine on the rest of the phone.
In any case, I ended up just rerunning Connection Setup on a whim and I'm happily back on xda-developers via a tether.
Thanks!
[UPDATE] Right in the middle of typing this "it's fixed!" post, my connection flaked out again. This time my whole data connection, not just the tether. "The remote party has ended the connection" or some such. So I rebooted with the same result. So I'm back on my work connection. CRAP. Are we sure they're not onto me?

Hmmm
Later that same day (12/11, 2 days after we added the new phone to the family plan), I received this text message from 7535: Your Smartphone is active! A data plan is required & if omitted, will be added to your account. For more details, see your sales rep or att.com/smartphoneplans.
On the plus side, tethering seems to be working again. Might as well go check out my online account and make sure they didn't switch me to a tethering plan or something!

If you find they've changed you to a more expensive data plan I'd go in there and politely but firmly demand they change it back, as you did NOT authorize changes to YOUR line when adding a line. If necesssary, remind them you have 30 days in which to cancel the new line and take your business elsewhere.
If you previously had a $20 MEdia (w/ text messages included) you might find yourself paying $35 or more now.

I'm pretty sure they have the right to add data without your permission.

khaytsus said:
If you find they've changed you to a more expensive data plan I'd go in there and politely but firmly demand they change it back, as you did NOT authorize changes to YOUR line when adding a line. If necesssary, remind them you have 30 days in which to cancel the new line and take your business elsewhere.
If you previously had a $20 MEdia (w/ text messages included) you might find yourself paying $35 or more now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strange. It looks like I'm still at the $30 data plan I was at before. I wonder if adding a line just "resets" all the other lines and makes them act wonky for a few days. So after a few hiccups tethering still works, and I'm still at the same data plan. Works for me.
In other news, the wife's new Solstice stopped working for several hours yesterday. It had 4 bars, but wouldn't make or receive calls. It could receive texts, but couldn't send them. A few hours later it was back to normal. VERY WEIRD. Hopefully it isn't a regular thing, as she's a nurse and often on-call.
Having switched her from Verizon, it didn't leave a good first taste in her mouth...

[Q] What's the bottom line on hot spot function?

I am still using an HTC Tilt2 with WMWifi, which allows me to put the phone into hot spot mode and access the internet using my unlimited data plan, which is NOT tethered, for $30 a month. This is the data plan intended for email, etc. The folks at the ATT store tell me I am grandfathered as long as I keep my account. WM7 looks like a loser, and my HTC is getting buggy. So would like to switch to the Captivate. On line reviews indicate that the wifi function works great, but I read (and hear from the sales folks at ATT) that that has been removed on the Captivate; just too much value I guess. Anyway, I just need to know if there is a path to having this function on a Captivate. Will root it if I have to, but prefer an app-only solution if possible.

If you flash Cognition you'll have usb and wifi tethering.
Sent from my Captivate