Guest phillybits Posted June 26, 2006 Report Share Posted June 26, 2006 Hi there. I'm new to this site, but am familiar with message boards. I've gone through a number of posts here in the last week, as well as contacted T-Mobile USA to ask my technical questions but would like to throw it at the crowd here with more personal experience with either this device or similar devices, seeing as a customer srvc. rep probably wouldn't know as much about a specific piece of hardware as a crowd like this would. I've owned a Moto V300 and now own a Nokia 3220, which is a piece of garbage. I like the MDA and the features it offers are decent. I'm not interested in switching carriers to get a better device since I know sometimes there are registry hacks, and other software tricks to enable certain features. When I read that the MDA had WiFi, it grabbed my attention. Reading some technical reviews on a number of sites, I've been left confused on whether or not the MDA is able to connect to *any* wireless network, such as my home wifi network or an open college network that is otherwise *not a T-Mobile hotspot.* When I called T-Mobile to ask, they informed me I would need to have a T-Mobile data plan in order to get online, browse the web, etc. If the phone is able to do this, though, I wouldn't expect T-Mobile to tell me and otherwise lose out on another sale of their data plan. So there it is. Does the MDA have the ability, either out of the box or with some tweaking, to access *any* wifi network, be it my neighbor's open wifi network, a university network, coffee shop, etc, that is not affiliated with T-Mobile? The answer may determine if I get this phone or not. Thanks so much. I apologize if this exact question has been asked a hundred times before and I'm just rehashing an old topic. I looked, I really did. --Phillybits Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JamieDow Posted June 26, 2006 Report Share Posted June 26, 2006 Hi, The MDA Vario will get just about any wifi connection out of the box. Some public wifi networks in the UK require a subscription with the provider to use it although there are some free access points. I have access to BTOpenworld access points as I purchased some credits with them to use it, works fine. It picks up both my corporate wireless lan as well as that at home. Essentially, as long as you have the password where needed, you can access any wifi network just fine. Hope this helps :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest phillybits Posted June 26, 2006 Report Share Posted June 26, 2006 Hi, The MDA Vario will get just about any wifi connection out of the box. Some public wifi networks in the UK require a subscription with the provider to use it although there are some free access points. I have access to BTOpenworld access points as I purchased some credits with them to use it, works fine. It picks up both my corporate wireless lan as well as that at home. Essentially, as long as you have the password where needed, you can access any wifi network just fine. Hope this helps :) I appreciate the quick response, but of course, it opens a new question that I should've probably brought up. I know different variants of phones get sold in different countries and as such, I asked T-Mobile which specific version of the MDA T-Mobile USA was selling. They simply said the T-Mobile MDA and yet here you are, describing an MDA Vario. I don't know if it's different or not, but this is what I'm looking at in the U.S. From what I've been reading, I've gotten the impression that it is able to do exactly what you say but then from country to country, I don't know. Is that phone I linked the same that you have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 909 Posted June 27, 2006 Report Share Posted June 27, 2006 I appreciate the quick response, but of course, it opens a new question that I should've probably brought up. I know different variants of phones get sold in different countries and as such, I asked T-Mobile which specific version of the MDA T-Mobile USA was selling. They simply said the T-Mobile MDA and yet here you are, describing an MDA Vario. I don't know if it's different or not, but this is what I'm looking at in the U.S. From what I've been reading, I've gotten the impression that it is able to do exactly what you say but then from country to country, I don't know. Is that phone I linked the same that you have? I have a US T-Mobile MDA and yes.. you can connect to a wifi network if you have the wep key. I do it at my house. I'm not very technical however and I can't yet connect to an "un-secure" wireless connection. I may have the settings wrong or I may just have poor signals. Don't know.. but I know for sure I can connect to secured connections if I have the key. I'm doing it right now. I heard you should be careful not to use AIM or MSN messenger however because t-mobile will charge it as text messages. I just can't make myself pay the extra "total internet" package (I think it's $30 a month). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest phillybits Posted June 27, 2006 Report Share Posted June 27, 2006 I have a US T-Mobile MDA and yes.. you can connect to a wifi network if you have the wep key. I do it at my house. I'm not very technical however and I can't yet connect to an "un-secure" wireless connection. I may have the settings wrong or I may just have poor signals. Don't know.. but I know for sure I can connect to secured connections if I have the key. I'm doing it right now. I heard you should be careful not to use AIM or MSN messenger however because t-mobile will charge it as text messages. I just can't make myself pay the extra "total internet" package (I think it's $30 a month). Thank you. Hmmm...I wonder if there's a hack somewhere that would let it connect to unsecured wireless networks. Wardriving with an MDA sounds interesting. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 909 Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Thank you. Hmmm...I wonder if there's a hack somewhere that would let it connect to unsecured wireless networks. Wardriving with an MDA sounds interesting. :) ok i have been able to connect to unsecured networks... seems the connections were just poor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest phillybits Posted July 1, 2006 Report Share Posted July 1, 2006 ok i have been able to connect to unsecured networks... seems the connections were just poor. In that case, I might be sold. Thanks for getting back on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest XaocSlack Posted September 22, 2006 Report Share Posted September 22, 2006 Something that anyone using the MDA may find interesting is that it is actually a rebranded "HTC Wizard". There are several useful registry hacks, one even enables 802.11G networking. (Note: the wireless nic supports it, but the processor can't handle that speed so you won't notice much of a speed gain. But it will allow you to connect to 802.11G only networks) A useful site in regards to this phone specificly is: http://www.htcwizardweb.net/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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