PayAndGo SIM + GPRS + msn

[minneth]

Sorry if this has been asked before.

I have an XDA1 and an old online genie payandgo SIM card. Since for some reason im no longer getting free WAP minutes I decided to set up the payandgo GPRS service, which I've managed to do using payandgo.o2.co.uk as the APN.

The internet works fine, but when I try to use anything else like MSN Messenger or iMov it just won't connect.

Is there any way of getting this working?
thanks in advance for your help.
MC

[cruisin-thru]

have you applied the msn update from microsoft???

[NeilM]

This is a problem with O2 and PAYG web access; O2 don't even have a consistent answer- customer services give different information to different callers.

Till recently, you could only use PAYG GPRS to access the WAP APN, and many users actually have free WAP GPRS on their SIMS. Since the recent change in the Tariffs, you can now have "Mobile Web" enabled for PAYG SIMS but it is charged at £2.35 per Mb; WAP is the same price, but the 1st 1 MB is free if you top up at least £10 per month. You need to call customer services to enable the Mobile Web APN, if it is available.

MSN is only available via the Mobile Web APN (I think!) but is still fairly flakey. Even the WAP Proxy setting (see previous posts) won't work for most people with MSN or POP3 Email.

If MSN refuses to work, you could try Agile Messenger, or ChatToGo, both of which support all the major IM clients, but again, are unlikely to work over WAP GPRS.

[cruisin-thru]

I have had occasions where no connection is possible for hours or days, then it will connect and no problems for months, I was told that contract customers are given preference over payg when the system is busy. I have no evidence to support this though, also I cant see why the system should be so busy that people get booted or temporarily barred through data congestion problems.

[NeilM]

I agree with you totally- but I don't think its just PAYG/PP, it also seems to be between WAP and Web GPRS.

When Mobile Web was launched in 2002, it was a premium service, and O2 stated that the MW APN had priority on the GPRS network. But some cells did not support GPRS at all, and some were not set up for Mobile Web.

Since that time O2 have played around with the GPRS WAP and Web services so much that they are in a total muddle. For a long time all WAP access was free, but MW continued to be chargeable. Then they decided to charge for WAP in June 2004, but on a content basis (ie a News Clip would cost xx pence, a ringtone xx pence etc.)

O2 then discovered that some folk use a Proxy to access Web sites via the WAP APN (a service O2 themselves introduced for devices like the Nokia 660 which had a web browser of sorts) so that charging policy had to be modified.

Now add the incompetence of some of the O2 sub-contractors, who said you could have MMS but not Mobile Web on a contract as their billing systems did not support more than 2 APN's; now we have Blackberry with yet another APN and same story- CPW say they can't support BB (which is a modified WAP system, so again no full Web, MSN or POP3) and MW APN's together, though O2 Online can apparently!

All adds to confusion and dissatisfaction with O2

[Pyrofer]

I have an o2 online talkalot Payg sim.

I get 300 free wap dialup minutes a month.

I used to use them for Internet access, web browsing, sync email and chat on msn.

A few weeks ago i noticed that the web had stopped working, I couldnt get to any site, hang on, pda.o2.co.uk works though.... Nothing else.
MSN and email still worked..

Now nothing. I cant get email, cant chat on msn, only the bloody pda.o2.co.uk website, and half the links from that dont work.

Have o2 changed everything without telling me?