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carkitter
Joined: Apr 29, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Auckland, NZ
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Well, latest developments:
Due to sudden unforseen changes to our income, my wife and I have decided to hasten our decision regarding our Telecom bill.
In other words, we going to cancel our Xtra Broadband THIS week and our landline by the 20th of December.
I have sucessfully setup GPRS connections through both our  phones and surfed briefly by GPRS via Z600 for the first time earlier tonight; quite cool too, I reckon.
We're gonna reduce our internet useage to emails only for a while, so you'll see me on Esato very infrequently in the future. My boss has very generously offered to allow us to connect to GPRS through my work 3G SIM card with whatever business discounts that may include. I shall need to inquire with his VF account manager about that.
I shall probably go with a Orcon Accelerator Dial-up plan.
At present we're still on the broadband, once we sign up with an alternative ISP, we'll start making the changes.
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[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2005-11-19 09:22 ] |
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carkitter
Joined: Apr 29, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Auckland, NZ
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And now we're an Orcon customer.
Thier technical support guy was a bit confused about our wanting to connect via GPRS and not landline  and so it took a bit of trial and error, but now it's sorted and this post beamed to you via Vodafone WAP and Orcon Dial-up.
Once 3G coverage makes it's way to my suburb, I'll look at upgrading to the faster 3G connection.
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[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2006-04-02 06:46 ]
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2006-04-02 06:47 ] |
Gigs
Joined: Jan 19, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: The planet Snibertron!
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Uh, but using VF's connection isn't broadband in the adsl sense 
But yeah the phones themselves suport being used as dial up modems or as over the air gprs modems which is all good. 
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carkitter
Joined: Apr 29, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Auckland, NZ
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I've set the connection speed for the K700 and Z600 modem connections at 460800 kbps. I know it's a theoretical maximum speed, but there is no descernble difference in download speed between GPRS modem and the D-Link DSL 302g ADSL modem via landline when viewing Xtra.
The Orcon dial-up connection via GPRS (still set at 460800 kbps) won't run any faster than 9.6kbps.
I'll give Orcon a call tomorrow, to see if they have any faster dial-up plans. They have 3 dial-up plans in total, I was under the impression they were all the same speed though.
I haven't cancelled Telecom's services yet. I think I'll do an internet speed test using GPRS and landline to see what the difference is.
Edit - Test Results:
- GPRS 90,280 Kbps (520 Kb in 0.047s)
- ADSL 136,877 Kbps (520 Kb in 0.031s)
Hmmm, ADSL is half as fast again as GPRS but in the times listed, no descernable difference.
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[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2005-11-21 09:08 ]
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2005-11-21 10:00 ] |
Gigs
Joined: Jan 19, 2004
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From: The planet Snibertron!
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Ahh you're looking at serial port speed there Car. The serial port speed doesn't effect the speed in which data is transmitted unless you were to drop it right down. (any setting above 115,200 is fine though, good for buffering)
GPRS is equivalent to a 56k modem, though really just under it, usually about a 50k connection. Meaning your downloads will top out on a 2g phone around 5k. (between half, 3 times, and upto 6 times less than wired DSL on a 128 or 256k plan)
If setting up a dial up account on the phone then you're looking at a max 28.8 connection if I remember rightly, you may need to check with vodafone there. Since you're getting below that by quite an amount, it'll probably pay to check with vodafone anyhow to get some advice.
The only high speed phones you'd be able to use are the 3g phones, since then you can suck down data at about the same rate as a 256k connection. (download speeds of anywhere upto 30k)
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carkitter
Joined: Apr 29, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Auckland, NZ
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I am aware that GPRS is eqivalent to a 56K modem, but VF say that thier 'optimisation' technology allows close to twice that. That is evident in the 90K+ result.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with the Vodafone GPRS service, it's speed and the possibility of up to 500K download when optimised 3G coverage eventually reaches my suburb. Especially as it all happens via bluetooth and even without a $499 Mobile Connect Card.
Not to mention that using the phones as modems, works flawlessly!
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[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2006-04-02 06:49 ] |
Gigs
Joined: Jan 19, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: The planet Snibertron!
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Heh the thing with "optimization technology" is that its great for text, and for images in which it degrades the quality. Luckily alot of stuff out there is still in an uncompressed state so it does have a little effect.
Anything compressed however is going to drop your speed back down.
Still as long as its all working out thats the main thing
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carkitter
Joined: Apr 29, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Auckland, NZ
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Broke the news to Telecom.
Xtra Jetstream and landline connection end on Dec 2nd.
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Gigs
Joined: Jan 19, 2004
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From: The planet Snibertron!
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lol grats |
carkitter
Joined: Apr 29, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Auckland, NZ
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Hmm... got stung by ill-informed customer service staff.
When setting up the connection to Orcon, I was given a number to enter into my connection settings. Connecting via this number using my wife's Z600 is viewed by Vodafone as WAP and as a result I have a $100 bill for 'Data Calls'.
Thanks Orcon 
It took Vodafone Customer Service nearly A MONTH to reply to my enquiries over this matter and I'd probably still be waiting if I hadn't threatened contacting certain Media organisations.
That's nearly 1 month of not being able to connect to the internet for fear of increasing an already "out of control" bill.
Moral of the story: Whatever the ISP says, only connect to GPRS by dialling *99#.
Edit: By the way, Vodafone Billing Dept got confused by the Data (WAP) Calls and took them off my free minutes by mistake. Having sorted that out, they then did it again with my next bill!!!!!!
AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2006-01-27 09:14 ] |
carkitter
Joined: Apr 29, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Auckland, NZ
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Several things about this didn't add up. Now I know what they are.
It seems the first VF CSR I spoke to gave me wrong info.
I don't need Orcon at all. VF can be my ISP and my email address can be *******@vodafone.net.nz, for example.
If I'd known this at the beginning I would have set up an Orcon account and wouldn't have needed wap to connect to it.
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[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2006-04-02 06:51 ] |
Gigs
Joined: Jan 19, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: The planet Snibertron!
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When econet sorts their shizz out.
Be nice if we had another operator to buy unbranded SE handsets!
so hows the great no telecom experiment going anyhow CK?
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citysoldier
Joined: May 15, 2005
Posts: 59
From: New Zealand
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Anyone recently upgrade to a sim2. I just did. Had a normal sim for like 9 years. Anyway does it matter if the sim2 says 3g on it. I went back to vodafone store and asked and the guy said it doesnt matter, its just the new sim.
It says 128kb on it when other sim2 say 32kb. I dont really care as long as it works but after turning on the phone if I press menu there is a short lag b4 the menu opens. This never happened b4. Cant the k750 handle the sim or something?
[ This Message was edited by: citysoldier on 2006-03-31 00:52 ] |
Gigs
Joined: Jan 19, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: The planet Snibertron!
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Sim2 is just an updated sim, bit more memory and thats about it really. Nothing technically different that you would need to change your phone or stop it from working. (EG you could put em in an old ericsson and they'll work fine too)
Wierd that the K750 is playing up though, software maybe? |
citysoldier
Joined: May 15, 2005
Posts: 59
From: New Zealand
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So a sim 2 is the same as a sim2 that says 3g on it?
I dont think its software or hardware problems with my phone. It only happened after I changed to a sim2. Havent updated my firmware yet because havent really had much problems and I dont have broadband. Also a bit paranoid I might stuff up my phone. |
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Posted: 2005-11-19 10:19
