Hey guys and girls. New to BB - recently acquired one by trademe.
I don't understand it at all. The listing stated it was a 7230 but i have seen other pics stating the same ( looking ) model was a 7290? My front screen says 'Data connection refused' yet i have no idea what the heck that is?!
Also, when i receive text messages only SOME of the messages show up with who the message came from. The rest show up with just the number, sooo confusing! Can anyone help??

options - about
will tell you then model number (i believe, the menu structure may be different).

I believe the 7230 is a CDMA device. Are you trying to use it on a GSM network?

The 7230 is a GSM device. (The 7250 was CDMA) The 7230 and 7290 look virtually identical so it's easy to confuse them at first glance.
"Data Connection Refused" means that you have not subscribed to a BlackBerry Data Plan from your wireless carrier.

The 7230 is actually a dual-band BlackBerry, but it's GSM. Normally a dual-band device is CDMA, but this is an old model and way before we had quad-band GSM devices. This one does 900 MHz and 1900 MHz, GSM only.

To get a data connection you need a BlackBerry data plan. A generic data plan or smartphone plan won't help you if you're using a BlackBerry. Get the BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service) data plan. I always recommend the unlimited plan, but any BlackBerry data plan is better then no plan!

I don't know about the SMS messages being broken up. Usually that's a carrier thing, but with older devices like the 7230 (or 7290) you run into the limitations of the device itself. SMS stands for Short Message Service. The basic limit is 160 characters per message, but often messages that exceed 50 or 60 characters are broken into pieces and sent that way. Older devices have trouble dealing with multi-part messages like a broken up SMS message and the results can be what you're seeing.

Some services and applications rely on your carrier's TCP settings. You find them in Options > Advanced Options > TCP. For the correct individual settings you need to enter these values:

APN address: live.vodafone.com
Username: <leave blank>
Password: <leave blank>