Well I thought I'd try and log onto the M-panel site today and it was indeed working again. Given that I'm obviously a masochist I thought I'd ask it to send the software to my phone rather than me download it to see if it worked any better. Rather oddly, I received the following message:

You have changed your selected phone model to one that does not currently qualify you for this particular Smart M:Panel.

M:Metrics would like to stay in touch with you and let you know when we do have a panel your new device is qualified for.

Your email address and phone model are listed below. Please confirm this information is correct and then click submit. We appreciate your patience and participation in our panel and will contact you soon with a special invitation to re-join.

My correct phone model and email address were listed so either there is yet another error or they have closed the panel down altogether, or perhaps to new applicants, which includes those who have simply updated their software. Still bobbins.

Well, it was good while it lasted (ish!). I've just updated my Vario II to WM6, so reinstalled the M Metrics software and do you know what? Yep, a raft of international text messages being sent from my phone, mostly to Brazil!!! The other number is to some sort of roaming international access sim card. To be honest I can live without the fiver a month for the hassle I KNOW is going to come of this judging by loads of comments on here.

The mobile panel website is also out of action (has been for 3 days) - I've just uninstalled this via Remove Programs. I'll take a look at it again in a few months to see if it's been improved. Strikes me they're taking a cut off international texts now and hope people don't notice.

This saga shows every sign of a company going to the wall. Too big, probably not much call for the data produced so they can't sell it, and therefore minimal cashflow to pay incentives or keep staff.

I've not had my 6 month payment from last October and despite a string of e-mails to them, all I get back (sometimes) are one line e-mails saying my payment is due to be processed the following week. It never is! Their website says my payment was made but I've never had it.

I find it amazing that Paul promotes this site so heavily despite the obvious pitiful customer service problems with the company. To be top story on the site for so many months can only mean he's making a very healthy profit from M:Metrics, no doubt paid for out of the incentive money the actual users aren't getting. I think it is a turning point for Modaco where profit comes first and has now gone fully commercial rather than being a 'fan' site with some commercial content.

I think they've got problems again. Almost two months ago I e-mailed them to ask where my 6-monthly payment was as it was 8 months since I'd signed up. Nothing arrived and eventually got an e-mail about a month ago telling me that they had no idea why my payment hadn't been processed but it would be sorted immediately. I'm still waiting!!

I logged into their system and it says that my payment has been processed but nothing has arrived. This smacks of a company not paying out unless pestered to death in the hope that most people who downloaded their software forget about it. They take the data and the money from selling it but don't pass it back to the schmucks who provide their data source.

I really think this isn't a company that Modaco should still be promoting so heavily (head item on the 'news' for months!)

I guess they unloaded them to bid.tv, the auction TV channel. They were being flogged on there last night for more than Virgin were selling them, and still as Mobile TV devices. No mention of the end of the service or disclaimer or anything!

Just out of interest (slight hijack, sorry) but what do I need to do with a new micro SD card I've just got? Does it need formatting somewhere (PC, phone etc) or do I just slot it in and it's recognised?

Thanks

I think these international numbers are something to do with M-Panel - they're the ones they send with the links etc to get you started. I seem to recall a thread about why these were chargeable when they weren't meant to be but I reasoned that they cost me 60p or something and I get £15 and another £5 per month.

My lock-up problems and 3G connection problems seem to have stopped now and I think they were all down to T-Mob's 3G network having issues. My signal strength is 4/5 and 3G has been solid for days now. I still have M-Panel installed and it doesn't seem to be causing any problems.

It's good to know everyone isn't having grief! What seems to be the problem in my area is that there is some sort of 3G signal that the Vario picks up on but it isn't sufficient to make calls/get data etc. If I switch to GSM only then there isn't a problem at all

Well, just got off the phone with T-Mob to be told that there is 'outstanding work on the 3G network in my area' - you can read that two ways but what I think she meant that there are known problems and they are working on them. Unfortunately she couldn't give me a timescale for clearing it up. Guess I'll have to keep trying my phone and ringing them back. In the meantime it's back to GSM - oh goody.

Well mine has been reasonably ok for the last couple of days. I couldn't get a proper 3G signal last night at home - wavering between 0 bars and 1 bar but with the 3G symbol showing - shouldn't this have really fallen back into GPRS 'G' mode?

This morning it had 3 bars but just wouldn't connect to 3G and then it gives up and can't even get a phone signal! It takes either a power cycle or a soft reset to get a signal back.

However on getting to work the signal is rock solid again. I really can't work out if they are mucking around with the 3G network nearer my home (was fine for the first 6 weeks of this year) or if it's my Vario? I'm not on the edge of a signal area!! Why won't T-Mob acknowledge a problem?

Well it's bust again. Has been for a couple of days and I'm now firmly of the opinion that this is a location issue (could be the network, could be the phone). This weekend I have tried my 3G data connection in Hampshire, Oxfordshire, West Midlands and Cheshire. None of these were in city centres or anywhere else where 3G coverage is improved. The connection was rock solid and worked flawlessly.

I have tried it again at home last night (3 bars and the 3G symbol showing) and it just won't connect. It won't fall back to GPRS speed either. It just gets stuck searching for a network. Either that or it comes up with 2 or 3 bars of signal strength but no connection symbol (just the arrows with a cross). Bizarrely it then seems to be able to get a data connection some of the time but I can't receive phone calls or texts etc and callers go straight to my voicemail! It often gets stuck on this and the only way to get a connection back is to soft reset the phone or occasionally you can get away with turning the phone fucntion off and on in the Comm Manager.

According to T-Mobile's beloved streetcheck that they're thrusting down out throats everywhere at the moment, my home address is showing 4 out of 5 bars signal coverage on both 2G and 3G. This means I'm not on the outside edge of a coverage area so I'm picking up the right cell etc. What is the most annoying is that my connection since I got my Vario was rock solid at home until early last week when I've had this grief every time. I'm in work now, a whole 4 miles away from home and there is no problem at all.

I checked with T-Mobile CS and they say the cell at home is working fine so how can it suddenly stop working?

Well, mine is fixed now. There was no change so I spoke to 150 and he said he would refresh my account and to take the battery out of my Vario. I queried if this was any different to a soft reset and he was adamant it was (is it?). Anyway, did as he said and it all works fine now. I got one of those network text messages that other people have mentioned but everything went back as it always was. Worth a try folks?

As for HSDPA - have they changed the rules then? There was definitely a time before Christmas where it was banned from normal WNW users - it seemed to be dependent on the knowledge level of the Cust service rep though - can you tell anywhere if it is on your account? My T-Mobile perhaps? I've seen screenshots of people's T-MObile pages and shows their different services listed but mine seems to just show what tariff I have and that's about it. Where should I be looking?

Cheers

I've started to get 3G connectivity probs tonight on T-Mobile too (St. Helens, Merseyside). Been rock solid since I got my Vario II about 6 weeks ago but tonight it tries to connect to 3G and then loses the signal completely. It then gets stuck in limbo and I have to do a soft reset to even get it to connect back to normal GSM. The 3G symbol shows but when you actually try and connect it goes pear-shaped.

What's the point of having a data device with W'n'W when you can't access 3G, let alone HSDPA (which I think is only available on WNW Pro and Max tariffs, not the basic WNW)

Guess it's just a hang up from my pre-combined device days - also thought I saw somewhere that leaving the connection open drains the battery a little faster, even if you don't use it. May be I'm wrong!.

Assume it can't be set to turn it off then after sending data? Do you know ho often it sends?

What a cool scheme this is - just signed up and everything seems to be working as advertised. I noticed my 3G indicator appear a minute after installing so guess it was 'phoning home'. My only query is that it seems to leave my 3G/GPRS data connection open afterwards. Not essentially a problem as I have a separate data plan and it doesn't affect phone usage but one of my personal little foibles is that I close my data connection when I've done e-mail/web etc and turn it back to 'phone mode' - can this be done at all using M:Panel? As I say, not a huge issue. How often does the software send data back to base?

This could be my problem - I've got a new Vario II (hermes) and PPC Profiles is working really well except I can't get it to vibrate in silent mode. It's set to vibrate in the profile but it won't do it. I've even tried raising the ringer volume but leaving it set to vibrate incase some command comes from the ringer to activate the vibration but to no avail.

Any more ideas, or does it need PPCPro to be upgraded for the latest versions of Windows mobile?

Me likewise, I usually leave my phone in it's case in the car and just turn on my BT headset (Motorola HS820) and there have been a couple of times when the BT hasn't connected which I've only found out about when I get a call that I can't answer!

There doesn't seem to be any pattern either - I'm using a T-Mob Vario II with nothing else installed so doesn't suggest it being a TomTom or 3rd party software issue. Maybe it's the headset but that's pretty vanilla too.

I guess I'll have to check my blue light is flashing every time I get in the car! My only suspicion could be to do with power in the battert. I can't recall from previous occasions but I know the last time it happened, the battery was at less than 30% - some internal setting that turns off any sort of wireless connections to save power?

I'd never even realised it was covering something. I thought it was there to give some clearance for the camera lens when it's on a surface - the lens is completely flush with the back cover so could easily get scratched if moving it around on a table etc. The couple of millimetres extra height lifts it off a bit.

So can you use any mini USB car charger on the Vario II? There aren't any voltage/current differences etc?

Nobody?

Should I repost in the Hermes forum?

Well, just getting used to my new Vario II. Trying to set up voice dial tags and in the software there is a tab at the bottom to use SIM entries for tags but when I touch the tab it tells me the sim is not ready. Now I know the sim is full of numbers because they appear when dialling etc? So what's the problem?

Do the Sim entries have to be copied to Contacts first? but if this is the case, why have a SIM tab as well as a Contacts tab? What am I missing?

Superb, exactly what I was after.

Is DirectPush a bundled app of some sort for push-email?

Thanks DiscoStu - so now I know that I need to turn off my data connection manually but still need confirmation of the others please from someone!

Bumpety bump!

Lots of views but no news! Anyone?

As the title says really, have moved from a Moto MPX220 smartphone to a Vario II PPC phone. If I start IE then it connects automatically to 3G/GPRS connection depending on the network coverage. However if I close IE and go back to doing something else, then the data connection stays active, whereas on Smartphones it closes the connection. Is this deliberate, and can I change any settings to do it, or do I have to close the connection manually?

Also, related in a way, if I'm using IE or e-mail etc then does my phone become engaged or can it handle data and phone at the same time? (using GPRS or 3G)

Lastly, if you turn on the Wi-Fi, does that always take automatic precedence over using GPRS/3G when using internet etc? Or do I have to manually stop the phone from using a GPRS/3G connection if I'm at home/elsewhere and have wi-fi available?

Cheers everyone