Saturday, July 7, 2007
Day Three With T-Mobile HotSpot @Home
I tried the Sanford municipal wifi this morning. The phone attempted to connect, but there was no luck in making a connection. I am did not have my notebook computer with me, but I would guess that a terms and conditions page exists on the network. Many government wifi networks display a page of terms and conditions to which you must agree to connect to the network. I would not be out of question that the network also does not allow a VOIP usage of their network. I know that Seminole County government wifi outlets do not allow use of the Google Docs & Spreadsheets web site.
I have been attempting to use the online phone book feature on the my.t-mobile.com web site with some limited success. It has been difficult to transfer the correct telephone numbers from Outlook to the web site. I blame Outlook because the program has options for mobile phone and car phone numbers, and the T-Mobile web site does not know which the grab for a valid number. A little data clean up helped clear the situation. The value in uploading contact information to the web site is that it will synchronize with the handset and vice-a-versa the handset with the web site.Labels: Cellular, HotSpot, T-Mobile, Telephone, VOIP
Friday, July 6, 2007
Day Two With T-Mobile HotSpot @Home
One problem that I need to research. I have a wireless email address which I forwarded to my soon-to-be-former Verizon handset and my T-Mobile phone. It sends messages triggered by my email server, because I need to know when certain people email me. The T-Mobile messages through the day have been very delayed a couple of times. I need to see if the server is delaying a send or if it is T-Mobile's problem.
I am going to attempt to use the Sanford municipal wireless network this evening or in the morning. Tomorrow evening we get to test T-Mobile's system capacity when we attend the Pepsi 400 NASCAR race at Daytona. In is usually impossible to call out at a Daytona feature race. I guess half of 250,000 fans holding their phones up when the cars pass overbooks the frequency spectrum.
This was the first day using the service outside of the home. Really worked well. The wi-fi in the office worked as expected. We work in a concrete and steel building with just one wireless access point so coverage can be spotty. The phone seems to switch over to the T-Mobile network on a shorter radius than when a notebook computer or PDA indicates connection issues. I understand why the handset is eager to switch to the T-mobile network on the edge of wi-fi signals. Voice over the Internet requires a good, consistent access speed to work well. I would design it towards the conservative side for better customer performance as well.
One problem that I need to research. I have a wireless email address which I forwarded to my soon-to-be-former Verizon handset and my T-Mobile phone. It sends messages triggered by my email server, because I need to know when certain people email me. The T-Mobile messages through the day have been very delayed a couple of times. I need to see if the server is delaying a send or if it is T-Mobile's problem.
I am going to attempt to use the Sanford municipal wireless network this evening or in the morning. Tomorrow evening we get to test T-Mobile's system capacity when we attend the Pepsi 400 NASCAR race at Daytona. In is usually impossible to call out at a Daytona feature race. I guess half of 250,000 fans holding their phones up when the cars pass overbooks the frequency spectrum.
Labels: Cellular, HotSpot, T-Mobile, Telephone, VOIP
Day One With T-Mobile HotSpot @Home
We opened the boxes this afternoon and got started with setting up the router. I setup the wireless router using the web interface using WAP encryption for the wireless signal. The only difference in the web interface was the different model number. Everything else is exactly the same in the WRT-54 family of wireless routers.
Next it was installing the handset battery and SIM card. Powered up and attempted to connect. I tried the single-button setup that is available on the front of the router, but that did not work. On the next attempt I setup the handset manually. I received an error message that there was an ISP/DNS error. I am impressed with the good descriptive error messages. This is where I ran into a couple of problems.
The process seem to go much better after those small issues. The phone logged onto the wireless network without any issue. I did a couple of test calls by calling the home phone and then walking out of wireless network range. The switch was completely imperceptible by myself or the family member on the other end.
The Samsung T409 handset is very easy to use. For the first time in my life I was able to call someone, place them on hold, call a second party, and connected the two calls. I was then able to release one of the callers. I have never been able to figure this out on any cellular or home phone. The on screen directions on the T409 make it a very easy process. The only phone easier for conference calling is a Siemens' desktop Optipoint phone.
The my.T-mobile web site enabled me to upload all of my Outlook contacts into an online address book that was then transferred to the handset in a few minutes. A recommended addition that I would make would be the ability to tie the phone list into a Gmail or Yahoo contact list. Any changes to the phone address book in the future will automatically be transferred back to the site. Sadly, the changes cannot be synchronised back to Outlook.
Day one went well. I plan on trying the phone out on some different wireless networks such as the free municipal network here in Sanford in the coming days. I will update as we continue.
Previous posts about T-Mobile HotSpot @Home
Signed Up for T-Mobile HotSpot @Home
Vonage May Fall as Well
We opened the boxes this afternoon and got started with setting up the router. I setup the wireless router using the web interface using WAP encryption for the wireless signal. The only difference in the web interface was the different model number. Everything else is exactly the same in the WRT-54 family of wireless routers.
Next it was installing the handset battery and SIM card. Powered up and attempted to connect. I tried the single-button setup that is available on the front of the router, but that did not work. On the next attempt I setup the handset manually. I received an error message that there was an ISP/DNS error. I am impressed with the good descriptive error messages. This is where I ran into a couple of problems.
- The T-Mobile router is in second place behind a Vonage branded Linksys router. For some reason, the T-Mobile router was unable to obtain an IP address from the Vonage router. This is strange because the T-Mobile router is replacing another wireless router. I setup the T-Mobile router with a static IP.
- I had forgotten that I use a manual DNS address on my routers. I really like the OpenDNS service, so I needed to find and add those addresses.
The process seem to go much better after those small issues. The phone logged onto the wireless network without any issue. I did a couple of test calls by calling the home phone and then walking out of wireless network range. The switch was completely imperceptible by myself or the family member on the other end.
The Samsung T409 handset is very easy to use. For the first time in my life I was able to call someone, place them on hold, call a second party, and connected the two calls. I was then able to release one of the callers. I have never been able to figure this out on any cellular or home phone. The on screen directions on the T409 make it a very easy process. The only phone easier for conference calling is a Siemens' desktop Optipoint phone.
The my.T-mobile web site enabled me to upload all of my Outlook contacts into an online address book that was then transferred to the handset in a few minutes. A recommended addition that I would make would be the ability to tie the phone list into a Gmail or Yahoo contact list. Any changes to the phone address book in the future will automatically be transferred back to the site. Sadly, the changes cannot be synchronised back to Outlook.
Day one went well. I plan on trying the phone out on some different wireless networks such as the free municipal network here in Sanford in the coming days. I will update as we continue.
Previous posts about T-Mobile HotSpot @Home
Signed Up for T-Mobile HotSpot @Home
Vonage May Fall as Well
Labels: Cellular, HotSpot, T-Mobile, Telephone, VOIP
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Signed up for T-Mobile HotSpot @Home Service
We are going to give it a try. The premise of this service is that our new wireless phones will operate on the normal T-Mobile network away from home. When we are at home they will connect with the T-Mobile branded Linksys wireless router to provide phone service via our Internet connection. I have seen some good reviews from a test of the system in Seattle, and I am excited to try it out. Supposedly the phones will connect to any wireless hot spot, but the free Linksys router is designed to reduce telephone battery usage.
The entire catalyst to change from Verizon Wireless has been the poor service that we get at home. We can only use our wireless telephones outside of our house. Even then we cannot stand on the north side of the house. I must admit that elsewhere the network is flawless. I have never been to any part of the country where I lost my Verizon signal entirely. I once stayed in a cabin in a deep valley at the edge of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, and I still had five bars. We could actually see a cell tower out the back window. I assume that it was Verizon.
I hate to leave Verizon because we have been a customer since they bought our provider in the late 90's. Does anybody remember the Primeco character, Primetheus? We are probably going to cut back to just one Vonage line as well. Our total savings should be $25 per month, and we will end up with one extra telephone line in our home.
Delivery of our equipment is scheduled for this week. I will take you through setup and initial use. Incidentally, I only live about 4 miles from a T-Mobile corporate store, but I had the equipment shipped because my T-Mobile corporate rep saved me $70 on the activation fees.
We are going to give it a try. The premise of this service is that our new wireless phones will operate on the normal T-Mobile network away from home. When we are at home they will connect with the T-Mobile branded Linksys wireless router to provide phone service via our Internet connection. I have seen some good reviews from a test of the system in Seattle, and I am excited to try it out. Supposedly the phones will connect to any wireless hot spot, but the free Linksys router is designed to reduce telephone battery usage.
The entire catalyst to change from Verizon Wireless has been the poor service that we get at home. We can only use our wireless telephones outside of our house. Even then we cannot stand on the north side of the house. I must admit that elsewhere the network is flawless. I have never been to any part of the country where I lost my Verizon signal entirely. I once stayed in a cabin in a deep valley at the edge of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, and I still had five bars. We could actually see a cell tower out the back window. I assume that it was Verizon.
I hate to leave Verizon because we have been a customer since they bought our provider in the late 90's. Does anybody remember the Primeco character, Primetheus? We are probably going to cut back to just one Vonage line as well. Our total savings should be $25 per month, and we will end up with one extra telephone line in our home.
Delivery of our equipment is scheduled for this week. I will take you through setup and initial use. Incidentally, I only live about 4 miles from a T-Mobile corporate store, but I had the equipment shipped because my T-Mobile corporate rep saved me $70 on the activation fees.
Labels: Cellular, HotSpot, T-Mobile, Telephone, VOIP
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