Okay, I've got something that's been nagging at me for a while now. Was curious if anyone else has the same problem!

I have a 7100t, and a Unix server I log into frequently. If I use MIDPSSH, the connection is rock solid. It almost never drops, even if I forget to disconnect and leave the phone connected all night. The connection itself only takes 4 or 5 seconds to complete.

However, if I use the 7100t as a modem, and connect using a desktop client (such as PuTTY), it's an entirely different story. The connection takes a very long time to negotiate, sometimes upwards of 3 or 4 minutes between opening it, and getting the login prompt. Once connected, things are very unstable; I'll be lucky to keep the connection alive for more than 30 minutes before it'll freeze, and need to be re-established.

Does this happen to anyone else? Any idea why it happens? Given the speed and stability of the MIDPSSH connection, I'm guessing it's not something to do with the GPRS stability/latency. Since it's 'unofficial' for the moment, is the modem feature in the BB just not fully tested and bug-free yet?

Possibly.... Although there's several more network layers involved when using BlackBerry as modem for laptop, more things to go wrong. It may be the keepalive packets (null packets) that is typically found in both midpssh and MobileSSH, to workaround timeout issues. See if you can enable the PuTTY keepalive feature, I think there's one in it. It may not fix things, and if it does not, the problem is somewhere else.

PS -- If you are a super heavy user of SSH, give Idokorro MobileSSH a try out too (free trial of 20 connects), as it now has many new features that midpssh does not have.

maybe putty connects via ssh protocol 2. MIDPSSH only connects with protocol 1

Oh wait, you're right. My PuTTY was unstable even from my desktop computer, until I changed encryption ciphers. Try that too.

Huh! Thanks guys, I hadn't even considered the different SSH ciphers/versions, that does seem to have eased the connection problems

And I'll definitely have to give the commercial client a shot! As much as I'm connected from my phone, would probably be worthwhile to use the best out there.

Glad to help.

One of my favourite MobileSSH features is the keypress shortcut for CTRL and ALT keys. (I got this feature added for MobileSSH 2.0) Makes using editors much less painful. If you are a chat system user, MobileSSH includes an instantaneous splitscreen local input mode which makes chatting a total pleasure (IRC, talk, whatever) without the steps required in midpssh. Tons of other features have been recently added, and TN5250 (released) and TN3270 (beta) emulations have now been added. Full color (released) and VT100 line drawing (beta) is now supported so software such as Midnight Commander looks perfect. There is outgoing buffering for realtime typing so fast continuous typing almost never lags by more than a couple seconds or so in good reception.

However, if you don't need all the extra niceties or performance enhancements, midpssh works great (and much cheaper of course). But it's still good to give the MobileSSH software a try anyway, since the 20 connects do not have a time limit (unlimited time trial). MobileSSH is wirelessly downloadable by entering "www.idokorro.com" in BlackBerry Internet Browser.

(Note: Idokorro is a sponsor of BlackBerryForums too)