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GPRS in the UK
Help and advice on using GPRS in the UK, including common GPRS settings
What is GPRS?
GPRS, stands for General Packet Radio
Service, and is a protocol for passing data over a mobile
phone network.
GPRS offers what has become known as "always on" data connection
for GSM mobile phones
Here's what you need to know about GPRS:
- GPRS replaced dial-up mobile phone access, offering faster browsing of Internet content, and faster access to online services such as WAP, weband email.
- GPRS on a mobile phone doesn't use a phone number to connect, it uses something called an APN (Access Point Node).
- With GPRS, you don't pay your online time per-minute, you pay for
the amount of data you transfer.
- To an extent, GPRS is now being superceded by faster data network services known as 3G
Looking for low-price GPRS mobile Internet access?
FileSaveAs currently recommends T-Mobile Web 'n' Walk - Unlimited internet surfing for only £7.50 a month. More info |
UK
APN settings
This
section contains the GPRS settings for the UK network operators:
o2
GPRS settings:
|
O2
GPRS settings (WAP):
Note: Different settings for contract and PAYG
(Pay as you go)
Homepage: http://wap.o2.co.uk/
APN address (contract): wap.o2.co.uk
APN address (PAYG): payandgo.o2.co.uk
Gateway (IP) address : 193.113.200.195
Username : o2wap
(contract) / payandgo (PAYG)
Password: password
Session type: Continuous
/ permanent
Authentication: Normal
Security: Off
Port number:
9201 |
O2 GPRS
settings (Email/Web):
Homepage: http://pda.o2.co.uk/
APN address: mobile.o2.co.uk
Username: mobileweb
Password: password
Session type: Continuous
/ permanent
Authentication: Normal
Security: Off
Email servers (POP): mail.o2.co.uk
Email servers (SMTP): smtp.o2.co.uk
DNS Servers: 193.113.200.200
and 193.113.200.201
Note: The "Mobile Web" service must be enabled for these
settings to work.
*
We've also been told of an alternative username of 'faster', with
a password of 'password'
Contact o2
Customer Services to get this enabled. Not available on PAYG |
| Like your tech? Try our free online radio show - click here |
For more details on o2, see our o2 info page, or
our o2 WAP setup page.
|
Vodafone
GPRS settings (WAP):
Homepage: http://wap:1999/vodafone.wml
APN address: wap.vodafone.co.uk
(Contract)
APN address: pp.vodafone.co.uk
(PAYG)
Gateway
(IP) address: 212.183.137.12
Username: wap
Password:
wap
Session type: Continuous
/ permanent
Authentication: Normal
Security: Off
Port number: 8799 |
Vodafone
GPRS settings (Email/Web):
Homepage: http://wap:1999/vodafone.wml
Access Point (APN) address : internet
(Contract)
Access Point
(APN) address : pp.vodafone.co.uk(PAYG)
Username*
: web
Password*: web
Session type: Continuous
/ permanent
Authentication:
Normal
Security: Off
Email SMTP server: send.vodafone.net
Email SMTP server: smtp.vizzavi.co.uk
Alt email SMTP server: mail.vizzavi.co.uk
Alt email SMTP server: mail.vodafone.net
Alt email SMTP server: 212.183.156.229
Alt email SMTP server: 62.213.128.92
DNS Server: 212.183.137.12
Note: GPRS subscription must be enabled for "Vodafone Internet Access Service".
Contact Vodafone Customer Services on 191 from your Vodafone handset |
| Like your tech? Try our free online radio show - click here |
Orange
GPRS WAP settings:
|
Orange
GPRS settings (WAP):
Homepage: http://orange.multimedia/
APN add. (Contract): orangewap
APN add. (PAYG): paygwap
Gateway (IP) address : 192.168.71.35
Username: Orange
Password: Multimedia
Session type: Continuous
/ permanent
Authentication: Normal
Port number: 9201 |
Orange
GPRS settings (Email/Web):
Homepage: http://orange.multimedia/
APN address: orangeinternet
APN add. (Old PAYG): payginternet
Username: user
Password: pass
Authentication: Normal
Email SMTP server: smtp.orange.net
Prim. DNS Server: 158.43.192.1
Sec. DNS Server: 158.43.128.1
|
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T-Mobile
GPRS WAP settings:
|
Homepage:
http://wap.t-mobile.co.uk/
or http://www.t-zones.co.uk/
GPRS APN address: general.t-mobile.uk
Gateway (IP) address :149.254.1.10
(alt: 149.254.201.132)
Username : user (alt: wapuser)
Password: wap
Session type: Continuous
/ permanent
Port
number: 8080 (alt: 9201)
Authentication: Normal
SMTP email server: smtp.t-email.co.uk |
| Like your tech? Try our free online radio show - click here |
|
Homepage:
http://wap.tesco-mobile.com/
APN address (contract): prepay.tesco-mobile.com
Gateway (IP) address : 193.113.200.195
Username : tescowap
Password: password
Session type: Continuous
/ permanent
Port number: 9201
Authentication: Normal |
| Like your tech? Try our free online radio show - click here |
Many thanks for Nick B and Martin
J for supplying this info
|
Homepage:
http://www.virgin.com/mobile/wap/
APN address (contract): goto.virginmobile.uk
Gateway (IP) address : 193.30.166.3
Port number: 8080
Username : user
Password: (leave
blank)
Session type: Continuous
/ permanent Authentication: Normal
|
| Like your tech? Try our free online radio show - click here |
BT Mobile GPRS WAP settings:
|
Homepage:
http://wap.btmw.net
APN address : btmobile.bt.com
Gateway (IP) address : 212.183.137.12
Username : bt
Password: bt
Session type: Continuous
/ permanent
Port number: 8799 or 9201
Authentication: Normal
We also have the following settings:
Homepage: http://wap.btmw.net
APN address : mobile.bt.uk
Gateway (IP) address : 149.254.201.132
Username : user
Password: wap
|
| Like your tech? Try our free online radio show - click here |
WAP
on Smartphones
On the FileSaveAs site, we have a number of pages dedicated to setting up mobile Internet on smartphones and handheld computers.
Try one of the following links:
-
Pocket PC and Windows Mobile handhelds and smartphones - Pocket PC GPRS / Windows Mobile Connections / Pocket PC WAP
-
Nokia 6680, Nokia N70, Nokia
7650, Nokia 3650, Nokia
6600, Siemens SX1, Nokia 3230, Nokia 6260, Nokia 6630, Nokia 7610, Panasonic x700, Sendo X and the Nokia N-gage smartphones
-
Nokia 9300 , Nokia 9500 and Nokia
9210 smartphones
-
Sony
Ericsson P800 and Sony Ericsson P900/P910i
smartphones
Common
questions:
| Dialup
number? |
GPRS is a
service supplied by your mobile phone network operator. It doesn't
use a dial-up number (as GSM data calls do). Instead the APN (Access
Point Node) is used to work out where to route your data requests.
|
| Confused
about APNs |
For your
phone to connect over GPRS, you'll need to tell the phone which
APN (Access Point Node) to use. We've listed the main UK APNs above.
Note that most operators have different access points for different
services, and you'll need to pick the right one, or things won't
work:
- WAP Access
point - To allow connection to WAP services
- Internet
Access point - For web browsing, email and instant messaging,
etc
- MMS Access
point - For multimedia messages, such as picture/photo messaging
|
| GPRS
not enabled? |
GPRS is a
service that your mobile phone network operator (e.g. o2, Vodafone,
etc) needs to enable before it can be used. You'll also need to ask
your Network Operator to enable this service for you (a call to Customer
Services should do the trick). In some cases, it may take up to
48 hours for your operator to enable this, so be patient.
|
| GPRS speed |
GPRS runs faster than standard mobile phone dialup (which is normally 9.6kbps). GPRS speed depends on a number of factors (all to do with how many of the 8 'timeslots' are assigned by the network operator) - the maximum possible speed is 171kbps, but you're unlikely to ever get anywhere near this speed. Our tests show average speeds of around 25 to 40 kbps (still around 3 times faster than dialup).
For the technically-minded, click here for more on GPRS speeds.
See below for details of speeding up browsing over GPRS .
|
| What
do I get for a megabyte? |
GPRS data transfer is billed in amount of data, and not seconds. In mobile terms, one megabyte is equivalent to around one thousand WAP pages, 20 average-sized web pages, or 100 average
size emails with no images/attachments.
|
| Faster
GPRS? |
If
you're looking to speed up your mobile Internet connection, you might
want to take a look at the service from OnSpeed .
If you are connecting using a GPRS phone, not only will you get faster
Internet access with OnSpeed, there's another added benefit that,
due to compression, your phone bill will be substantially lowered
because of the reduction in data received. This can result in up to
a 90% reduction in costs since mobile phone providers charge per MegaByte
downloaded.
Note that you'll only benefit from a speed enhancement if you're using
a GPRS connection via a PC, laptop or a Pocket PC- as the OnSpeed
software needs to be running on Windows or a Mac to gain the speedup.
More details at www.onspeed.com .
|
| Email
over GPRS |
Email over
GPRS is supported, but you'll need to use an "Internet"
not a "WAP" access point (you may need to ask your network
operator to enable this). If your smartphone has an email application
and you have a POP email account, then you should be able to access
email over GPRS.
If you're looking for a free POP email account that can be accessed on your mobile, consider BT
Yahoo.
Our BT Yahoo page contains links to setup
instructions for using the service on many handsets and PDAs.
|
| Can't
send e-mail over GPRS |
When sending
email from a smartphone over GPRS, you'll need to have specified an
outgoing email server address (known as an SMTP server). Many Internet
Service Providers only allow you to use their SMTP server if you've
established a connection to them using their dial-up service (this
helps fight spam attacks). If you're trying to send email from your
handset over GPRS, you'll probably be connecting using the GPRS service
of your network operator, and will need to use their SMTP server,
not your ISPs SMTP server. As an example, if you use BT Yahoo
as your email provider, and o2 as your network
operator, you won't be able to send using mail.btinternet.com,
you'd need to use smtp.o2.co.uk
Thanks
to site visitor semyon for suggesting smtp.com - a service offering SMTP access regardless of your provider. We've also been contacted by SMTP2Go letting us know about their SMTP service.
|
| Problems
web surfing over GPRS |
This is a
common question. If your handset has a web browser, you may find that
you can't surf web pages, even though the handset shows that you're
connected. On a Pocket PC, this may show up as "page not found".
On a Symbian OS smartphone, you may see this as "GPRS: Invalid GPRS
access point".
This is almost certainly because you are using the wrong GPRS Access
point. Most GPRS handsets are set with access to the network operator's
WAP gateway, and this will only allow you to browse dedicated WAP
content, and not standard Internet web pages. You'll need to set
up your handset for Internet-over-GPRS, using the network operator's
Internet APN, not the WAP APN (You'll find the information you
need listed above). You'll also need to ask your Network Operator
to enable this service for you (a call to Customer Services should
do the trick). In some cases, it may take up to 48 hours for your
operator to enable this, so be patient.
|
| Looking
for GPRS hardware |
If you're
looking for GPRS hardware, such as a PCMCIA GPRS card for your laptop,
or a GPRS CF card for your Palm or Pocket PC handheld, we recommend
Dabs.com
for low prices and prompt delivery.
|
| Mobile
Web on o2 PAYG? |
o2 Mobile Web is not available
on the o2 Pay-as-you-go tariff, only for customers on a pay-monthly
tariff.
According to various
emails we've seen, this is o2's policy as opposed to any kind
of technical limitation.
|
| Low cost GPRS in the UK |
If you're paying too much for mobile Internet access, we're currently recommending
T-Mobile Web 'n' Walk
They're offering unlimited mobile surfing for only £7.50 a month
|
| Problems
with a 6600 |
Many site
visitors have reported difficulty with setting up GPRS on the Nokia
6600. This is because Nokia has moved some of the settings options
to an "Advanced" page, and changed a few field names. See
our Nokia 6600 WAP setup page for
a step-by-step guide on setting up WAP over GPRS on a 6600.
|
| GPRS
via a modem |
If you're looking to use
your GPRS-enabled mobile phone as a modem (to connect to the Internet
from a laptop or a PDA over infrared or Bluetooth), here's what
you need to know:
- From the laptop / PDA,
you need to create a dial-up connection, and enter a dialup phone
number of *99#
- You need to enter a special modem initialisation string of:
+CGDCONT =1,"IP","apn.address"
- you should substitute apn.address
with the name of the GPRS APN that you wish to connect to (see
the table above)
For some examples, see the following pages:
|
| GPRS from a laptop |
If
you're looking to connect to the Internet from a laptop, and you can't plug into a landline, here are some common methods of getting onto the Internet:
- Connect your laptop to a GPRS-enabled mobile phone, and use the mobile as a data modem - We offer setup help on this here
- Get yourself a dedicated GPRS datacard (pictured) for your laptop's PCMCIA slot. Consider the 3G/GPRS Data card from T-Mobile or the 3G/GPRS datacard from Vodafone (or Amazon)
Go "3G" for faster connection. Get yourself a USB dongle that plugs into your laptop's USB socket. These provide you with high-speed Internet access.
There are two we recommend: T-Mobile Web 'n' Walk with their £20 a month, for unlimited mobile surfing offer, or 3 Broadband to Go , with prices starting from £10 a month.
- If you happen to be in range of a wi-fi hotspot, or have a friendly neighbour that will let you share their wi-fi broadband access, consider Wi-fi as an alternative. More on Wi-fi
You could also consider a PDA or smartphone with GPRS or Wi-fi access, if you're only after occasional use. More on mobile GPRS
Note that if you're using GPRS, you'll probably want to be signed up to your network operator's full-Internet service (as opposed to basic WAP over GPRS). Ask your Network Operator to enable Full Internet on your GPRS account (on o2, this is called "Mobile Web").
Also note that using GPRS for long periods of Internet access can be expensive - check your network operator's site for tariff information
|
| Problems
with o2 GPRS |
On our Nokia
Series 60 phone, we used to see experienced a "GPRS: Invalid GPRS access point" error when
attempting to connect to, say, BT Yahoo, over o2 via their mobile.o2.co.uk
APN. If you get the same, this is likely to be caused by one of two
reasons - either you have not entered the correct o2 Mobile Web APN
settings, or o2 has not enabled "Mobile Web" on your account (in
which case, contact
o2).
For general information on o2's data services, see our o2
information and o2 WAP pages.
|
| What
does 'Session mode' mean? |
When
connecting to a WAP gateway, you normally have to specify a session
mode, this is a WAP setting used by your WAP provider to identify
whether it should 'remember' information about your connection. Your
WAP service provider will normally tell you which one to use, and
you should set up your phone or browser accordingly. The two options
are:
- Connectionless
session - Also known as Temporary. Connects to port 9200 on the
Wap gateway server (or 9202 with WTLS security)
- Connection-oriented
session - Also known as Permanent or Continuous. Connects to port
9201 on the Wap gateway server (or 9203 with WTLS security)
|
| What
does 'authentication type' mean? |
If
configuring GPRS on a mobile, you may be prompted to specify an authentication
type. This defines whether your GPRS logon password is protected when
it's sent over-the-air, protecting your login credentials. Options
are "Normal" (sending password as plain text, referred to as 'PAP
authentication'), or "Secure" (sent using challenge-response, referred
to as 'CHAP authentication'). This isn't about protecting your data,
or having a secure connection - just about protecting your GPRS logon
password. Most operators in the UK support both, but as GPRS logon
passwords are often generic, "Normal" should be fine for most users. |
For
more help on getting connected with GPRS, see our Connected?
page
Like your Tech? Based in the UK?
Take a listen to FrequencyCast, our regular online radio show. We've recently covered: Wi-fi, Sat Nav, Voice-over-Internet, Nintendo Wii, new smartphones, plus lots on digital TV in the UK.
Listen to our show online at www.frequencycast.co.uk
|
Links:
- More
on WAP - For details of WAP services, dial-up WAP access, access
numbers and IP addresses
- Get
GPRS running on a Psion PDA - GPRS Quick Fix (archive) or the PsiLOC+ GPRS
helper
- Get
GPRS running on a Palm PDA - Woggledog
- O2
online - for mobile web, including GPRS tariffs, the inclusive GPRS WAP allowance
and free SMS texting
- Over-the-air
configuring - Settings for email, WAP, GPRS and MMS sent to your
Nokia phone
- Setting
up email on a Nokia 6600, Nokia 9210, Psion, Pocket
PC, Palm and SonyEricsson P900/P910i
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