why is my credit being eaten?

[Guest aidanj]

hello to t-mobile pay as you go uk users reading this,

i've had a t-mobile pulse on pay as you go for about two weeks now. i topped up a few days ago, with £10 credit. since then, i've made a two minute phone call, and sent about ten texts. i installed 3g watchdog after i topped up with £10. my phone seems to be sending and receiving data in very small amounts, which is gradually reducing my balance - even though the phone isn't doing anything? i even turned off the enable background data option in the settings menu. i only have 3g watchdog and wavesecure running constantly - is it one of these applications using my credit? if not, what could it be? and if i re-enable background data (which is needed to access the market), will this also gradually reduce my balance, even if i'm not doing anything on the phone? a solution to this would be much appreciated, as i'm not amused that my credit is declining for no reason.

[Guest DanWilson]

hello to t-mobile pay as you go uk users reading this,

i've had a t-mobile pulse on pay as you go for about two weeks now. i topped up a few days ago, with £10 credit. since then, i've made a two minute phone call, and sent about ten texts. i installed 3g watchdog after i topped up with £10. my phone seems to be sending and receiving data in very small amounts, which is gradually reducing my balance - even though the phone isn't doing anything? i even turned off the enable background data option in the settings menu. i only have 3g watchdog and wavesecure running constantly - is it one of these applications using my credit? if not, what could it be? and if i re-enable background data (which is needed to access the market), will this also gradually reduce my balance, even if i'm not doing anything on the phone? a solution to this would be much appreciated, as i'm not amused that my credit is declining for no reason.

Syncing anything with Google, Wavesecure might do it - but I don't know, any apps with ads (I use the hosts file from xda to block them ALL), 3G watchdog is fine, but I remember reading on the booklet that the phone is always connected, that alone might use data.

I'm on the £20 for 6 months deal, 1GB a month is enough for me.

Use APN Droid on the market to stop using internet when you don't need it.

Dan

[Guest Epic-Emodude]

Syncing anything with Google, Wavesecure might do it - but I don't know, any apps with ads (I use the hosts file from xda to block them ALL), 3G watchdog is fine, but I remember reading on the booklet that the phone is always connected, that alone might use data.

I'm on the £20 for 6 months deal, 1GB a month is enough for me.

Use APN Droid on the market to stop using internet when you don't need it.

Dan

Hi,

First off, arent T-mobile still doing the deal where you get unlimited internet for 6 months and texts for a month when you buy the phone?

Secondly, Where are these things that block adds?

Thanx

Aaron

[Guest tux880]

you gotta link for the host file?

Cheers

[Guest DanWilson]

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=664532

Just copy the file to /ect , delete the hosts file and rename the old one to hosts - without any extensions.

[Guest Speckles]

You need to disable the data service entirely if you don't want your credit to decline. You'll know when this is active as it'll complain that "Data service is disabled!" and put an icon in your taskbar to re-enable it (this is also perfect to remove ads too as they can't access ANY server, not just ones blocked by the hosts file)

Or you could pay for a data plan, £20 for 6 months is fine for most people.

Or you could topup £10/month which gives you data plan for the /NEXT/ month.

Note that replacing the hosts file requires a rooted OS.

[Guest DanWilson]

You need to disable the data service entirely if you don't want your credit to decline. You'll know when this is active as it'll complain that "Data service is disabled!" and put an icon in your taskbar to re-enable it (this is also perfect to remove ads too as they can't access ANY server, not just ones blocked by the hosts file)

Or you could pay for a data plan, £20 for 6 months is fine for most people.

Or you could topup £10/month which gives you data plan for the /NEXT/ month.

Note that replacing the hosts file requires a rooted OS.

Or use APN Droid, disables data without the switch.

[Guest Spook Tooth]

Wavesecure gobbled up a fair amount of credit from 3 Pulse phones I was working with, I think because I'd both updated them all (when December ROM came out) and when I unlocked them (changed SIMs). I don't use Wavesecure anymore and uninstalled it from the other two phones which were Xmas presents. I think it's ok for people who have the same SIM in all the time or who are more careful with it in disabling it before changing anything that sets it off (you're charged everytime a security alert is generated).

I'd just go with the T-Mobile 6 month internet deal for £20. In fact my subscription is coming up again very soon. Yes, disable data use also (easy to do), calls and messaging is still permitted. Can't speak for other programs but it's worth checking them out just in case. You should probably track your credit, note it down after each time you use the phone (use SIM tools in apps for balance check). Then check it again before your next phone use.

[Guest aidanj]

thank you for that helpful information dan - very useful, likewise, spook tooth. you see, it hasn't been made very clear by t-mobile how you actually active your 6 months free web - pretty shoddy by them, if you ask me. there are also some other people who have posted their annoyances about this on the t-mobile forum. this is a really silly (and obvious) question, but how do i access the pulse's internal memory to delete the default hosts file? it will not let me do it on various file managers - think permission denied, and only the sd card comes up on my pc. pc suite isn't helpful, either.

[Guest goce.nakov]

thank you for that helpful information dan - very useful, likewise, spook tooth. you see, it hasn't been made very clear by t-mobile how you actually active your 6 months free web - pretty shoddy by them, if you ask me. there are also some other people who have posted their annoyances about this on the t-mobile forum. this is a really silly (and obvious) question, but how do i access the pulse's internal memory to delete the default hosts file? it will not let me do it on various file managers - think permission denied, and only the sd card comes up on my pc. pc suite isn't helpful, either.

Install RootExplorer (your phone need to be rooted) and you will have access to all files within phone (and you can edit them also ofc)

[Guest Speckles]

If it says "Permission denied" then you have not rooted your phone. Root it and try again.

The 6 month web I found on there website and the instructions were pretty easy to follow. I only used about 2 months of it however before moving to contract.

[Guest Simon O]

I bought my Pulse second hand from ebay. Cheakily tried to get the 6month internet from the SMS code and didn't work. In the end I contacted T-Mobile customer services on Twitter and got the 6month free internet activated on my phone along with a refund of the £5 I already spent on internet.