Getting connected with your mobile

This page is intended to provide help, advice and links for people having trouble getting their mobile phone, smartphone or PDA to make a connection to WAP, Web, email or MMS services.

This is intended as a beginner’s troubleshooting guide. If you’re looking for settings and configuration help for specific devices, see the links on the left. For general help and suggestions, read on…

Can’t connect?

The majority of the messages we get to this site are from handset users who are having problems connecting to online services from their device. Assuming that you’ve checked the obvious (such as making sure your phone is getting a signal, and if connecting with a PDA, Bluetooth or IR are in range and turned on), it’s almost always one of the following three things that’s to blame. Try to work through the following to narrow down the problem:

1.
Service not enabled

It could be that you’re trying to use a service that your Network Operator (e.g. o2 or Vodafone) hasn’t enabled for you. Check
the following:

  • Is your
    SIM card ‘data enabled’?
  • If connecting
    using GPRS, has GPRS been enabled on your account?
  • For picture
    messaging: Is MMS enabled?
  • For email
    and web: You’ll need to have full Internet service enabled. (o2 help)

To get a service
enabled, you need to contact your network operator’s Customer
Services team. Hint: Don’t take their word that
a service is actually enabled. Sometimes the ‘enabled’ signal takes
a while to make it through, or they enable the wrong service… Check
again!

2.
You’re using the wrong settings

Some of the settings are quite complex, and a tiny slip or typo is
all it takes for the whole thing to break. On this site, we list settings
for the main UK operators, and offer step-by-step walkthroughs for
a selection handsets (see the links on the left), but we can’t
hope to even cover a small selection of the available UK phones. Hopefully
the settings we’ve provided will be of use: GPRS | WAP | MMS


Many network operators and handset manufacturers offer a service to
send the settings direct to your mobile – Where possible, this is
the best option for making sure nothing gets wrongly typed. Try the
Nokia Configurator.

3.
You’re using the wrong type of service

Another common problem is there you’re trying to do something that
you’re not able to do. When you connect to a mobile phone data service, you’ll connect in one of two ways: using a dialup account (with a telephone number), or more commonly, using a GPRS APN (APN stands for Access Point Name). As an example: If your handset is set up to use a WAP APN (such as wap.o2.co.uk) , you’ll get errors if you try to access your email
or access non-WAP pages – in this case, you’d need to use Internet
settings, not WAP settings. Check which type
of service you’re connecting to, and make sure
it’s the right one for the job (see the notes
below).

 

Still
having problems?

You may need
some trial-and-error to eliminate some of the potential problems – here
are some things to try:

  • Keep
    it simple:     Try something easier – If you’re having problems with something like
    trying to access your email from your PDA using Bluetooth and
    GPRS… start simply, and just try to get your phone to connect to
    WAP. If that doesn’t work, anything more complex never will.
  • Test the SIM card:
    Check that your account is correctly enabled by using your SIM in another mobile (perhaps an older handset, or a friend’s phone) – this allows you to test that the SIM is data enabled
    and the remote service is working. This will help to narrow down the problem
    to a "settings" or "service" problem.
  • Test the phone: Try using a different SIM in your phone – Find a friend who has the service you’re after working on their phone, then insert their SIM into your phone and enter their settings – this tests whether your handset is able to connect to that service, and further helps to narrow down the problem
    to a "settings" or "service" problem.

  • Start again: Go into the connectivity/connection settings area of your device and delete the troublesome access settings completely – this accomplishes two things – firstly, if the settings happen to have become corrupt, recreating them from scratch will solve the problem, secondly, it’s sometimes easier to start again, rather than trying to diagnose existing settings.

  • Check for restrictions: Double-check that there are no issues preventing you from accessing the services you’re after – if on Pay As You Go – have you got enough credit? Are you getting a good enough stable signal to get a solid data service? Does your handset support the service you’re after? Is your handset "unlocked" for use on the network you’re trying to use? If travelling overseas, is your phone allowed to ‘roam’ on the network you’re using?

  • Try
    another account:     For email or web access – try to make use of a different way of connecting – If trying to use GPRS, try using a dialup account to see if you can connect that way. Connecting via a dialup service is often the simplest way to connect. Try
    setting up a free dialup account with BT
    Yahoo     to see if that works. We provide a step-by-step
    guide     on setting up BT Yahoo for most PDAs and Symbian smartphones,
    to help with error-free setup. If a BT Yahoo account works, but an
    email account for another provider doesn’t, it proves that it’s not
    a problem with your hardware or Internet connection, but a problem with the settings or service
    you’re trying to connect to.

 

Need more help?

If you still need help, rather than emailing us, the best bet is to
post a message in our help forum – mention which phone you have, which operator you’re with, what service you’re trying to connect with, what settings you’re trying to use, what’s working (e.g.
WAP but not web), and what error messages you’re seeing. Visit
our help forum

 

Types
of connection

A quick summary
of the different connectivity types you may be able to use from your
mobile:

  • WAP
    allows for access to cut-down Internet content designed for viewing
    on a mobile phone. Content is normally basic with no graphics, animation
    or video. You connect using either a dial-up telephone number (billed
    by the second) or via a GPRS access point (billed by the amount of
    kilobytes of data you use) . To access WAP, you need to connect via
    a special Gateway, and if you get the gateway settings wrong, it won’t
    work. Also note, that when using a gateway, non-WAP services can’t
    get through… so downloading email to your Inbox won’t work if
    you’re connected using WAP settings. For
    more on WAP, and for the UK WAP settings, see our WAP
    page

  • GPRS
    is one of the methods used to send data over the mobile phone network.
    It’s generally faster than connecting using a dial-up connection,
    and it’s referred to as "always on" (like Broadband). It’s
    also commonly billed by the amount of content send and received (and
    not by the amount of time you’re connected).
    On its own, GPRS doesn’t do anything. You need think of it as WAP-over-GPRS,
    or picture-messaging-over-GPRS. Again – you can’t mix, so don’t try
    browsing WAP pages on a connection set up for sending MMS picture
    messages. For more on GPRS,
    and for UK settings, see our GPRS page

  • MMS
    (Multimedia Messaging) is the next step on from text messages, and
    use pictures and sound as well as text. Connection is always ”over
    GPRS" and you need to have the settings of the MMS Service Centre
    run by your Network Operator. For
    more, see our MMS page. See also our specific MMS help notes.

  • Email
    – If you have a Smartphone, it’s likely that your device has an email program
    built-in. As long as you’re not trying to connect to your work email
    system, or using Hotmail / AOL, chances are, you use a POP or IMAP
    email service, which means you can set up your handset for access to your mail.
    You’ll need to connect either using your ISP’s dialup service, or
    preferably use a ‘full Internet’ GPRS connection.
    See below for help fixing specialist email issues. We
    recommend BT Yahoo as an ISP that’s easy
    to set up on a mobile. We have setup instructions for Nokia Series
    60    , P800 and P900
    handsets, plus Pocket PC, Palm
    and Psions.

A few extra snippets…

A collection of useful information
we’ve gathered along the way:

Hotmail
and AOL access?

Hotmail and AOL use proprietary email systems,
as opposed to the more common POP email systems – this makes it tricky to access mail on a mobile device. For email on the move,
consider using a standard POP3 provider such as BT Yahoo (see setup details) that offers free email accounts that can be configured on mobile phone email programs.

If you
want to access your Hotmail or AOL email, there are several options:

  • General: Try using a web browser on your phone (such as the Opera browser) to access Hotmail / AOL’s service via their webmail
    interface.
  • Hotmail: Use
    the built-in WAP browser and from ‘Services’, enter the URL http://mobile.msn.com , and you’ll be able to access
    your Hotmail mail via WAP. There are some complications with
    this option, which we’ve detailed on our WAP
    page
  • AOL:
    We’ve also been directed to
    an AOL
    Mail FAQ     that suggests that a suitable email program can be configured to get email access via
    IMAP (as opposed to POP3). Many smartphones and PDAs support IMAP (check in the email section). For devices that don’t support IMAP, you can download one from Handango
  • AOL: A posting
    in our forum     suggests another option: Open AOL. Go to AOL
    Keyword. Type ‘AOL Mobile’ . Open AOL on your Mobile. Under
    Get Started, Open ‘Sign up now’.
Gmail
access

It’s possible to access
your Gmail account from many mobile devices. You need to log into
your Gmail account from a web browser and enable the "POP3"
option. Once this has been done, configure your mobile device as
per a standard POP account – although note that SSL security is
required. Here are the settings:

  • Username: Your gmail
    email address
  • Incoming server: pop.gmail.com
  • Outgoing server: smtp.gmail.com
  • SMTP Authentication:
    On
  • POP3 SSL: On
  • SMTP SSL: On
  • SMTP Username / password:
    As per Gmail username / password

Some
specific information for certain devices:

  • Nokia
    9500     / Nokia 9300    :
    Note that you need to go to the account’s ‘Advanced’ tab and set
    "incoming secure connection" to ‘SSL’.
  • Series
    60 phones     (Nokia 6600, 7610, 3650, etc): Note that the
    built-in email application doesn’t support SSL, and so it’s not
    possible to get at your Gmail using Messaging. However, ProfiMail
    from www.handango.com , is available, and does support Gmail access (as per the screenshot)
  • Pocket
    PC 2002 / Windows Mobile 2003    :
    No reported issues
Problems
web surfing over GPRS		 This is a
common question. If your handset has a web browser, you may find that
you can’t surf web pages, even though the handset shows that you’re
connected. On a Pocket PC, this may show up as "page not found".
On a Symbian OS smartphone, you may see this as "GPRS: Invalid GPRS
access point".

This is almost certainly because you are using the wrong GPRS Access
point. Most GPRS handsets are set with access to the network operator’s
WAP gateway, and this will only allow you to browse dedicated WAP
content, and not standard Internet web pages. You’ll need to set
up your handset for Internet-over-GPRS, using the network operator’s
Internet APN, not the WAP APN. You’ll also need to ask your Network
Operator to enable this service for you.
I
can receive but not send emails

If you get an error such
as "Problem sending message", you
may be trying to send an email via one Internet Service Provider while you’re connected to a different Internet Provider.


When
sending email, you’ll need to have specified an outgoing email server
address (known as an SMTP server address). Many Internet Service
Providers (ISPs) only allow you to use their SMTP server to send emails if you’ve established
a connection to them using their Internet connection. That way, they know who’s sending emails through their service, and can control
spam attacks. If you’re having a problem sending emails, you need to take a look at the SMTP address that you’ve used.

Mobile? If you’re trying to send email from your mobile phone handset
using GPRS, you’ll need to use your network operator’s SMTP server address,
and not your email provider’s SMTP server address. See our GPRS page for UK GPRS settings. As an example, if you use BT Internet as your email account provider, and you are connecting to the Internet via o2 (as your network
operator), you won’t be able to send email using the SMTP address of mail.btinternet.com,
you’d need to use o2’s SMTP address of smtp.o2.co.uk.

Can
connect, but can’t log on to email

If,
when attempting to log in, you’re constantly prompted for your password,
even though you know you’re typing in the right password, there
are two possible causes. If you’re already logged in (via a web
browser or a PC program like Outlook, then you’re often not allowed
to log on via a second device. Make sure you’re not already connected
to your email provider on another machine. The other thing to check
is that you’re account hasn’t been temporarily locked as you may
have made repeated attempts to log on incorrectly. Many ISPs allow
you to check your mail via a web service… it may be worth trying
this to make sure your account is working properly and there are
no problems at your ISP.

One useful way of checking that access to your email POP mailbox is working, is to try to connect using www.mail2web.com

Problems
with MMS?
  • Make
    sure that your phone supports MMS. Only fairly recent models have
    MMS
  • Make
    sure that you have configured MMS correctly. Check our MMS settings page. Many network
    operators offer a service to push settings direct to your mobile via their website.
  • Make
    sure that your network operator has enabled MMS on your mobile
    phone account. They have to switch the service on, and it may
    take up to 48 hours for your SIM Card to receive the command to
    enable the service. Double-check that the service has definitely
    been enabled
  • MMS messages
    are more expensive than text messages. Ensure that you have enough
    credit or have not exceeded your MMS allowance.
  • Ensure
    that you’re using the right GPRS Access Point,
    and that the data bearer is set to GPRS. MMS uses a different
    APN to WAP, so if WAP works and MMS doesn’t you could be trying
    to send MMS via your WAP gateway.
Web
browsing on a 7650 / 3650		 The
Nokia 7650 and 3650 come with a Wap browser
that is capable of viewing web content designed for use over the Mobile
Internet. If you’re looking for HTML web access, take a look at Doris Browser. This is a small Java application that can be evaluated for
free for ten days. Once installed, you can find it from the Tools
| Apps icon. The browser supports image rendering, access to secure
sites as well as viewing Word and PDF documents – and it all fits
in under 50k.

As an alternative, the fully-featured Opera
browser is available for the Series 60 and can be downloaded from
here.
‘System
error"		 If attempting
to retrieve email on a Series 60 handset and see a "General:
System error", make sure you have "Gateway IP address" set
to 0.0.0.0. (Tools | Settings | Connection | Access points)
This message also appears if you are trying to connect to an email
account over a WAP connection (e.g. trying to connect to BT Yahoo‘s
mailbox while dialed up over o2‘s WAP service).
See our Series 60 connectivity page
GPRS
symbols

Curious about the little
‘G’ symbol when you’re surfing? Here’s what we’ve learnt about the
little ‘G’ icon on our Nokia 6600 Series 60 handset…

  • Flashing
    ‘G’     – Trying to connect. You’ll get this for a few seconds
    when you start a GPRS connection. If this is all you get (and
    it never connects), it’s likely that your network hasn’t enabled
    GPRS on your account, or you’re using the wrong GPRS settings
  • Solid ‘G’ – Connected
    established but not authenticated. You normally get this very
    briefly just before the connection happens. If you don’t get beyond
    this, your username and password might need looking at, or you’re
    trying to connect to the wrong network (i.e. Voda with an o2 SIM)
  • ‘G’ with a box around
    it     – Connected
    and authenticated (i.e. working!)
  • ‘G’ with a line through
    it     – Connection
    suspended – (voice call in progress / no signal)

 

o2 users

We have a little extra information that may be of use to o2 customers…

Internet and Email on o2

To surf the Internet, access email or use any services that require "full" Internet access, you’ll need to use o2’s "Mobile Web" service. You’ll need to contact customer services to get this service enabled for you. You can find the o2 Mobile Web GPRS settings here: o2 Mobile Internet Settings

Mobile
Web on o2 PAYG?

o2 Mobile Web is not available
on the o2 Pay-as-you-go tariff, only for customers on a pay-monthly
tariff.

According to various
emails we’ve seen, this is o2’s policy as opposed to any kind
of technical limitation.
o2
GPRS issues		 If
you experience a "GPRS: Invalid GPRS access point" error when attempting
to connect to, say, BT Yahoo, over o2 via their mobile.o2.co.uk APN, this
is likely to be for one of two reasons – either you have not entered
the correct o2 Mobile Web APN settings,
or o2 has not enabled "Mobile Web" on your account (in which case, contact
o2).

For general information on o2’s data services, see our o2
information and o2 WAP pages.
o2
WAP issues

Under some
cases, we’ve seen "Page not found" messages when trying
to connect to the http://wap.o2.co.uk/ address. We’ve been able
to resolve this by using a slightly different address, wsp://wap.o2.co.uk of you’re having problems this could be worth a try.

Also, please
note that there are two dialup access numbers for o2. The shortcode
number of 915000 and the full number 07712927927. If you can’t connect,
try the alternative number. If you’re connecting in from outside
the UK, don’t forget the international prefix, i.e. +447712927927

Still
need help? Ask in our online
forum
It would be helpful to report the error message(s) you’re seeing, the
device you’re trying to connect with, which operator you’re with, and the settings you’re using.

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