Motorola MPX220 T-Mobile Configuration

T-Zones / T-MobileWeb Settings For T-Mobile on the Motorola MPX220

These Instructions Will:

• Set up T-Zones on your MPx220

• Let you browse WAP sites with your MPx220

• Let you browse full Internet sites

MOTOROLA MPx220 T-Zones / T-MobileWeb Settings

Background: I bought an unlocked MPX220 for use on T-Mobile. I have had a hell of a time configuring it to work on T-Zones and T-MobileWeb. I searched high and low, to find a lot of recycled instructions on the configuration, none of which worked. As soon as I used this configuration, it was working flawlessly.

Tips:

1. These instructions assume that you have already subscribed to T-Zones / T-MobileWeb. When you subscribe to the service, you will receive a message stating that the service has been added to your account. It can take up to 3 days for this to happen and the connection to the Internet won't work until you have recieved this message. Don't even waste your time trying to do this until you have received the confirmation message.

2. You’ll need to be familiar with how to navigate the keypad on the MPX220. I’m not going to tutor you on how to do that because it is beyond the scope of these instructions. However here are a couple hints:

• Sometimes it is tricky switching between numbers and letters. Holding down the asterisk key (*) will switch the keypad between numbers, letters, and symbols. There is a small indicator at the top right that tells you what mode your keypad is currently in. Try it yourself when you are entering info.
• To save time and hassle, don’t delete the periods when you are making changes to IP addresses. It’s a pain to switch keypad modes while entering them.

Instructions:

STEP 1:

A. First push the Start button

B. Then select Settings

C. Next select More (Or Push Button 9)

D. Now select Data Connections

E. Then select Menu

F. And then select Edit Connections

You will now see that there are 4 selections to choose from: Dial-up Connections, VPN Connections, Proxy Connections, GPRS Connections. To configure your MPX220 for T-Zones/T-MobileWeb use, we will only make changes to 2 of these, Proxy Connections and GPRS Connections.

G. Select Proxy Connections

H. Then select Menu

I. And then select Add

J. Make sure your proxy settings look like this:

PROXY SETTINGS:

Description: T-Zones

Connects From: The Internet

Connects To: WAP Network

Proxy (name:port): 216.155.165.50:8080

Type: HTTP

User name:

Password:

Take note that User name and Password have been left blank intentionally. These SHOULD be left blank.

K. Then select Done

L. And select Done again

M. Now select GPRS Connections

N. Then select Menu

O. And then select Add

P. Make sure your GPRS settings look like this

GPRS SETTINGS:

Description: T-Zones GPRS

Connects to: The Internet

Access Point: wap.voicestream.com

User name:

Password:

Primary DNS: 216.155.165.50

Secondary DNS: 0.0.0.0

IP address:

Take note that User name, Password, and IP address have been left blank intentionally. These SHOULD be left blank.

Q. Select Done until you have reached the Home screen (basically exit all the way out.)

You are now finished configuring your connections. Now it is time to move on to the Data Connections settings:

STEP 2:

A. First push The Start Button

B. Then select Settings

C. Next select More (Or Push Button 9)

D. Now select Data Connections

E. Make sure your data connections look like this:

Internet Connection: T-Zones GPRS

Work Connection: Automatic

WAP Connection: T-Zones GPRS

Secure WAP Connection: Automatic

F. Select Done until you have reached the Home screen (basically exit all the way out.)

Now it's time to make sure that Pocket Internet Explorer is configured to connect:

STEP 3:

A. Start your Pocket Internet Explorer on the phone.

B. Select Menu On The Bottom Left

C. Next Select Options

D. Now Choose Connections

E. Make sure you make the page look like this:

Uncheck Automatically detect settings.

Select network: WAP Network

F. Select Done until you have reached the Home screen (basically exit all the way out.)

Congratulations, you should be able to surf the web on Pocket Internet Explorer! To get to T-Zones, go to http://wap.myvoicestream.com.

Freedom Of Speech...Or Not?

Been out on vacation. Much needed.

Noticed this headline today:

Holocaust denier: 3-year jail term.

Basically, British historian David Irving makes a couple speeches 16 years ago denying that the Germans systematically slaughtered Jews during WWII. Now he is being thrown in jail for publicly "dimishing, denying, or justifying the holocaust." Looks like you can't say what you want after all.

This is such a strange thing happening on the heels of all this cartoon controversy over in Europe. It seems a bit hypocritical to tout freedom of speech when you publish a cartoon of a violence-laden mohammed, then throw someone in jail for denying the holocaust.

Seriously, stick to one side Europe, hopefully the freedom of speech side.

Bond Redux

At the risk of sounding cliche, this Hollywood remake crap is really starting to piss me off. I've always liked James Bond movies. Now the are REMAKING a James Bond movie:

Casino Frickin' Royale With CHEESE

Arg!! Is real life not good enough for you? Why not just rip off some real headlines? There is so much material out there. This is what it has come to? I know, I know... Never Say Never Again was a remake, but this is just pathetic. I think I'll be skipping my first Bond movie ever. Yuck.

My Coffee Setup

Ahh... the joys of coffee grinding. I'm surprised I haven't brought this up already.

I used to buy coffee beans and grind them in the store. I decided to give coffee-grinding at home a shot.

I was reading the reviews and they all said to get a burr grinder because it grinds more evenly. Of course, burr grinders are expensive (>$75) and blade grinders can be had for less than $20.

I bought this Hamilton Beach 80354 Platinum Custom Grind Coffee Grinder at Target:
It's a blade grinder. It has a retractable cord so it stores easily. It has settings for how many cups worth of beans and also grind fineness. The lid is convenient. You just scoop your beans with the lid and it has lines that measure for you. Of course your mileage may vary on what those lines mean to you, but you get the gist.

It's a little loud while grinding which is to be expected.

After brewing my first pot of coffee, I could see what people were saying about the grind evenness of blade grinders, or lack thereof. Looking at the the used grinds, larger bean chunks, half-ground, were clearly visible. They were hidden amongst the grinds before, but brewing compacted the finer grinds and brought these larger chunks to the surface.

I studied the grinding action a few more times over the next few days to see why it wasn't grinding everything. It seems the blade action doesn't disperse the grounds well enough while grinding and it grinds much of the same grinds over and over. (Can I say the word 'grind' one more time?) This was my solution: I shake the grinder up and down to get the grinds to turn over better while it is grinding.

The result is a MUCH more even grind. I'm not 100% sure it actually changed the way my freshly brewed coffee tastes, but I like to think so. Don't overgrind your coffee because you actually burn the grinds by doing so, changing the roast of your coffee.

Also, you shouldn't leave your coffee on the burner for more than 15 minutes. You change the taste of the coffee when you do that, which ruins the point of grinding your own coffee. Make sure to use filtered water, blah, blah, blah.

One more thing. This is what I take my coffee to work in:
Yes, a Stanley Vacuum Bottle. Mine is 1.1 quart. This thing is shaped and built like a 105mm tank shell. Literally. The bottom looks like a center-fire bullet casing, and the chrome lid looks like a bullet slug. Yes, it's dorky, but it keeps my coffee hot late into the afternoon.

The stopper is a really cool, simple design. You just unscrew it partially and there is a groove on either side of the threads that allows you to pour out your liquid without unscrewing the stopper all the way. This keeps all the hot air already in the bottle from escaping and being replaced by cold air. This in turn prevents your hot coffee from having to reheat the air inside the bottle and losing precious temperature. Obviously, new air still gets into the bottle, but this is minimized by the design itself.

The inside is supposedly glass, but I haven't confirmed that. The lining is reflective. The bottle is called a 'vacuum bottle' because between the lining and exterior casing, the space is vacuum sealed. The prevents heat exchange by reducing the number of molecules that would act as energy transports into or out of the bottle. Neat concept that isn't unique to this brand.

Cleaning it is kind of a pain. You are supposed to use pipe-cleaners and hot water. According to the directions, you aren't supposed to put it in the dishwasher.

Anyway, there you have it. My coffee setup.

Been Busy

Sorry, I haven't updated lately. Big project at work is keeping me very busy. Deadlines and all that. For now, here is a cute picture of a kitty and a puppy:

No Place For Machismo

Reading the ferry tragedy, I came across this gem:

"Long before it sank the passengers learned of the fire and stormed to the deck seeking help from the crew. Although there apparently were plenty of life jackets readily available, some survivors said they were discouraged by the crew from putting them on "so as not to cause the women and children to panic.""

Women and children are not helpless beings. This is sickening. Can anyone tell me what good this did? This is a prime example of how regarding women as helpless people is damaging to society. They've actually convinced themselves that it is better to not cause alarm amongst these delicate counterparts than prevent a potential disaster.

Confessions Of A Linux Newb Pt. II

I finally got back to this after a serious lack of inspiration over the holidays.

Well, I'm still trying to get Samba to work. Unfortunately, I can't count how many different smb.conf files I used and modified. I went high and low and even used so-called 'bullet-proof' conf files to no avail. In general, I could see the server from my XP machine but I could never browse the server. It would always give me one of two error messages that went something like "You might not have access to this service...". Unfortunately, it seems that most of the resources I went to were dealing with an older version of Samba or a different flavor of Linux. You would think that wouldn't matter, but it does. Obviously I could be wrong because of my newbness, but the default install folders, the way the service actually runs, and default data directory paths all combine to make this a very confusing experience.

Last night, after a few nights of toiling over the past week, I finally looked specifically for a Debian resource that talked about installing and configuring the latest version of Samba (2?). What I found on AboutDebian.com was this nice nugget:

http://www.aboutdebian.com/lan.htm

Scroll almost all the way down and you'll find a nice configuration file. I modified this file for my own network and guess what???

It didn't work.

I tried restarting (BTW, can anyone tell me how to restart the nmbd and smbd daemons without restarting the server?), then restarting my XP machine, etc, etc. Nothing worked. Then I went over the conf file in detail and this is where the magic happened. Well, not really magic, but I noticed something peculiar in the configuration file:

[files]
comment = Shared Files
path = /home/ftp
writeable = yes <--- SPELLING!!
guest ok = yes

(emphasis, arrow and word SPELLING!! mine)

I changed writeable to writable, as it is spelled in the rest of the conf file and once again angels from on high flooded me in the glory, singing, and light. Yes, I could now browse the network share on the server. I tested the share by putting a test text file out there and I could see it and open it from the server itself.

Then I restarted another computer on the network. It too could see and browse the network share.

Then I put all my files onto the share from my PC. Once that transfer was done, I could open those files from my other PC, add folders and delete folders.

Nice relief. Now onto Apache config, mail server, and maybe even a voice server for some friends of mine. :)

Need to add RAM though.

One more note: Without fail, every resource I found on the Samba configuration file told you how to configure it. But very few told you how to troubleshoot the situation if it didn't work as advertised. This is tough, because then it forces you to go to the community and wait for an answer or search for the exact problem you are having. That isn't a unique thing to Linux, but it is really tough to find the answers. In the end, I still don't know why the other config files wouldn't work, and on the one that finally did work, there was a simple spelling error from the tutorial that was causing a problem. Even then, I don't know for sure if it was the spelling thing or if the server goblins finally gave up the fight. I was this -->][<-- close to saying fuck it and going back to Windows, at least so I could get a network share going. I feel relieved now, but the rollercoaster ride isn't over yet.

Edit 02/02/2006: I emailed the owner of AboutDebian.com about the typo and he corrected it. Is that what this newfangled community thing is all about? I guess I just contributed. :)