[Stage 1] [Stage 2] [Stage 3] [Coverage] [Gripes] [Gripes] [What Works] [What Didn't] [modem installation] [Star Lines] [Linux] [Dialup] [Cost] [Security] [Resources] [Mobile Web]

October 2010 Acquire Nokia E71 smartphone after losing the 6820 in August. In Victoria somewhere, maybe in the harbour. Some agonizing over a replacement that would do everything the 6820 would, but better - specifically, talk to the N810.

February 2008 Acquire Nokia N810 tablet

April 2007

• Syncing to a database

OK, most things working:

• Nokia 6820 + Internet (Windows)
• Nokia 6820 + Linux
• SMS to email
• Email to SMS (with anti-spam "read me" loop, but you can put short messages in the "from" field...)
• Email out via Rogers SMTP gateway
• Reading email with IMAP
• tinymail
• Browsing HTML websites
• Browsing WML websites
• Download JPEGs
• Download vCard to contact manager
• Download vCalendar to phone calendar
  * note - needs Version 1.0 format, and content-type "text/x-vcalendar", not the newer "text/calendar"
• Download MIDI file as ringtone
• Upload files using HTTP
• Talk to modem, check signal strength, cell ID
• Transfer files to/from phone over USB
• Download applications
• IM+ instant messenger

How I got there...

April 2005

The goals:

• To get a mobile Internet connection on a laptop, preferably under Linux, to develop a mobile application (geotags)
• Ditto, to log in to TRIUMF from with SSH and fix problems
• To play with cellphone-based Internet (WAP and HTML), and maybe develop some cellphone-accessible status displays for things like network security and data acquisition at TRIUMF
• To play with cellphone-based email/SMS - see if it might replace a data pager for computer alerts
• To replace my old analog "bag phone" - with battery, about the size and weight of a brick - with something I can put in my pocket and maybe even answer occasionally
• To still have some cellular availability from Barkley Sound near Bamfield (don't think much of Google's map at the moment...), and generally on the water aroung Georgia Strait, Juan da Fuca, Port Renfrew etc.
• To play with boating-related Internet stuff - weather news etc.
• To generally play with cellphone apps, Froogle, whatever...

Stage 1, the brick

Where I am coming from. This is a Novatel analog cellphone, originally activated on Cantel (since bought by Rogers). It plugs into a 12V cigar lighter socket, and has the optional lead-acid gel cell battery. It can be configured for either 1W or 3W maximum transmit power, and works on either A or B analog cell networks (AMPS). Rogers is B as I recall. According to various sources e.g. abc.net.au, this kind of phone might work at up to 150km from a tower. I never did that good, but I could pick up Ucluelet (Mount Ozzard) from Bamfield if there wasn't an island in the way, and pick up a US site near Cape Flattery from around Port Renfrew (though as I recall roaming was difficult since it was a B channel site and would not easily roam with Rogers).

Downside - insanely heavy, no data connection, and starting to lose it - the on/off button won't work (but it powers up OK when you plug it in), and it forgets it's supposed to be on the B network so you have to punch 10 keys of config every time.

Stage 2: Comparing the Networks

• Rogers - GSM, GPRS, EDGE
• iFido - home Internet, Richmond only
• Fido - GSM, GPRS, city coverage only
• Telus Mobility - CDMA, 1X
• Autotel - analog
• Globalstar - satellite
• Bell - 1X tri-mode

Autotel is an analog system with extended coverage compared to cellphone. Probably covers Barkley Sound, logging roads etc.

Globalstar is a satellite system that covers all of Canada except the very high Arctic. Data is available at 9600 baud for, I think, about 3c/kB

Fido is a GSM system that basically operates in the city only. They offer (or did when I wrote this) GPRS data service on various plans including $50/month unlimited at " up to 56 kbps". Data packages
I was told that Rogers bought out Fido to stop Telus getting access to GSM spectrum on the cheap. Rogers GSM customers can automatically roam to Fido cells in the city, but Fido customers outside the city would have to pay roaming charges.

Rogers operates an analog network on channel B plus a GSM network on, I think, 850MHz, and also some TDMA digital (I think).

Telus Mobility operate an analog network on channel A plus a CDMA/1X digital network.

I didn't really look at Bell; I think they were later in this market. They seem to offer Aircard and WML (wireless web) support.

Coverage

• Globalstar
• Autotel
• Telus - Mike
• Telus - PCS & 1X
• Rogers - GSM
• Rogers - TDMA & analog
• Rogers - PDF map
• Bell

These are fixed transmitter locations registered to the 3 cell carriers. However, as I now understand it, the actual PCS (cell tower) information is not publicly available. Many of these antennae are co-located with cellular antennae but transmit on a different band, and are probably used for internal trunk traffic.

From what I have read, analog may go up to 150km depending on power and what's in the way (legal power up to 3W, that is).
CDMA can go to 57km, and GSM (TDMA) can go to 35km from a tower. As I recall, if you go over this distance the round-trip time of around 230 microseconds means that the data packet collides with a packet in the next timeslot so it won't work no matter how powerful a transmitter you have. I may have got this wrong...

Gripes

Hello. I see you are calling from 604 222 1047. Do you wish to enquire about this cellphone account ?
No.
I see you are calling from 604 222 1047. Do you wish to enquire about this cellphone account ?
NO!
I seem to be having some trouble understanding you. Please tell me the cellphone number you are enquiring about
604 377 ....
Was that 654 377 ...?
No!
Please tell me the cellphone number you are enquiring about
you ***! idiotic machine!! burble burble rhubarb rhubarb...

and so on ... You can enter a cell number by pressing keys, but otherwise can't escape. I have to wait for it to give up.

Stage 3, Nokia 6820

It seems Rogers will do the same handset swap as Telus - call customer service and get the phone number swapped for free. So, if I'm on the West Coast I can get the brick re-enabled. Someone says there is going to be a "big push" of building more coverage, so maybe they'll be a tower or two next time I'm there - it's not like Bamfield's the end of the world, after all; there's a school (with Internet access), marine research station (ironically, the terminus for the British Empire's 1800's "internet" - undersea telegraph), and a seasonal sport fishing industry.

Note: Nokia phones run two totally different operating systems - Nokia OS and Symbian - though you'd never know it from Rogers "phones" page. Does it make a difference - yes, if you want to write code for the phone itself, or install 3rd-party applications. And judging by posts to forum.nokia.com, not all phones are equal in terms of support, SDK availability, etc.

Gripe

Thank God (or rather, TimBL) for the Web - without it, things would be almost impossible instead of just difficult. The information is all over the place.

• Some Nokia-specific stuff on Rogers.com
• Some Rogers-specific stuff on Nokia.ca, e.g. in the email support guide
• Nokia PC Suite (Windows only) from Nokia.ca
• Nokia CA-42 drivers on CD, or from Nokia.ca
• Rogers GPRS/EDGE technical docs (found on Google)
• Nokia 6820 Technical Specs

(later) Thanks Rogers, you fixed my call forwarding. Something not activated on the account that should have been.

(also later) Manage to log on to Rogers account online. Not sure what previous trouble was - spaces after account, dashes in account (as it was printed on bill), space after postcode. Who knows?

Minor Gripe: Rogers online billing is not real-time like my bank's, it's just a copy of the month-end statement. So, 4 weeks to build up to a nasty surprise, maybe ...

What Works

• (Voice) Calling out
• Receiving voice calls
• Sending and receiving SMS to another PCS phone
• Sending SMS to an email address
• Getting an SMS from email to "nnnnnn@pcs.rogers.com". Now has an (anti-spam) loop - you must reply with the word "read" to the notification message in order to get the email. I saved "read" in a text template.
• Connect to a regular webserver, view gzipped HTML, GIF, JPEG, BMP. But not MP3 - not sure why not; it's in the HTTP Accept parameter list. And not text/plain (weird...).
  • I had to configure the WAP username and password for this I think; they were not preconfigured as the text message gateway and APN was.
• Download gzipped MIDI files, save as ringtone
• Send sound clip and JPEG to email; image goes in HTML mail, sound goes in javascripted page on Roger's server (embedding didn't work for me, but I found the URL of the WAV file in the HTML source)
• Logging in to IMAP server and retrieving mail
• Sending mail to SMTP server. Didn't work for sending mail offsite as our server wants TLS and cellphone only does CRAM authentication.
  • OK, have now turned on LOGIN authentication (to get Outlook to work), and the 6820 can now send. However, it does not do SSL or TLS encryption, only unencrypted SMTP and IMAP
• Taking photos (pretty useless camera - not about to replace my Kodak digital anytime soon)
• Recording sound clips
• File transfer to Windows using USB cable - except copyrighted ring tones and graphics. (people are weird - who'd want to copyright a ring tone, let alone buy one? Thousands of people, apparently ...)
• Rogers desktop text app, under XP anyway. Uses SSL to connect so can't see what it's doing and write my own Linux app. There are no cell towers out at UBC near TRIUMF, and TRIUMF's buildings tend to have metal cladding, so cellphones won't work indoors. Have to register from PC, then take phone outside to receive password via SMS, then back inside to enter in in app. and try an test message, then back outside to receive it ...

What didn't work (at least, not right away)

OK, I'm not a Windows user. Regard the next section as an example of what not to do:

Just getting the Windows software running is a pain:

• Install USB drivers from CD that came with CA-42 cable
• Download PC Suite from nokia.ca
• Install PC Suite. It wants to reboot half way through and then continues to install. Also, it uses unverified drivers so you get lots of popups where Windows complains that it might not be safe.
• Still no connection
• Plug, unplug, re-plug USB cable.
• Re-install PC suite. Install USB drivers from Nokia.ca. Reboot a few more times
• USB drivers aren't actually installed. They are just parked somewhere on the hard drive. More plugging/unplugging/ starting app.
• Finally, some popups about new hardware and would I like to install the drivers.
• Say yes. More alerts about possibly unsafe unsigned drivers.
• Discover CA-42 is listed as a "serial cable", not a "USB cable", although it has a USB connector on the end...
• Finally, file transfer application works. But not modem.
• Find documentation online that explains that modem drivers aren't installed by the install process, either. I have to go into Control Panel and configure modems.
• OK, modems installed. Try dialling TRIUMF modem pool number. Get error 692 "hardware failure in modem".
• Repeat entire process on another laptop running XP. Same error message
• Find more documentation that says I should dial "*99#" for GPRS
• Same error
• Mail from Rogers Support, saying basically I should do what I did, plus an extra initialization string, which won't fit in the Win2000 modem properties box.
• (Later) Mail from Nokia Support, saying that PC Suite had allocated the comm port so Windows couldn't find it to install a driver on it.

Have so far failed to create any software for the phone. Supposedly Java programs will work - except regular Jar files created with Sun's javac will not work. Got Nokia's J2ME development suite, which works in Linux with Java. Some midp examples can be loaded in to the phone and work - FormMIDlet, Chat and Boids. Others won't load - Hawk and Sheepdog, or won't run (midisampler). My feeble attempts to write "Hello World" fail, probably because stdout doesn't work and I'll have to use a display object. In principle, though, I ought to be able to write stuff that can do SMS, web access etc. Not sure what would be useful. Well, yes, an NTP client would be cool, and an SSH client useful, but those are probably beyond my coding skills and may well be too big - there is only a couple of Mb free, and Sheepdog was too big at 180kb.

(2007). Google Map download will not fit - not enough memory. There really isn't enough RAM in this phone for anything much, and it is segmented into program and data space (you can't use data memory, used for e.g. storing messages and pictures, to store programs).

What did work (modem installation)

Yes! Got Linux working. Nokia 6820 + Linux

Asterisk Codes (Star Lines)

Haven't tested all these. *67* finally worked; used to work on analog phone I think. Some codes from Rogers Wireless Guides - "Rogers_Wireless_UG.pdf" and "Calling_Services_EN.pdf" - but I can't remember where I got them from. Rogers website I'm pretty sure...
June 2012: updated U from Rogers FAQ
Also #nn# Temporarily Deactivate, *nn# Reactivate

Activate	Cancel	Status	Function
*21*nnn nnn nnnn#	##21#	*#21#	Call Forward all calls U
*61*nnn nnn nnnn#	##61#	*#61#	30 second No Answer Transfer U
*62*nnn nnn nnnn#	##62#	*#62#	Not reachable U
*67*nnn nnn nnnn#	##67#	*#67#	Busy Transfer U
*63*nnn nnn nnnn#	#63#		No Answer Transfer (TDMA)
*43#	#43#	*#43#	Call Waiting
#31#			Caller ID block (GSM)
*611			Rogers Wireless customer care
*233			ADD - answers but discontinued U
*8463			TIME - current time (timezone may be wrong) U
*2273			CARD - bill payment by credit card
*4357			HELP - customer service U
*7626			ROAM - roaming information - customer service U
#11			activate voicecommand
*16			Coastguard (in BC)
*811			Customer Service
*2886			Auto Service
*011			Overseas Calls
**001			5KHz test tone
*690			CBC Radio Traffic Desk
*1410			CFUN Radio talk line
#4983			Star FM Traffic Line

Phone Codes for 6820 - from howardforums and elsewhere

Activate	Cancel	Function
*#0000#		Display Nokia Firmware Version
*#06#		Display IMEI number
*#335738#		Soft Reset

See also Nokia codes and secrets

AT Modem Codes, from Nokia documentation Terminal AT Commands Factory (modem)Settings

Code	Action
AT&F
ATI0	Display product code
ATI1	Display IMEI
ATI2	Display OS version
ATI4	Date of manufacture ??
AT+CGDCONT	APN setting
AT+CBC	Show charge status
AT+CSQ?	Show signal quality
AT+CREG?	Show roaming status, cell location, cell ID
AT+CSCA?	Show SMS gateway ??
AT&V	View configuration

Linux Experience

Downloaded gammu, configured and compiled. Created .gammurc with port=/dev/ttyACM0 and connection=fbus, but gammu does not recognize the 6820. Documentation suggests running portmon then running gammu in diagnostic mode. (SnoopyPro might show some useful data, too...).
- Portmon will log serial port data on Windows, including USB. SnoopyPro logs USB traffic. Needs some effort to understand the latter...
Still working on this...probably just a case of the right chat script for pppd to get the network modem going.

Yes!. See earlier - right chat script required for PPP. Still haven't figured out gammu, but maybe I can just talk AT codes for simple stuff. The camera's pretty useless, and the phone keyboard doesn't exactly cut it for touch typing, but I might want to transfer a file like a voice recording or sports event stopwatch log, or some text document I guess...

4 July 2005
Gammu 1.01.00 now working, sort of. I've got the CA-42 USB cable; gammurc likes:

port = /dev/input/ttyACM0
model = 6820
connection = dku5

Hmm, now that works on one desktop but not the laptop. The AT stuff works reliably on the laptop, with

port = /dev/input/ttyACM0
connection = at230400

Video with .3gp suffix plays in RealPlayer 10 on Linux. Says it's H.323 video. As do .amr audio recordings; reaplay says it's AMR narrow-band audio (MPEG-4).

Dialup Modem Support

Cost

Pay-Per-Use $0.05/kb
$3   for 250kb + $0.03/kb ($30/Mb)
$7   for   1Mb + $0.02/kb ($20/Mb)
$12  for   2Mb + $0.01/kb ($10/Mb)
$25  for   3Mb + $10/Mb
$40  for   7Mb + $6/Mb
$60  for  15Mb + $5/Mb
$100 for 100Mb + $3/Mb

No plan: $0.05 per kb
Mobile Internet plans:
                Monthly Included  Additional Data Usage
                $5.00   5MB     3c/KB  = $30/MB
                $10.00  10MB    3c/KB

Data plans:
Starter         $15     1.5 MB  $21/MB
Lite            $25     3 MB    $10/MB
Plus            $40     7 MB    $6/MB
Max             $60     25 MB   $7/MB
Data 100        $100    200 MB  $5/MB
Data 210        $210    500 MB  $5/MB

Ask Rogers for current or region-specific pricing.

added March 2008

Cautionary Tales

• UK Businessman Hit with $22,000 Roaming Bill
• Factory worker gets $54,000 Phone Bill
• Canadian hit with whopping 85,000-dollar cellphone bill

Security Stuff

• Skulls Trojan
• Cabir Virus
• Bluestumbler
• bluejackQ
• Job de Haas presentation at BlackHat
• Symternals.com - OK, the 6820 runs Nokia OS, not Symbian, but it's interesting all the same ...

WML

One problem was the same one facing early Web surfers - knowing where to start. The byte charge (on Rogers', at any rate) and relatively slow speed discouraged me from exploring the mobile Web by random surfing starting at the homepage that Rogers provide. But Google now has a Mobile Web Search, which greatly helps.

I finally realized that WML is not really all that difficult to write (see e.g. w3schools.com/wap), and that you don't have to provide a WML proxy - that is the responsibility of the cellphone company. So I made a couple of small "we're here" sites for TRIUMF - wap.triumf.ca (WML) and tiny.triumf.ca (XHTML).

The Nokia browser is a bit hard to use compared to Mozilla with a proper keyboard - entering a URL manually is about three levels down in the menu - so I changed my homepage away from Rogers to a small one of my own which is essentially my mobile bookmarks.

Sync

Resources

• Nokia Canada
• NokiaHowto.com
• Rogers
• Telus Mobility
• Telus mobile computing
• GSM Frequencies
• Tuxmobil (mobile Linux)
• Gammu (Linux phone software)
• TAFL
• Transmitter search
• Carriers compared
• Rogers MyMobileHomepage
• Rogers' Send SMS message Web form
• Rogers Voicecommand
• Rogers Roaming
• Rogers Group Text
• Rogers Text Messaging
• Rogers Instant Messaging
• Rogers International Text
• Rogers pay as you go
• Rogers Picturemessaging
• Rogers Network Specifications
• Cingular's config page (courtesy Rogers support)
• Gecko Beach Cellular Phone Resource Site
• Ositech recommended phones
• CDMA in Australia - range etc.
• CDMA rant
• Moonraker cell tech discussion
• portmon (Windows port sniffer)
• Nokia 6820 Specifications
• Nokia EDGE White Paper
• Howard Forums suggested by Rogers
• mouse2mobile - phone settings via SMS

w3schools.com has a nice WML tutorial - useful to work with older non-HTML phones or, maybe, get in Google Wireless