I can't figure out why PetroCan's APN won't work on my unlocked phone.

**lyrae** · 07-27-2012, 05:07 PM

And it's making me crazy.

I'm using a S-E Xperia Ray, which was originally a Telus prepaid phone, but I unlocked it. It runs Andoid (Gingerbread).

I activated a new PetroCan SIM last week and added the unlimited Web by phone. According to their reps, everything should be good to go.

The SIM works for phone calls, but not for the Web.

I got the settings for their APN from their own site. I also tried a couple of auto-APN settings apps from the Android market, but while they appear to work, I still can't access the Web when I open a browser and try to surf.

Within the data settings, the 3G network named "Petro-Canada" has a checkmark next to it, and pressing that brings up a message saying "registered on network". Still no browsing.

When I look in the testing menu (*#*#4636etc.) it sometimes looks connected and appears to have been given an IP address. Other times it just says it's disconnected. Either way, if I try to ping I just get a server-not-found error. And either way, still no browsing.

When I open the default Android browser, it says it's "downloading settings" but the options say Rogers or Fido. I've tried selecting Rogers, but it always fails to download anyway (obviously because it's not connected to a network.)

I'm about to give up and consider this a $20 experiment gone wrong.... but it seems like most people who have problems with this service eventually find success. Is it possible that my phone just won't work on their network?

If anyone can lend any advice I haven't already heard and tried, I'll be very grateful!

CAVEATS:

- The setting in the data menu for "network mode" is greyed out, obviously by Telus. I'm not sure what options are hidden there, but if it's about WCDMA vs. GSM vs. whatever, I can change that in the testing menu. What should it be? The phone seems to default to WCDMA preferred, which a Rogers rep told me is wrong, but obviously, he wouldn't help me further.

- I'd prefer not to root the phone or go looking for ROMs since I use Linux and all that stuff is catered towards Windows users. I tried to root a Samsung Galaxy 5 on my system for weeks and it never worked, and I really would prefer to avoid that frustration again.

- I do get an up-arrow-down-arrow icon in the status bar, with either an H or a 3G (once an E) -- but aside from the first time it appears (when I "register on the network") the arrows only go up, never down. It often fluctuates between H and 3G on and on and on and on and on...

- A 2G network also called "Petro-Canada" appears in my list of operators, but when I select that I get an error message that my SIM won't allow connections to that network. I don't get that error when I select the one with a 3G next to it, but it still doesn't work.

- I did a factory reset and then entered the APN on a fresh system. Same same.

**bobmutch** · 07-27-2012, 11:57 PM

type your sim in another phone and make sure it works there.

**o2qc418** · 07-30-2012, 07:02 PM

have you put the correct apn on your phone ?
goam.com and the proxy ...
or try internet.com
some people internet.com work ...

**ry29** · 07-31-2012, 07:58 PM

Originally Posted by lyrae

- I do get an up-arrow-down-arrow icon in the status bar, with either an H or a 3G (once an E) -- but aside from the first time it appears (when I "register on the network") the arrows only go up, never down. It often fluctuates between H and 3G on and on and on and on and on...

Interesting, I get the same behaviour on my Defy with CM7 2.3.7. Yet, it works fine in my Galaxy Nexus and iPad 1.

'Up' arrow is always on, but nothing comes down.