TomTom 3 Traffic

[oisky]

Basically my GPRS problems seem to start at the iPAQ end. I have to select a 'connection' that the iPAQ will use (via bluetooth to my phone) to connect to the outside world. Now the connection wizard asks for a phone number - but I didn't think GPRS used a phone number - this is my first hurdle to overcome. Some of you guys must have a 5550 - what did you put in the telephone number section?

[Davidb67]

Tried following the link a few posts previous, but it appears to be down - can anyone else confirm?

david

[mark1968]

Hi

I have tried the link and it seams to be working fine.

Please follow:

http://support.tomtom.com/traffic/guide/uk/
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Please follow me on twitter @mdyson1968

[Davidb67]

Mark1968,
thanksm just tired again.
i gt through the 3 pages of warnings, enter my user account details - i.e. email address & password, then it comes up with "page not found" error.
wonder if it's down at the mo.......

itchin to set up a traffic account and have a play!! i'm away on business and thus out of the office all day tomorrow!!

[barryp]

oisky,

Normally the number for GPRS is set to *99#

That certainly works for 02, I think it should work for other netwroks as well.

Barry

[wjrs5]

Does anyone else find that the "read manual" option does not work in the setup program?

[Darren]

[Darren]

[Darren]

[hollis_f]

[hollis_f]

[oisky]

OK I'm slowly getting somewhere - I have tried *99# but the phone says UNKNOWN APPLICATION so it looks like I do need the 'device identifier' .... Erm , what the hell is that?

I see light at the end of the tunnel now though!!!

By the way, no-one has yet said how I connect from the iPAQ wizard - do I set 'bluetooth dialup modem' or 'Hayes Compatible on COM1'

[gregh]

>> With Sony Ericsson you need to know the device identifier and add >>that to the number.

Not on my SE P800.

when it dials make sure it's not dialling any international dialling codes or the like, it just needs to dial *99#

You may need to much around with the location and also the dialing strings on the PPC.

regards,

Greg

[DavidW]

Just to say - the Traffic service is still in test - see this thread. On that basis, I suggest it's left well alone until it's clear that the service has launched.

GPRS answers coming in a minute...



David

[DavidW]

What has been referred to erroneously in this thread as a 'device identifier' is actually called a context ID.

GPRS involves a lot of rather complicated terminology, and what follows is a simplification that may not be entirely technically correct but is a good description of how things work.


In essence, a GPRS device (which is usually a phone - I'll use the word phone from now on) can be active in one or more GPRS contexts.

In our case, we're only interested in contexts that use IP and that are started from the mobile phone (so called mobile-originated). It's easiest to think of such contexts as a recipe for making an Internet connection to an APN (Access Point Node), rather like having an entry in a phone book is a recipe to make a phone call.


Most networks have two or three public APNs - one for GPRS Internet access, one for WAP and sometimes one for MMS (picture messaging - some networks use the WAP APN for MMS, some don't). Quite often pre-pay users use different APNs to contract users. On some networks, there is no Internet APN for pre-pay users.

You can't use a WAP or MMS APN for Internet access - they only support very limited functions, usually just connection to a single IP address, the WAP gateway. MMS sits on top of WAP - all WAP communication goes via a kind of proxy server called a WAP gateway. If you've ever wondered what the IP address is that you enter when you enter WAP settings manually, it's the IP address of the WAP gateway.


Sometimes phones have the correct context set up already for GPRS Internet access - especially if there's a facility to enter the APN for Internet access on the phone's menus (as is offered on the Nokia 6310i). Other times you need to set up the context before activating it.

The number of context IDs available is manufacturer dependent. Nokia phones tend only to have 1, Sony Ericsson phones tend to have more than 1.

I have faint recollection that some Sony Ericsson handsets use some context IDs for internal purposes, such as WAP and MMS, but I'm not sure. I wouldn't worry unless you set up a context and find that some handset function has gone wrong, you've probably changed a GPRS context that the handset itself uses. Try turning the phone off and back on again before rechecking your settings if this happens. For safety, it may be best to write down your WAP and, if appropriate, MMS settings before trying to set up GPRS contexts manually.


You could just try dialling *99# from the Pocket PC - if things are set up OK, it will work. I don't like doing this - it feels a bit hit and miss and I'd rather have the Pocket PC set up the context explicitly.

If you want to set up a context, you need to tap the Advanced button and find where you can enter an extra dial-string command. The command to set up a context looks like:

+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet"

or, if you want to specify compression (which may not be supported and may actually cause an error)

+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet",,1,1

(these commands need an AT in front of them, but Pocket PC 2002 and 2003 add that automatically anyway. From memory Windows doesn't, so if you're using this information to set up GPRS on your laptop or Tablet PC, you will probably need an AT).


The number immediately after the = sign is the context ID - you dial a specific GPRS context using *99***1# where the 1 is the context ID. Context IDs are always numbers.


The "internet" in my example above is the APN used for GPRS Internet access on Vodafone contact (the user name and password are both 'web' for this service - without the ' marks). Other networks differ - for example O2 is user name 'username' password 'password' (both without the ' marks) and the APN is "mobile.o2.co.uk"


For Bluetooth on Widcomm based setups (for example, Bluetooth iPAQs) you have an option you can select called "Bluetooth Dialup Modem" when you choose the port - you need to pair the phone and possibly set it as the active dialup device in the Bluetooth Manager. If you're asked to set serial port characteristics for this device, use 115200bps, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit.


In some cases, the DNS server addresses are not set up automatically, so you may have to enter those manually. This isn't necessary on Vodafone contract - I don't know about other networks. Don't enter DNS server addresses unless things don't work without.


The final complication is "dialing rules". On Pocket PC 2003 these don't normally cause a problem, but on Pocket PC 2002 they're always active. For mobile phone use on Pocket PC 2003 you should edit the dialing rules so that all three options (international, national and local) read as G with nothing else.

When using a mobile phone, it's best always to enter the entire number to be dialled in the phone number field, whether it be *99#, *99***1# or a dial up ISP number (best done in International format - for example +441214789300 - before anyone asks, that's a BT Openworld ISDN number, used with the 'additional' string +CBST=71,0,1 for a V.110 9600bps connection, not someone's home phone).


A good way to test your connection is to go into Pocket Internet Explorer and enter http://news.bbc.co.uk/text_only.stm (the low graphics version of BBC News Online). This site is very Pocket IE friendly - especially if you can cope with setting your text size to "Smallest".


I hope this very broad brush post helps - I will attempt to answer questions on it.



David

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