View Single Post
Old 08-08-2008, 12:22 PM   #60
Mark Rejhon
Retired BBF Moderator
 
Mark Rejhon's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Model: Bold
Carrier: Rogers
Posts: 4,870
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by neftv View Post
Then so that I understand. Specific to AT&T Blackberry.net is the access to email and Blackberry Browser and everything else goes via the APN which is wap.cingular for me. It is my understanding that wap.cingular is simply a proxy nat firewall and I was merely asking if it is possible to have a more direct connection to the internet for the 3rd party applications? Explains why Minuet Browser does not work which is what I wanted to try as an alternative to Opera mini.
AT&T is kind of a weird carrier out of the mix. You need to purchase tethering if you're with AT&T. So in addition to a BB Personal plan, you also need to purchase a Tethering plan, to get access to the additional APN's.

Then you get access to isp.cingular (basically three ISP's -- wap.cingular, isp.cingular, blackberry.net). The tethering plan would allow you to use "isp.cingular" inside your BlackBerry, even if you never use tethering. No port blocking or proxying on that one.

But even wap.cingular isn't very restrictive, if you just want in-device Internet. wap.cingular still provides full HTML browsing (either BB Browser or Opera Mini), full maps (GPS, Google Maps, Garmin Mobile, etc), full chat (MSN, AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, etc), including the ones requiring TCP/IP access. It's just that there are certain limitations, such as no tethering. So it's really not a proxy, you can use direct HTML if need be, just you can't tether.

However, if you dislike this, switch to T-Mobile instead, or another carrier where the restrictions aren't happening.

I really don't understand what your exact needs are -- if all you need is full HTML browsing if using a third party browser such as Opera Mini, you only need wap.cingular (the "WAP" name in wap.cingular is somewhat deceiving here, it's not THAT limited.)

But if you want to use BitTorrent and play Second Life or Unreal Tournament deathmatch videogames, or Grand Theft Auto multiplayer on a laptop, do definitely get the Tethering plan. Also if you need a VPN so you can function with incoming data (i.e. run servers on your cellphones or incoming connections), then you pratically need the isp.cingular, which would be far more VPN-friendly than wap.cinguar.

But if your networking needs aren't that extreme, wap.cingular is perfectly fine and that's the way it works on Cingulars' other phones, not just BlackBerries, same restrictions, not BlackBerry specific.

It all depends on how much networking goodness you wanted... If you are still unsure how much networking capabilities you need, you might wish to post in HowardForums for AT&T-specific questions, they help Cingular/AT&T questions better than AT&T's forums and BlackBerryForums. This thread isn't supposed to become an AT&T thread
__________________
Thanks,
Mark Rejhon
Author of XMPP extension XEP-0301:
www.xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0301.html - specification
www.realjabber.org - open source

Last edited by Mark Rejhon; 08-08-2008 at 12:26 PM..
Offline