not all net apps working with dialup connection? ichat, messenger, etc

Seeing I have a Nokia 6310i with GPRS and Bluetooth and got a Bluetooth adapter and through using some GPRS modem scripts, it works pefectly. Approx 4KB/sec. Not too damn bad.

However, I tried using iChat and MSN Messenger and they just DO NOT work. iChat gave me the following error: "The connection to the host was unexpectedly lost." MSN does the same thing basically.

Web browsing, downloading mail with entourage, software update work perfectly. Even FTP.

Is there something special (spec port?) that may not be ok with a dial-up connection?

Any advice is welcome.

thats what I thought... I also know ISDN works fine. But I was wondering if there any special reasons why a GPRS dialup should be any different.

I get approx 1K upload and 3-4K download. That should be enough bandwidth for something like chat programs to play with...

grrrr...

I only have iChat and Messenger. I dont use any other chat programs. Heck, I dont really use iChat either, but just wanted to give it a test.

I also tried getting rid of Messenger preferences and restarting it, but still no dice.

This is really odd and cant find any other instances of this online (ie google) or at least I havent searched correctly maybe.

i thought of that, but there is no apparent setting for using Proxies with GPRS. At least none that I could find. I'm using Orange here in France and their website is pretty useless in general. If anyone finds any info about proxy settings with GPRS and Orange... well, post away!

to expand on GPRS and other mobile phone stuff:

GSM: your everyday service to call, etc. Slow for dialup.
HSCDS: Supposed to be special service for dialing up (faster than normal GSM)
WAP: first baby step towards multimedia and net on cell phones. Largely a flop due to it being so damn slow, charged by minute/second or amount downloaded.
GPRS: The bridge between WAP and UMTS (eg 3G). Pretty fast speeds (depending on your phone, you usually have 5 channels, normally 4 down (to download), 1 up). At home, as I only have a company phone and I just moved to Paris (and no intention of getting a fixed line... heck havent had a fixed phone since 1997) I use a bluetooth connection to use my Nokia 6310i as a modem. I get 3-4KB/sec download and 1KB up. Which reflects exactly the fact that I have 4down channels and 1up. GENERALLY speaking, GPRS should give anywhere from 160kbit/s to 50kbit/sec. Looks like Orange got me stuck with about 40kbit/s.
Also, good thing about GPRS is that its an 'always on' service. i.e. you pay a set amount per month (here around 15eur per month) and you use it as much as you want. Like ADSL or Cable. Heck I could setup a GPRS over Bluetooth Carrach server if I wanted Jeez, talk about suicidal.

The next step is UMTS: Being activated as we speak in most big countries. Peak datarate of approx 2Mbit/sec :cool:
The prob is that this is all nice in theory. As soon as you get a dozen or so people (imagine hundreds in a busy city, or thousands) in the same coverage cell, the service degrades to crap. so, if youre the only person in the cell area, youll get full data transfer. Otherwise, it gets shared amongst the users. So, dont hold your breath too long for the hope of streaming video on your mobile phone for too long.
Still, beats the pants off of GPRS.

Hope this explains some things.

Now... anyone gonna solve my problem with getting Messenger to work??

they dont call ya Mighty fer nothin bubba

Great find man! Thanks!!!



will go home and try it out asap

crap... that proxy address and port 1080 didnt work. Both SOCKS 4a and 5 with login/pass.

The Orange.fr site is pretty damn useless as well. No info whatsoever. I finally got access of a tel number I'll try n call tomorrow.

Grrr.

floop

[ 02-11-2003: Message edited by: ZO ]</p>

for whomever may be interested:

orange support says that the address is 172.16.2.8 port 8000, not 1080

Will try that this evening.

PS I asked about cost of GPRS and Orange has changed policy. 10eur per month for 10MB. Every MB ore is 2,50eur. Ooops. Good thing company is paying will be more careful now nonetheless

[ 02-12-2003: Message edited by: ZO ]</p>

greetings from Bluetooth land.

Alas, port 8000 doesnt work either.

There is a Proxy port for WAP, but that doesnt work either. I dont intend to go through 10,000 possible port configurations. Any ideas?

Otherwise is gonna have to be another call to tech support tomorrow.

Dammit

in my never ending quest to get this thing to work Ive come accross some info: MSN Messneger uses port 1863.

Curious how to make an MSN Messenger clone? <a href="http://www.venkydude.com/articles/msn.htm" target="_blank">http://www.venkydude.com/articles/msn.htm</a> has pretty much everything you need.

With NetMonitor I can SEE that MSN Messenger is making requests to the server (outgoing signals), but nothing comes back.

I dont have any firewalls installed so I know its nothing on my side.

Also tried the same with iChat. Various PROXY and SOCKS setups. They both send data, but dont get anything back.

Does anyone know what port iChat uses? Same as AIM?

that brings up a good point. I'll even try to use VirtualPC and see what gives.

I tried 2 clones. One Java based the other a pure MSN clone. Neither worked. I really think it has to do with the port setting.

SUCCESS!!!!

(sort of)

Calling Orange Tech service I found out that there 2 (maybe more) GPRS options.
The normal service that gives access to normal HTTP ports (80), FTP, and Mail. THATS IT.

I have to subscribe for a special service called "Enterprise PC Option" and then I supposedly have a fixed IP (oh yeah, thats useful... now I can really start that Carracho server) AND FULL PORT ACCESS.

Yeesh.

Anyhow, it WAS a port issue in the end and was hard-coded on Orange's part not to work.

On a side note, when I told the guy that I was using MacOS X he was quite surprised that I told him that everything worked perfectly. Wanker