Connectivity on Omnia II

[Guest pavaks]

Here goes my first post :D I've got my Omnia II only a week or so ago and since then tried to understand how Network Connections work and how to make them work efficiently. I've looked at many forums and blogs, and while I've got answers to some of my questions (and it wasn't easy, may be because it is still new and there is not much info out there), I couldn't find all the information I was looking for.

So I thought to share the knowledge I gathered so far and let others add what they might know and fill the gaps.

ActiveSync and New PC Studio

One of the first things that puzzled me was that Samsung's New PC Studio didn't recognize my phone until I've installed ActiveSync (AS). Strange that drivers are packaged with AS and not PC Studio. I was really hesitating installing AS as I don't run Outlook and hence AS is of little use to me, especially given that PC Studio provides backup and sync functionality. Add to that annoyance that AS runs by default and to stop that I had to rename the actual file, just removing AS from startup processes didn't do the trick. Interesting enough when I stopped AS from starting, my PC Studio failed to find or recognize a phone, even with all the drivers already there. It seems that PC Studio is useless without AS installed and running.

Phone as a modem / Internet on your PC

Even after running AS and PC Studio I could not get the "Internet Connector" working. The icon was greyed out no matter what I did. It is not explained very well anywhere that actually one doesn't need to run "Internet Connector" or use PC Studio for that matter. It is as simple as running "Internet Sharing" app on your phone and selecting the right connection. That's it - you are on the web.

Internet on your phone

That's where it gets tricky. The reason is that WinMo Connection Manager hides almost everything from the user and tries to be intelligent enough to decide for the user what they need in different scenarios, and although some credit can be given, I see it more like a cut down Home version of Win Professional, where all settings and tweaks are disabled or hidden. It may work for someone, but would be great to have more control over what and how things happen.

When I go to Connection -> Connections all I see are "My Internet" and "My Work" (which is empty). My Internet has only a single modem called Vodafone Mail (I am on Vodafone btw). Why Mail!? And where the rest of modem connections I see when I go to Connection -> GPRS Authentications?

For example, I would like to understand what is the difference between Voda Mail and Voda WAP if both of them seem to use exaclty the same APN and the same user/password.

Now throw into this the fact that when I go to Connection -> Browser Connections I don't see any of the above or anything I would be expecting to see. Instead I have 4 different connections - Internet, WAP, Secure WAP, Work. Again, no explanation or settings for these. How would I know how these map to modem connections available!?

Well done MS for trying to be too smart!

If anyone has any insight on any of the above, please contribute. As for me, I am still trying to figure out why Opera and widgets seem to use slooooow WAP or GPRS instead of fast HSDPA connection. Voda's customer service are useless as ever telling me that it is exactly the same settings for WAP and HSDPA and network will automatically provide me with the fastest access depending on how good my reception is. What a BS, may be a complete newbie will believe this...

[Guest pavaks]

An update to my post above. Spoke to Vodafone and they sent me "Vodafone GPRS HTTP" connection settings. Yet once again, I can only see it in GRPS authentication but not under My Internet, hence I actually cannot see what the settings are, and whether they are different to Vodafone Mail settings. No changes under Browser Connections - still 4 choices as before.

Oh, another thing, I can't create a new modem connection that points to an APN under My Internet, I can only modify existing connection. Hmmm....