Here are the results from my T-Mobile Internet testing:

I tried the following on a friend’s 3650 and the Free Internet plan:

- Browsing on the phone WAP browser works fine. You are able to go to any WAP site you want. You however don’t get the T-Mobile T-Zones Homepage (just a limited homepage instead where all you can do is download ringers, wallpaper and such). Not a big deal just configure your phone to use one of the many other free WAP Homepages available on the Internet. Some good options are mobile.msn.net/wml, wap.yahoo.com, and I know that there are others with custom configurable content. I don’t WAP that much and since I personally do have the T-Zones homepage which I custom configured for me, I have never really researched alternative homepages. I’ll research it and report back to you what I find since I’m considering dropping the $9.99 Internet plan for the free one maybe.
- I installed the Opera Browser on the 3650 and with it you can browse all HTML pages. Cookies and Javascript are supported on the 3650. …SSL web pages wont work.
- GOOD NEWS – Email works! You can configure the email client that comes built in to the 3650 to connect to as many different POP3 accounts as you wish. I even tested sending and receiving. T-Mobile has their own SMTP server (it don’t remember now what it is) but I used my own SMTP server (with authentication), IMAP also works but I won’t recommend it on the 3650 (its buggy and locks up sometimes).
- Agile Messenger (a free program you can install on the 3650) will let you IM on any of these four services (all at the same time too), Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, AOL IM, and ICQ.
- I connected my laptop via Bluetooth and I was able to browse the web.
- SSL ports are blocked. So this means you can’t shop online.
- On my laptop MSN Messenger and AOL IM (the only two I have an account for) both failed. This is weird because it worked on the phone application (perhaps the phone application connects a different way like through that software program companies web proxy or some other way)
- On my laptop RDP connection to my home computer failed. RDP is Remote Desktop Protocol and uses port 3389 that is being blocked.
- FTP connections also failed….this is port 21 that is obviously being blocked.
- Essentially it seems you can do any web browsing and email on the phone or on a laptop or PDA but that’s it….all other ports are blocked for all other services.

Also I did the same test on my phone also a 3650 with the $9.99 Internet Plan and I got the same results as with the Free Internet plan. So I might drop the $9.99 plan. I’m kind of upset that all those things used to work on the $9.99 plan and they took them away from me. I would have to go to the $19.99 plan to be able to run any program that would perhaps use any other port.

Here are T-Mobile current Internet plans:

Free Internet Plan – Web browsing (WAP, HTTP) and POP3 Email on phone or connected device (laptop or PDA), no T-Zones homepage.

$4.99 Inernet Plan – same as above plus adds T-Zones Homepage which is custom configurable to you. Set your zip code for news, set your movie theaters, set your stocks, set your weather, even configure your pop3 email via WAP access for any account you may have….etc….all this done via T-Mobile web site (set this up via a PC)

$9.99 Internet Plan – all of above plus adds 300 SMS text messaging and 100 MMS multimedia picture messaging. (this plan that I have is no longer available. If you want SMS and MMS you have to add them separately…$4.99 for MMS and $.2.99 for SMS….so I’m actually saving $3 by having this plan, than if I got everything separately. But I still wouldn’t get as many SMS and MMS)

$19.99 Internet Plan – all of above plus gives you access to all Internet ports. So no services are blocked, you can FTP, SSL, RDP, IM …anything. Including VPN access to any network. (but you don’t get any SMS nor MMS).

$29.99 Internet Plan – same as $19.99 plan but it is meant to be used with a data card only (not a phone)….so you get no voice minutes. It is a data only plan. Some people claim the data card is faster than using a phone with Bluetooth but my research on this topic has shown that this is a false claim. I have actually used a data card on T-Mobile that was on this $29.99 plan and I did speed testing with www.broadbandreports.com/stest

Clarifications:
SMS – Short Message Service, this allows you to send and receive text messages of up to 120 characters in length to and from any cell phone (even across to different providers, of course they need to have this service too). If you don’t have an SMS add-on to your plan then you can still SMS but you get charged 5 cents for every sent or received SMS.

MMS – Multimedia Messaging Service, This like an upgrade to SMS. It allows you to attach pictures, sound files, video….You can type a lot. ..not really sure on the size limit of the MMS. If you don’t have an MMS add-on to your plan then you can still MMS but you get charged 25 cents for every sent or received MMS. (If you decide to send a picture from your phone via email then it doesn’t count as MMS …and so you can email all you want…because email is just data over Internet which is unlimited.

SMS and MMS are instant delivery of a message from phone to phone through the cellular network with audible notification for the receiving person. You could choose to email instead but email is not automatic on the phone. You have to force the phone to check the email account to see if there are any new messages.

Corporate Email – The Free Internet plan and the $4.99 plan do not have Corporate Email service. What is this you ask? It is the ability to set up access to a corporate email server (like an Exchange server) through T-Zones Homepage. This is not the same thing as POP3 or IMAP email access. ALL Plans have POP3 or IMAP access.

I forgot to mention that I tried tricking the Free Internet Plan and the $9.99 Internet Plan into letting me connect to my home computer via RDP (normally port 3389) by changing the port that my home network listens to for RDP connections.

So since all you can do on T-Mobile is Web Browse and Email that is essentially that the only ports that are open are ports 80, 25, and 110. 80 (HTTP, WAP), 25 (SMTP-sending email), 110 (receiving email). What I decided to do is set my Firewall/Router to listen to port 80 and the forward it internally on my home network to port 3389 (the RDP port on my PC). It didn't work
I also tried this using port 25 and port 110. My ISP doesnt block these ports either. So it just isn't possible to trick the T-Mobile gateway into letting you use other services through redirected ports.

How do I sign up for free wap? (Do I have to call?) Also, is it listed on their website?

All existing customers automatically now have Free Internet Plan. They call it "Web Browsing". This is for ANY Plan! You don't have to call them. You all have it.

What you need to take advantage of this is to have a GPRS capable phone that has a WAP browser.

galfert, i just wanted to say thank you
finally someone who made it all clear on all of the different types of internet plans.

Not really. $2.99 t-zones is not clear.

Does the free wap have unlimited transfer or a set limit?

ultramookie,
2.99 plan is unlimited from what I have read in other threads. Yes ther is some arguing but If everyone was given free internet ..then why would the 2.99 plan not be given unlimited also? ....Think about it people....they stopped counting data transfer megabytes. T-Mobile isn't going to count megabyte for just the few people on the old grandfathered 2.99 plan....it doesn't make sense!

Mxjshaf69,
Free = Unlimited

And that is my point, it's not clear, we are going on what others are saying. I believe too that it's free unlimited since that's what the data group says, but there's other arguments. There would not be arguments if it were clear

Hey,

I just called T-Mobile. I'm in Illinois, if that matters.

They said that the $4.99 internet plan does NOT come with any text messages.

Why is that? Is there any internal code I could refer them to to get this $4.99 plan everyone seems to be able to get but me?

Thanks,

I am on hold right now with t-mo customer care. They are in the process of transferring me to Tier2Data??? Anyhow, My phone is on the way from Amazon right now and I am getting all of my info correct before I use the darn thing. I am being told by T-mobile that sending a pic from my 3650 to an e-mail address would be considered an MMS. I am trying to explain to them about how much I read the t-mobile forum here. I am explainaing to them that I believe the info from this post.

Is it 100% definate if I sign up for the 19.99 internet unlimited, I can send unlimited pics to e-mail addys(I want to do a moblog and send to friends). Is this considered MMS??? I am trying to explain to t-mo that I highly believe that it is not, but they say that it is..

Also when you say sending through e-mail, is this if I use the feature to send via e-mail right after I take the pic? or do I have to go through a seperate e-mail account? I want to be able to quickly take a pic and send it very quickly...


P.S. THANKS for the great info!!!!!
-Erick

In all likelihood, they probably have a packet shaper running. A smart move on their part (sucks for us).

How is the free WAP showing up on all your accounts? I'm getting conflicting reports: some have Included Web Browsing Free on the right column of Plans & Services, while I have Included WAP Access Active in my plan details. Now does this entail the same thing or is there really a difference between the two?

I'm able to access the web through my laptop and the CSR had said there would be no additional charges.

Don't they have some kind of proxy or accellerator running? If so you can run anything you want on port 80, but it will only pass http requests (web pages). I'm actually glad they do this, with all the people that will be using GPRS now things may get quite congested. Last thing I want is some bonehead FTP'ing 3 gigs of MP3's, using up the network, while I'm lost trying to get driving directions!

The $4.99 plan does not give you or anyone else anywhere any text messaging (SMS)...nor MMS for that matter. Previous grandfathered plans had SMS and MMS ...they are not longer available to anyone. You now need to add SMS and MMS plans separately.

So...why am I paying $19.99 to browse the web on my laptop? Will I lose access to IM? So it's like I'm paying $19.99 just to use IM?