First of all, I want to thank AndreA (and Effendi) for their offer to help getting WIND pre-paid SIM as detailed here: http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=888

I have an upcoming trip into France and Italy, and would like to stay connected both voice and data. I'm using a Motorola SLVR and would like to use the DUN option with my laptop, either connected via Bluetooth or USB. After much fudging around locally with Canadian's Rogers data SIM (I don't have the WIND one yet) and service, I have got both Bluetooth and USB going by either:

1. Use Motorola Phone Tools 4.04
2. Use the "at+cgdcont=2,ip,internet.com" extra initialization command and calling with "*99***2#"

It took me forever to figure #2 out, and am now afraid what will happen to me once I get the WIND SIM into France and Italy. Can I count on Motorola Phone Tools to automatically detecting the right roaming partners (in France) and set up the connection appropriately or are there different "extra initialization command" that I should write down before heading over the pond ?

Please, someone who has used WIND data roaming over dial-up networking, what's the secret to easy data roaming in Europe ?

Thanks in advance

I'm a Wind customer and I used GPRS in several countries in Europe with no problem, but only with my handset, no PC connection since I've never tried it! :)
I think you just need to setup the right APN (internet.wind) and that's all. The calling number is the usual *99# maybe plus the ***2 as well.

Let's see if AndreA can say more than me, he's such an expert about this subject! :)

you need that extra initialization command, but be sure to edit "internet.com" with "internet.wind" when you use a Wind simcard, otherwise it will not work

in alternative, you can use any program that creates the connection for you: Motorola Phone Tools should work just fine (I used it some time ago with both 3 and Wind and it auto-detected the correct APN according to the simcard inserted in the phone)

I hope this helps, if you have any further questions just ask ;)

P.S. just forgot: there is no "secret" for easy data roaming, you just need to be registered on a network that has data roaming agreements (camel3) with Wind and you can connect with absolutely no problems

We was checking our emails etc. with Wind sim cards in Prague last week ^_^ and got absolutely no issues :)

Good to hear that I will be well armed, thanks !!

Just want to be sure I understand the process. I've been using Wind for years, (I spend a lot of time in Italy) just with a standard prepaid card. If I use a phone like the razr, hook it to my laptop with a mini-usb cable, use the motorola phone tools from the cd that comes with the phone, what else do I have to do to get on line with my laptop? Do I need a different class of service from Wind? (I forget which program I'm on now, but it's a simple voice phone service). What kind of costs will I encounter if I'm online for a half hour to an hour a day? (simple e-mail, web forums, not major file downloads). What kind of connection speed can I expect?

Where do I enter the init strings, through the motorola phone tools or through the phone keypad and the motorola screen menu? Or, with the motorola software, do I need to do anything special to connect, or will it auto-detect?

Oh, also, does anyone know- can I load the cd to my laptop hard drive in advance? I use an ultralite, it doesn't have a cd drive, so I'd want to load the software before I fly to Italy. (in otherwords, do I just install the software, or will I need to have access to the cd the first time I log on in Italy?)

TIA,

Hi Gargoyle and welcome to the forum! :beer:

You don't need a special plan, a normal voice sim-card by Wind is perfect, but of course it's better if you apply for one of the 3 data offers listed here.

You just need to have some credit and to be sure GPRS is active on your plan. If you understand some Italian (I think you do) I suggest you to subscribe to www.155.it where you can check all the information about your plan, including GPRS activation and the data offers you will active.

The init strings have to be put on the modem settings: your PC sees the phone as a GPRS modem, in the properties you can put the init string. It's just a normal "remote access" connection, like with a dial-up 56k modem. You don't need any special software, just the drivers for you phone, of course. If you use now the Razr CD with your laptop it will install all that you need.

Speed in GPRS is around 48k, on 3G it's 384k but you need a 3G phone.

Thanks, Effendi. Si, capisco bene l'italiano, and I'm already registered on 155.it. I'm actually buying a new phone before I return to Italy (if I can get an unlocked phone for my Cingular account), so I'll see if they have 3G phones before I get a Razr.

I think they should make phones with multiple sim card slots, so we can just hit a key sequence to switch cards, instead of fumbling with multiple cards and swapping them out. I once wrote Motorola to suggest that, but I think they ignored the idea. :-)

Pay attention that 3G phones in the USA don't work in the rest of the World since you use W-CDMA at 1900MHz, while here it's W-CDMA 2100MHz. So if you want a 3G phone buy it on eBay from some European seller. The Razr should be ok since it's quad-band.

In Italy you need both 900 and 1800 MHz with GSM.

On 155.it you can checn if GPRS is active or not. If not, you can ativate it directly from there.

Just for the fun of it, I also puchased this on eBay

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIt...item=9722548769

Offered the vendor 10 GBP, came out to 14 GBP shipped

Software can be downloaded from dell.com - search for "TrueMobile GPRS Manager"

Since I want to use the same phone in the US and Italy (so I don't have to carry two phones and two chargers every time I travel), it looks like I'll have to stick with GPRS and not 3G/GSM.

Quick estimates based on the 155.it site, if my math is correct, with regular wind cards it looks like ?1,00 to ?3,00 per megabyte of download. With Mega No Limit, if I understand correctly, it's ?10,00/mg with the Wind portal, and ?30,00/meg for the rest of the internet, with the first 3,000 euro free per month (meaning 100 mg free for ?20,00/month, and with Mega300, for ?8,00/month you get 10 mg of traffic. However, it looks like the Mega cards are for UTMS and not GPRS. Am I interpreting this correctly?

Ehm, a little chaos! :D

Wind has 3 different billing rates for data: <span style='color:#3366FF'>wap</span>, <span style='color:#FFAA00'>i-mode</span> and <span style='color:#FF0000'>web</span>, with the following rates:

in ITALY:
<span style='color:#3366FF'>wap</span>: ? 0.03/KB (? 0.01/KB inside Wind's portal) [apn: wap.wind] -> ? 30/MB
<span style='color:#FFAA00'>i-mode</span>: ? 0.01/KB [apn: imode.wind] -> ? 10/MB
<span style='color:#FF0000'>web</span>: ? 0.003/KB [apn: internet.wind] -> ? 3/MB

outside ITALY:
<span style='color:#3366FF'>wap</span>: ? 0.05/KB [apn: wap.wind] -> ? 50/MB
<span style='color:#FFAA00'>i-mode</span>: ? 0.05/KB [apn: imode.wind] -> ? 50/MB
<span style='color:#FF0000'>web</span>: ? 0.015/KB [apn: internet.wind] -> ? 15/MB

So how much it is with the 3 data offers is listed in the thread sticky in this section, and anyway: 1GB, 100MB and 10MB in Italy, 200MB, 20MB and 2MB outside Italy, using the web apn.

Usually you don't need both wap and i-mode, just configure the phone for web connections (i.e. just put internet.wind as APN).

I picked up an unlocked Motorola V400 quad band (850, 900, 1800, 1900) and a usb cable on ebay, but it didn't come with the Motorola Phone Tools CD. Do I need the software from that CD for the laptop to recognize it? Or can I just use the old fashioned modem settings from Control Panel/Phone and Modem Options. (WinXP with all current patches and service packs). I see where I can put in the init strings if needed, but I don't see a place to put the internet.wind APN.

Thanks,

The internet.wind APN has to be set up on the phone. Then, put *99# as dial-up access number on your laptop.

*99# is the basic command for a mobile phone to connect via GPRS/EDGE. You can usually set up several APN on a phone. If you want to use your default APN, just have your laptop dial *99# and it should work.

Some mobiles need you to specify which APN has to be used ; then your laptop should dial *99***1# for the first APN, *99***2# for the second one, etc. This must also be done if your network operator uses different APN for wap and web : the default APN for your phone is usually the wap APN, so the dialing string from your laptop must specify that it needs the web APN.

On some phones like SonyEricsson, you can find the number of each APN ; it's called CID. If you don't find the number, just try all APN (change the last number in the dial-up string) untill it works...

I you have a Nokia phone you have to add this string to your modem properties on Windows: +CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet.wind"
With other brands it's not necessary, but it you put it you're sure to use the right APN.

I'm missing something.

I'm in Italy, and still trying to get this to work. I sent the sms to Wind to activate; I got a reply immediately saying that they had received my request and wwould send me an sms to confirm once they activate the promotion. About 12 or 14 hours later I received the confirmation.

I set up the init string: +cgdcont=1,"IP","internet.wind"
There is no where on my system to enter an APN

When I dial: *99***1# I immediately get the following message within one or two seconds of trying to dial:

Registering your computer on the network
the PPP link control protocol was terminated

It disconnects instantly.

I'm trying two methods; one is from the WinXP modem and network setup control panels; the other is from my third party cell phone software, DataPilot. I've followed the instructions from 155.it in configuring my computer.

Do I need to enter a password/username? If so, are those the same ones I use for 155.it or are they different? Is there a different number which I can tell the phone to dial?

Right now I'm using a Motorola V180 with a USB cable. The computer recognizes it on Com 4.
(I am waiting for a replacement for my V400). With the built in menu in the Motorola phone, is there anywhere I should enter any info?

No need for a user name, just the number (*99***1#, try also just *99#), really strange...

Yes : you have to set up Wind Web APN in your phone. Which means create a new data account with the APN "internet.wind". (No need for any other information : just leave everything else blank.)

When you dial "*99***1#" from your computer, it doesn't mean "connect to Wind" ; it means "connect to data account number 1". But if there is no correct data account, or if the correct data account is not number 1, it won't work.

I don't know if Motorola displays the number (usually called "CID#" on some phones) of the data account. If it does, you may have to replace "1" in "*99***1#" by the number of the Wind Web account you've just created. If it doesn't, you may have to try "*99***2#", "*99***3#" etc. until it works.