Hello

My N900 can't establish a cellular data connection anymore. It has been working since i got the phone. I had avoided to use it for a while (maybe one month) and now it doesn't work. I've already contacted my operator ( "Oi", which was called BrasilTelecom last year, and they are clueless).

I've rebooted, took out the SIM Card, re-inserted it, etc. I've tried when connected to either GSM (2.5G) or 3G voice (my current cellphone plan wasn't supposed to handle 3G, but when I let the phone connect it showed 3G on the display and I can place phone calls, but no data connections). Just to make sure where the problem was, I've tried the same SIM card on my old WindowsMobile 5 phone and it worked. So it seems that the problem is really with the N900.

1) Is there a way to activate some sort of log? All I can see is the message "Internet Conneection Failed. Try again?" and no explanation as to what might be happening. With dmesg, the only thing gprs related seems to be:

I've tried a thousand times. Nothing.

2) Does anybody have a hint?

It might be that the operator is blocking my data connections on this phone, since the N900 is not currently sold in my country (yet). However, they tell me that they don't block anything but they can't guarantee that an alien phone will work. The weird thing is that my old WM5 is an O2 XDA Atom Exec phone O2 that is not sold here either...and it works.

3) Does anybody know if any of those applications (not in testing and not in devel) might cause havoc in the gprs settings? By the way, i haven't installed fMMS or that APN configurator, either. I don't think any of the apps I've installed relatesw to GPRS in any way, but I might be wrong...

In theory, you need to set:

Name
User
Pass

and, if needed, a proxy but that's a different error message at a different time. It looks like they don't accept the connection.

If it works in another phone you either have a bad configuration or they don't allow unknown phones.

Just to check the basics, did you REALLY check all settings, including case? N900 has the infuriating ability to capitalize passwords and usernames.

I'm going to try again.

The situation really sucks...The N900 reads the data connection information from the SIM Card. It was working before and now it isn't (same settings). I've tried to change the settings, but when you remove the SIM card and re-insert it, the N900 restores those settings.

My other phone is also unknown and it is worse than the N900, because there is no other phone from that manufacture around.

There is one more piece of the puzzle: my firmware is from the UK. And I remember that it was working before the latest upgrade. Maybe there was some "correction" for the UK customers that has backfired on my N900?

I have first hand experience with is issue, spend weeks on forum before fixing it.

Download and install fAPN. This will allow you to create a second access point with whatever settings you like.

Possible, but unlikely. Other people might have cried before. OTOH, most of them are still in UK and thus have no issues.

Get fAPN, set up a connection with the provider settings on the site and try again. Also, get "Personal IP Address" widget (it's great) and see if you get an IP (if you do). Does it just blink and the get an error? Or does it connect but do nothing? In the second case, you might need to set up a proxy.

I'm doing this. Maybe if I delete all cellular data connection definitions and start over...

It might be that my provider decided to change some settings that are not related to the update. The problem is that they always deny everything. Telecoms are very difficult to work with.

Yes. The connection icon blinks, stays on for a fraction of a second and disappears at the same time the message is displayed. I'm going to watch for an IP.

This is quite difficult to diagnose.

The blinking is a linkup, once this is done GPRS works by means of PPP (don't know if it's mandatory, I've just seen everyone do this). So it blinks to establish a GPRS connection, then once it stays lit it negotiates a PPP. After that, the error pops (as did in my settings) meaning connection got refused.

This means either you have wrong settings or they don't allow you in. If you say you checked with them, then it's most likely bad settings. Re-check settings, make sure caps are OK as this stuff is case sensitive and finally allow for idiocy and try all-lower, all-upper, and FirstLetterCaps on stuff as someone might have changed "Nokia" for "nokia" on a settings and might refuse to acknowledge the error.

In my case, e.g., I had to dig up OLD settings on my phone because my contract is like 10 years old or so and when they changed settings they didn't migrate the old settings over.

New contracts have new settings and I have the old ones. Problem is, if you don't copy from old phone or format/lose, bonedville. All help is wrong.

[Every time I see this thread I think "Oi, Jeff, that's out lunch!"]

Just an upgrade on the situation. It still doesn't work, but now I'm certain that the local carrier is responsible. Even without acknowledging or knowing it, they must have changed something in their configurations that prevent the N900 from connecting.

I've tried my SIM card in another, brand new N900 and it doesn't work either. When I put another operator's SIM card on my N900 it works. My SIM card also works for data connection on another cell phone.

Since it had worked for some months before, there is definitely something different in the carrier setup.

When calling customer support they say that they can't guarantee that the N900 will work because it is not officially sold in Brazil.

However, it seems it will be sold here, after all. We can either wait for that or change the carrier.

My current carrier is called "Oi" (it means hello in Portuguese).

@soeiro,

I am from Brazil and use my N900 with the operator Oi as well.

I could connect through 2,5G (GSM / Edge) since the first time I inserted the chip, but on 3G only after I activated the data plan. The configuration in [Settings] > [Internet Connections] > [Connections] > ["Oi Internet"] is the following:

Connection name: Oi Internet
Connection type: Packet Data
[Tap Next button]
Access point name: gprs.oi.com.br
User name: (left blank)
Password: (left blank)
[Tap Next button]
[Tap Finish]

If your settings are already this way, try to set up the User name and Password as "oi" in both fields. I saw this configuration in some forums but it works for me either way here at Sao Paulo/SP, with user/pass or without it.

By the way, did you test it just at your home or on other places? I had a problem that I could never connect when I was in a market near my home, and it was a local problem with Oi infrastructure. After some weeks they solved it and started to connect again...

If you need more help feel free to send me a PM with your email and I see how I could help.

My account was actually from BrasilTelecom, before it was acquired by Oi. When trying to get customer support from Oi they always give me BrasilTelecom settings: access point name: brt.br (or wap.brt.br, depending on who you talk to) user: brt, password: brt.

When i place my sim card on another phone, it auto-configures all settings and it works. When I place the same chip on the N900 it also auto-configures, but the connection doesn't work anymore (it used to work).

The only two weird thing i've noticed since my N900 stopped connecting are:

1. Until a couple months ago, my N900 would ignore 3G and display only 2.5G. Now it not only sees 3G, but let's me talk while connected to the 3G network (only for voice, though);
2. The "Connection type" field used to show "GPRS", but now it is displaying "Packet Data". is there some way of changing that or altering any advanced parameters?

Anyway, I'm going to try the Oi settings instead of the old BRT settings.

I haven't had the opportunity to test under roaming. Just as a side note: on my old WM5 phone, GPRS data worked at higher speeds while roaming than while at home.

Thanks

I also have same kind of problem with my Nokia N900 where the connection icon stays on for a fraction of a second and disappears and I get the message "cellular network not available", "Internet Connection Failed. Try again?"

I changed the preference to Dual( Settings-->Phone-->Network mode-->Dual ) and it worked.

Please try this, this might fix the issue.