GPRS, WAP, WAP over GPRS......seriously confused

[Guest Carbonara]

I pretty confused about the above 3 things and I'm currently spending a fortune to access the internet and download email on my phone. I use the GPRS connection for both of these things, I realise that GPRS is criminally overpriced and was wondering if there is a cheaper method of connection and I have the following questions.

1. Is there anyway of using the dialup WAP or any other dialup connection to access the full internet or am I restricted to just the Orange GPRS connection?

2. Does the WAP dialup connection just allow me to view wap sites?

3. Does WAP over GPRS just allow me to view the same pages as the wap dialup connection but over GPRS instead of dialup?

4. Can I use a dialup connection to send and received my email?

The getting started book that came with the SPV says, and I quote:

'Your SPV can send and receive data either via standard data transfer or Orange GPRS [....] decide whether you wish to access The Internet, WAP and your email via standard data transfer or GPRS'.

From the above it appears that you can access all of these thing without using GPRS but when I tried to use the WAP dialup connection to access my email (Freeserve) it didn't work but works fine with the OrangeGPRS connection, maybe I need some other kind of dialup connection or 'Standard Data Transfer' connection???

What I really need is an idiots guide for use with the Orange network in the UK.

[Guest]

The SPV offers two types of connection - GPRS and CSD (Circuit Switched Data). It's the latter one that the manual refers to as "Standard Data Transfer". This is your “dial-up” connection.

GPRS is charged by data used - typically £3 per mb if you don't pay upfront for a bundle.

CSD is charged by the second - cost varies by tariff.

Generally speaking it’s cheaper to use GPRS – because you don’t pay for the time it takes you to read the information – you only pay for the data downloaded.

Also GPRS is quicker to connect than CSD.

I always use GPRS, but here’s what I know of the other options:

Go to “Settings > Data Connections”. Have a look at the options that you are given for “Internet Connection”. Here you should see the following things:

“Automatic”:

Should select between “Pass through” when SPV is connected to PC, and default connection at all other times. Haven’t used it myself so don’t know all the ins and outs of this one.

“Orange CSD WAP”:

Slightly misleading – should just be called “Orange CSD”. Dial-up connection, charged by the second. You should be able to access the full internet using this connection, not only WAP sites. I haven’t used this myself though, so could be wrong.

“Orange WAP”:

Actually a GPRS connection. I think that this is restricted to WAP sites only – you won’t be able to access full websites using this connection.

“Orange GPRS”:

The full monty. Full internet access, charged by the mb. Quicker than CSD.

“Pass through connection”:

Will use your PC’s internet connection if connected to the PC. Full internet access. No charge from Orange for using this one!

I hope that makes things slightly clearer.

[Guest Carbonara]

Cheers Matt, that's made things a bit clearer.

The only problem now is that when I connect using the dialup connection and try and access a page such as www.yahoo.co.uk it will connect and then say 'Finding site.....' then after a while it'll say that the page cannot be found.

It's fine when I use the GPRS connection though.

Am I to assume that the Orange CDS connection only allows me to view WAP sites?

Does anyone now if this is the case?

[Guest superflysi]

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[Guest superflysi]

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http://smartphone.modaco.com/viewtopic.php?t=89105

[Guest Carbonara]

Cool, It seems to be working OK now. Under Settings/Data Connections I've set the WAP connection to Orange CDS WAP. In IE under connections I've set network to WAP Network.

It seems that I can now access HTML pages using the WAP connection, does this mean that I'll be using the 'Orange Access Pack' deal and therefore won't be charged?

[Guest martin]

Cool, It seems to be working OK now. Under Settings/Data Connections I've set the WAP connection to Orange CDS WAP. In IE under connections I've set network to WAP Network.  

It seems that I can now access HTML pages using the WAP connection, does this mean that I'll be using the 'Orange Access Pack' deal and therefore won't be charged?

Orange CSD WAP or Orange GPRS WAP generally only give access to WAP sites (WML pages). You might find that you can connect to a web (HTML) site when the page is actually being loaded from the SPV memory. Try going to an HTML page you haven't loaded before, you'll probably get page not found :)

I would go to Internet Explorer-Options-Memory, delete the history and then reset the phone. It should then fail on most HTML pages.

I think there may be a few exceptions though where pages are mainy composed of text ?

Try wsp://mobile.msmobiles.com when using CSD WAP

Its worth looking into this a bit more.