BT-PAN Tethering On Feature Phone No Longer Working, BT-DUN Still Works

[rlowell]

Guys:

OK. This is the first time I've gone public with this anywhere. I thought I had a pretty good deal with AT&T GoPhone until recently.

On December 2011, I got a $50 "unlimited" GoPhone account and activated a Nokia C3-01 Touch and Type.

I bought the Touch and Type because it supported PAN and was not a smartphone.



I found that not only could I tether my Win XP laptop (over either DUN or PAN connections), I could also tether my iPod Touch 4th Gen tablet.

I started using the Internet radio on it (ootunes is my favorite app) in my car.
And the phone would ring (something I didn't experience on my previous network) if a call came in when I was listening to the radio. Things were great.

The "unlimited" $50 account was supposed to let you use as much data as you want. And when you have this account and look at how much data you've been using, they won't let you see that. I presume if I had purchased an account limited to 250MB or 500MB, then the data on their webpage would show me how much mobile data I was actually using.

But I know I don't use that much. I was on Sprint for ten years and used 200-300 MB monthly. I don't think it's much different on my GoPhone.

My mobile Internet use is actually dominated by my laptop. I send and receive a lot of e-mail for work. The Internet Radio on iPod is only a small piece (usually only when I'm in the car).


Anyway, the connection to my iPod (or more correctly to the Internet, which used the C3 01 as as PAN connection the Internet) stopped working.

I noticed this on both my laptop and the Touch. I did notice that if I changed to a DUN connection on my laptop, it still works. In fact, I'm sending this post now over that tethered connection.



I just noticed this morning that AT&T "announced" last April that all GoPhone users needed to add a data package. But then when I read more closely, it was ambiguous. It seem to state that all "Smartphone" users need to add a data package.

Now, please don't add any comments to this thread about your smartphone not working and how that's terrible of AT&T to do that to you etc.


This is really a question about connecting to their server, and how they could detect a difference (I think they probably can; I'm not sure) between a DUN connection and a PAN connection.

What I'm really trying to figure out is is my problem a change that AT&T's made to the connections on their network? Or is it something in my setup?

Even though my phone is not considered a smartphone (it has the large SIM - not the uSIM that smartphones take), I'm wondering if a PAN connection is somehow considered something "exclusive" to smartphones and for that reason they're now blocking it?


With a DUN connection on the laptop, you dial a specific phone number (like with dialup modem). And they also have some weird AT code you have to add.

None of this happens with a PAN connection. The URL you navigate to (WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM) and the password you give(CINGULAR1) are the same, however.

Oh, and here's one more piece of data... When I do a "Web search" on my phone (no tethering) I get an error that says "Subscribe to packet data first" when I tell it to use my 3G data connection. This worked before.


When I go to the online page, it still says "unlimited" on data.



Do you guys think the problem I'm seeing with my non-smartphone is a side effect of AT&T's new policy on data for smartphone users?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

rlowell

[zebra22]

I use a similar setup with nokie 300. I had a similar problem and found somehow I had messed up my config on the phone. I had bought the phone unlocked so I had to config it myself. Googled for nokia 40 style phone setup (non smart phones aka feature phones). Your phone is very similar by the way.
I was getting the "get a data plan" msg too. I thought the jig was up but I was able to correct the config.
I know you want to know exactly what I did but I can't remember the details. But the answer lies in the "Configuration" menus. Good luck grasshopper.

[zebra22]

And I prefer the pan connection. It is much more reliable and takes no interaction other than choosing the icon and the device. I won't buy anything below 2.1 bt anymore since it requires acknowledge. I would like a script that reconnects anytime the pan gets off. Some kind of watchdog to keep me from waiting when it's the connection that has dropped.

[rlowell]

I use a similar setup with nokie 300. I had a similar problem and found somehow I had messed up my config on the phone. I had bought the phone unlocked so I had to config it myself. Googled for nokia 40 style phone setup (non smart phones aka feature phones). Your phone is very similar by the way.
I was getting the "get a data plan" msg too. I thought the jig was up but I was able to correct the config.
I know you want to know exactly what I did but I can't remember the details. But the answer lies in the "Configuration" menus. Good luck grasshopper.

Thanks, zebra.
I'll check my "Configuration" menus again. The first time I got this working last December I saw the data (not for this specific model) for doing this online somewhere. And I wrote things down in a notebook once I got mine working. So I think I have all of this right.

And by the way, I bought a second one of these phones and configured it and got the same result.

But I'll agree it's curious/weird that DUN connections are still solid.

I'll also say it's encouraging if you're regularly doing this (BT-PAN connection on Nokia 300 used to tether devices) that it sounds like the network doesn't have a problem with it.

rlowell