Develop Bugs

Data connection limitation app

Hi,
Does anyone know of any app that restricts data connection to only when in WCDMA (UMTS 3G) network?
Reason why is that i use my Dopod D810 to surf the net and download files. However i have managed to rack up $320 in roaming charges for internet usage even though i am on a 1 GB XSeries plan on 3.
I was not aware that i was roaming at all. So in future, i want my phone to automatically disconnect when "Roaming".
Is there such an app? I have tried Bandswitch but i couldnt get it to do what i wanted.

use search.
There is an app called trinity hacks or something that adds this feature.

Are you sure? I have Trinity Hacks v0.3 and it doesnt seem to have this feature.
What i want is for my phone to automatically disconnect once it is "roaming" onto Telstra's network from the 3 network.

Yes,
Trinity Hacks v0.3 --> Phone tab --> 'Enable GSM/UMTS Band Selection'
Ticking this enables a new tab under 'Settings' --> 'Phone' --> 'Band'
Switch it from 'auto' to 'WCDMA'
Then you will never incur roaming charges on Telstra network.

Yeah i already have that setup.
What i want is to be able to Roam to Telstra so i get full PHONE coverage, but once it goes to roaming, i want the data connection to automatically disconnect.
What you have asked me to do is to permanently connect only to 3G which means i cannot get reception everywhere.
Does that make sense?

What you want is not possible without some serious programming! The Radio stack can be set to connect to GSM, UMTS/WCDMA or either, but you can't split voice and data functionality.

Hi,
Thanks for all your replies, but im not asking for voice and data functionality to be split. The phone can already tell whether it is roaming or on the home network. Isn't it just a matter of getting this information from the phone possibly via the OS API and then when the phone returns a value to signify that its roaming, then the program will disconnect the connection, just like pressing the disconnect button, but this time programmatically?
Im not asking for someone to write something like this, but if something already exist like this.

Maybe this reply is not needed anymore sinds the thread is one month old. Still, I use spb grps monitor. It has a lot of customization option. Maybe it has a feature that will do the trick. I'm not going to look into it myself. Just wanted to give you a headsup.

How can you tell what tower you are connected to

Can anyone provide some insight into this? Specifically I am wanting to know where the tower is located and what its id is (ssid?) that I am connected to.

Go to Phone Dialer
Type the following *#*#4636#*#*
Click Phone Information
Look at the information after the heading Location: BID, SID, NID, LAT, LONG.
If you want to see the approximate physical location of the tower you can simply turn off your gps and then look at your location on Google Maps. The same is possible by using a free app called Location-API, then go to settings and uncheck wifi. It will show your tower's approximate physical location.

What does GPS actually require to work?

This might be a noob question, but I have a question regarding the GPS.
Does it require data to work? Or does it require data to work for certain GPS features?
I am going to Europe and need to decide if I will need to take my N85 unlocked and try and get a local SIM card there. I want to geotag my photos but don't know if you can since the EVO has no international roaming capabilities.
Does Geotagging (or any other GPS feature) require data to work or can some GPS functions work by connecting directly to the satellites?

pekosROB said:
This might be a noob question, but I have a question regarding the GPS.
Does it require data to work? Or does it require data to work for certain GPS features?
I am going to Europe and need to decide if I will need to take my N85 unlocked and try and get a local SIM card there. I want to geotag my photos but don't know if you can since the EVO has no international roaming capabilities.
Does Geotagging (or any other GPS feature) require data to work or can some GPS functions work by connecting directly to the satellites?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GPS will require data, especially if you plan on using some form of Geotagging.
Definitely take your N85 unlocked and have a SIM card -- leave your EVO at home, since the EVO is CDMA based and almost all networks in Europe are GSM based, your EVO won't be doing any calling/texting -- that is unless you want to get a huge ass bill for roaming every second?
I'm not 100% positive, but the way it works is that the GPS on the phone will try to connect to your carriers tower first and get all the information it needs from there... then any information it can't retrieve or has to upload (maps, geotag, etc) it'll use a universal satellites. These satellites are the ones that your phone connects to if it has to be tracked if you get lost (via 911) and are also the same ones Google probably uses for Maps, Navigation, etc -- since they provide a large amount of information.
Hope that helps.

pseudoremora said:
GPS will require data, especially if you plan on using some form of Geotagging.
Definitely take your N85 unlocked and have a SIM card -- leave your EVO at home, since the EVO is CDMA based and almost all networks in Europe are GSM based, your EVO won't be doing any calling/texting -- that is unless you want to get a huge ass bill for roaming every second?
I'm not 100% positive, but the way it works is that the GPS on the phone will try to connect to your carriers tower first and get all the information it needs from there... then any information it can't retrieve or has to upload (maps, geotag, etc) it'll use a universal satellites. These satellites are the ones that your phone connects to if it has to be tracked if you get lost (via 911) and are also the same ones Google probably uses for Maps, Navigation, etc -- since they provide a large amount of information.
Hope that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Above information on GPS is wrong, I am not sure where to start to correct it. Lets not, and simply respond to the original question:
GPS is a global network, and works without any data. In fact a GPS device is receive only device, so it cannot even send. If you have a GPS device, it will work all over the world, though it may take a while in clear sky to get a cold fix for the first time after you crossed the Atlantic.
There is something called AGPS or assisted-GPS, which does use data by first requesting a rough fix from the phone network as well as the current position of all the GPS sats, which will speed up the first fix of the GPS a lot, but that is not needed per se, so if you have no phone signal, or no data roaming, GPS still works, just the first fix may take a bit longer.
Mind you, some phones have a broken AGPS implementation, which behaves strange on some phone networks, so you may want to configure it not to even try to use AGPS when abroad. Have it fall back to regular GPS. Then there will be no roaming or attempted roaming on behave of the GPS. GPS will never provide a (navigation) map, it will only ever give you a position, but for tagging, that is all you need.
As to your specific phones, I do not know the EVO specifically, but assuming Sprint did not put in some program to completely bock the phone when out of its network, since it is Android it will simply let you make pictures and GPS tag them without any network.
You do want to bring your Nokia though if you want to call people, Europe is indeed close to 100% GSM based on the 900 and 1800 Mhz frequencies.

cybermaus said:
Above information on GPS is wrong, I am not sure where to start to correct it. Lets not, and simply respond to the original question:
GPS is a global network, and works without any data. In fact a GPS device is receive only device, so it cannot even send. If you have a GPS device, it will work all over the world, though it may take a while in clear sky to get a cold fix for the first time after you crossed the Atlantic.
There is something called AGPS or assisted-GPS, which does use data by first requesting a rough fix from the phone network as well as the current position of all the GPS sats, which will speed up the first fix of the GPS a lot, but that is not needed per se, so if you have no phone signal, or no data roaming, GPS still works, just the first fix may take a bit longer.
Mind you, some phones have a broken AGPS implementation, which behaves strange on some phone networks, so you may want to configure it not to even try to use AGPS when abroad. Have it fall back to regular GPS. Then there will be no roaming or attempted roaming on behave of the GPS. GPS will never provide a (navigation) map, it will only ever give you a position, but for tagging, that is all you need.
As to your specific phones, I do not know the EVO specifically, but assuming Sprint did not put in some program to completely bock the phone when out of its network, since it is Android it will simply let you make pictures and GPS tag them without any network.
You do want to bring your Nokia though if you want to call people, Europe is indeed close to 100% GSM based on the 900 and 1800 Mhz frequencies.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I figured I was wrong, I stand corrected.

[Q] Network location determined by ...

I was hoping someone can confirm with me if their G2 is working 'properly' with this option enabled: Location & security settings \ Use wireless networks (checked)
Test would be to see if your Google Map (or other apps that needs your location like some weather apps) can find or track you rather than being fixated at your last known position.
Mine seems to only work when using a Wi-Fi network or when I switch to EDGE cell network (2G). Never have seen it work properly with WCDMA (which is HSDPA default) and I have been using Anycut to view the Phone's info to see this portion of tidbits. BTW, I don't have 4G in my area just yet.
Is this just my phone or something in common with all G2s. My G1 does not have this issue at all.
Thanks to anyone that can verify with me.

i can confirm that my g2 has the same issue

hey try using the app gps settings to download agps data. It worked for me in finding my location via the network so it should work for you as well.

icruisin said:
I was hoping someone can confirm with me if their G2 is working 'properly' with this option enabled: Location & security settings \ Use wireless networks (checked)
Test would be to see if your Google Map (or other apps that needs your location like some weather apps) can find or track you rather than being fixated at your last known position.
Mine seems to only work when using a Wi-Fi network or when I switch to EDGE cell network (2G). Never have seen it work properly with WCDMA (which is HSDPA default) and I have been using Anycut to view the Phone's info to see this portion of tidbits.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The way it works is this; the tower ID numbers are sent from your phone to google. Google then looks up the coordinates of that tower in their tower database, and sends the coordinates back to you. You then have your approximate location. If the particular tower you are connected to is NOT LISTED within google's database, then they will be unable to determine your location.
BTW, I don't have 4G in my area just yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Congratulations, neither does anyone else since there is not a single service provider in north america that has begun rolling out 4G (despite lies to the contrary). You will be able to recognize 4G by the speed -- 100 Mb/s down, 50 Mb/s up. Your phone is NOT CAPABLE of anything even REMOTELY CLOSE to this.
Is this just my phone or something in common with all G2s. My G1 does not have this issue at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could be a glitch in the software, I suppose, but more likely you are connected to a different tower.

[Q] 4G Connects but "Service Not Available" ??

My home is well within the Sprint 4G coverage area shown on the coverage maps. When I turn on 4G (from the Settings screen) it connects to the "Sprint Network" and obtains an IP address (Signal strength = Good).
BUT:
None of the applications which require network access (browser, Market, email, YouTube, etc) can connect. They'll open up, but they can't access the network. If I uncheck Mobile networks in Settings > Wireless & Networks and then re-check it again, it reports "Service unavailable" despite the fact that the 4G Settings screen still reports Connected to Spring with "Good" signal strength and I still have an IP Address.
I should add that the phone has been doing this since I got the phone in November, but I figured it was due to the "unofficial/testing" status of the 4G coverage. I also installed the new 3.70.651.1 update hoping that it would fix the problem, but it had no effect.
After telephone support ran out of things to try they issued a Ticket # and sent me to a Sprint repair location this morning. That location couldn't test the phone on 4G because the store isn't in a 4G coverage area so they just replaced it with a brand new one (not a referb). So I get it home and try it on 4G before I make a single configuration change and the new phone does exactly the same thing as the old one: Good 4G connection but no service.
Has anyone else experienced this problem? Did you find an answer for it?
Thanks!
Pete
Note: All apps seem to work fine when I'm connected to 3G.

Additional info:
For the record, switching back to 3G after trying 4G results in the battery dropping like a stone. aLogcat reveals a flood of those damned <DC Connect> failures going on in the background. Thankfully, powering the phone off and on clears the problem until I try 4G again.
Two things of note:
It doesn't matter whether I use the 4G widget or the Wireless & networks screen.
Removing the 4G widget has no effect.
Pete