confused about Cingular data plans

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In <ra%Oe.1450$tB5.600@okepread06> on Wed, 24 Aug 2005 09:07:57 -0500,
"Alcoholic" <[email protected]> wrote:

>You need to have the Pay per use removed from your acct because the billing
>system will allow the feature to take precedence over the Works pkg or any
>other data plan that you have.

Pay As You Go (data) is only invoked when some other data package isn't on the
account. It only needs to be removed if you don't want any data at all.

>My understanding is that if you tether to a
>Laptop you have to have a Data Connect plan not a media net acct.

MEdia Net works fine with a tethered laptop. It's just not supported.

>I used to
>have a P900 and used the old Media Works pkg 19.99 unlmtd data but after

Likewise with a P800. I still have that data package, using it now with both
my Motorola V551 and Sony Ericsson GC82 PC Card.

>checking with a tech supervisor I was told that it was against policy and
>needed to be under a PDA plan. If I used the blue tooth or data connect
>cable to tether to my laptop I was told that I have to use a Data connect
>plan.

It's against policy for reps to knowingly sell you that kind of usage since
it's not supported -- you're strictly on your own -- but there is no actual
prohibition in the Service Agreement against that kind of usage.

>I know a lot of people that are on the old unlmtd works pkg and using
>it to tether to a laptop and are getting away with it

I'm one of them.

>but it does " the data
>usage" raise a red flag with revenue assurance and they will catch it
>eventually.

I've been doing this without any complaint or objection from Cingular, even
with months of heavy usage, ever since the data package was first offered.
Again, there is no actual prohibition in the Service Agreement against that
kind of usage.

>Cingular is scraping the bottom of the barrel for cash.

Where do you get that? Cingular is actually doing quite well.

>The data
>plans are much more expensive than the works or basic pkg but if you use a
>laptop my guess is your usage is around 80 to 130 MB per month ; I was using
>about 42 mb with my P900 with Opera browser.

I've hit hundreds of MB per month. Last month was "only" 164 MB.

>Data packaging is very
>confusing with Cingular and most if not all reps have had no training on the
>differences. ...

I personally think it's pretty clear...

MEdia Net:
https://www.cingular.com/media/media_net_purchase

Data Connect:
http://www.cingular.com/sbusiness/data_connect

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

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› See More: confused about Cingular data plans

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In <[email protected]> on Wed, 24 Aug 2005 13:39:06
-0500, troyboy30 <[email protected]> wrote:

>No the data usage doesn't raise a flag! unlimited is unlimited! as
>long as you you the wap and not the isp portal. There is no way to
>tell if your viewing on your phone or a laptop or whatever, the info is
>still being accessed by your phone. cingular even has instructions for
>tethering on the dern web page. Your data usage would not be different
>tethered or not. it's not like it increases your speed or anything.
>Nor does it allow you to access html info instead of wap. There is no
>difference except having a bigger screen to view it on.

Essentially correct, although there are some TCP/IP services (e.g., types of
VPN) that work over "ISP" (Data Connect) but not "WAP" (MEdia Net).

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

In article <VJ0Re.11125$p%[email protected]>,
John Navas <[email protected]> wrote:

> MEdia Net works fine with a tethered laptop. It's just not supported.
>

I've been using it for the past month, based in part on your advice. In
my experience, it works, but poorly. Typically, I get a disconnect
within five minutes or so of connecting. That seems to be true both for
using it in a moving car--what I am doing at the moment--and in a fixed
location.

Can anyone offer guesses on what I'm doing wrong? I'm using a Mac
Powerbook, a Nokia 6230, and my settings are:

Configure IPv4 using PPP

Service Provider: Cingular Wireless Internet Express

Account: [email protected]

Password: (Can't read it--I think Cingular1, and it appears to work)

Telephone number: wap.cingular

No PPP echo packets
No TCP header compression
Error correction and compression in modem enabled
Modem: Nokia 3G C1D1

I've tried varying the modem and some of the other settings, including
"Cingular MEdia" as the Service Provider, but nothing seems to work any
better.

Suggestions?

--
Remove NOSPAM to email
Also remove .invalid
www.daviddfriedman.com

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In <[email protected]> on Tue, 30 Aug 2005
13:18:03 -0500, David Friedman <[email protected]> wrote:

>In article <VJ0Re.11125$p%[email protected]>,
> John Navas <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> MEdia Net works fine with a tethered laptop. It's just not supported.
>
>I've been using it for the past month, based in part on your advice. In
>my experience, it works, but poorly. Typically, I get a disconnect
>within five minutes or so of connecting. That seems to be true both for
>using it in a moving car--what I am doing at the moment--and in a fixed
>location.

You're pushing the envelope to keep a GPRS connection in a moving car, since
any7 loss of signal will break the connection. That said, I have kept some
long connections while in a moving car. OTOH, you should have no problem
maintaining a connection while motionless (given a decent signal) -- I've
maintained connections for hours.

>Can anyone offer guesses on what I'm doing wrong? I'm using a Mac
>Powerbook, a Nokia 6230, and my settings are: [SNIP]

Perhaps your Mac software is hanging up the connection. Can the phone
maintain a long connection on its own?

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

>I've hit hundreds of MB per month. Last month was "only" 164 MB.
Anyone tried taking a few hundred mile drive and matching what
you see out the window with a simultaneous running of Google Earth?

John Navas <[email protected]> wrote:
> Essentially correct, although there are some TCP/IP services (e.g., types of
> VPN) that work over "ISP" (Data Connect) but not "WAP" (MEdia Net).

I have run Nortel Contivity VPN for hours at a time on the WAP connection.
The connection is stable on my V551-Bluetooth.

--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8,-122.5

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In <[email protected]> on Tue, 30 Aug 2005 20:48:28 +0000 (UTC),
[email protected] wrote:

>John Navas <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Essentially correct, although there are some TCP/IP services (e.g., types of
>> VPN) that work over "ISP" (Data Connect) but not "WAP" (MEdia Net).
>
>I have run Nortel Contivity VPN for hours at a time on the WAP connection.
>The connection is stable on my V551-Bluetooth.

I said "some" -- as in some will work and some will not. I likewise have had
success with some VPN (e.g., SSH), but failure with others.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>