Greece GPRS?

[DaveRo]

I'm now in Greece (Corfu) using Wind Plus non-stop on a tethered laptop. Some experience:

I was told in the Wind Shop where I bought the F2G SIM (€5, inc €1 credit) that I could activate Plus non-stop it by calling 1265 and following voice-prompts. Also that I could change the language into English. The former may be true but the latter didn't work: it said (in Greek) key zero for English - that got a short Greek response (don't know what) but no English.

I activated it by sending an SMS saying PLUS to 19369 (not 369 as an earlier post, though both might work.)

I have discovered that a blank SMS to 1269 gives me a balance.
The SIM packet says that I can recharge by sending a 16digit scratch card number to 1268.

On the subject of language, one US site says that it can be changed by dialling 1276 then 3 then 2 but I can't find that on the Wind site and I haven't tried it. (I can't find a list of such numbers at all on the site - in either Greek or English.)

The HTML mangling is bad using Firefox but I think I've partially fixed it by using this addon:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3207

Set up a rule as follows:
. (single dot for the regular expression - matches everything) old="application/xhtml+xml" new ="text/html"

This allows me to see a lot of sites I couldn't - including this forum and my own Wordpress blog! Whether they will all work I don't know.

I don't suppose that addon will work on the Nokia N810 which has the same mangling problem.

Plus non-stop doesn't work with other protocols (POP, NNTP) so I can't get usenet or use proper email - only webmail - which is a nuisance.

Edited:

1 Please feed back to me any experience of my Firefox fix. I'd like to interest the developer in providing a Firefox 3 version.

2 I intend to get a COSMOTE SIM as a backup in case I can't get a Wind signal in remote islands. Any equivalent cheap data package for that?

[caliston]

What a coincidence! This week I've been working on the HTTP mangling too! I've come up with the following Perl script which acts as an HTTP proxy - should work in any browser on any OS. You'll need Perl installed, as well as the LWP::UserAgent module:
http://search.cpan.org/~gaas/libwww-...P/UserAgent.pm
(was already installed on my Ubuntu machine) and the HTTP::Proxy module:
http://search.cpan.org/~book/HTTP-Pr.../HTTP/Proxy.pm

Here's the script, which is very simple. It only works for HTTP, so don't try using it for HTTPS, FTP or other protocols - set your browser to go to WIND's proxy direct. I haven't done it, but it might be feasible to do a two-pass process to avoid the 1MB restriction by trying the WIND proxy, and if that fails redirect to another proxy (eg one using an SSH tunnel as I detailed above).

#!/usr/bin/perl

use HTTP::Proxy;
use LWP::UserAgent;

# create a filter to change the Content-Type header
{
  package FilterPerl;
  use base qw( HTTP::Proxy::HeaderFilter );
                          
  sub filter {
    my ( $self, $headers, $message) = @_;
    # grab the header, modify it, then write it back into the headers
    $ct=$headers->header('Content-Type');
    $ct =~ s!application/xhtml\+xml!text/html!g;
    $headers->header('Content-Type' => $ct);
  }
}

# create a new object to represent our onward connection - ie through
# WIND's proxy
my $fetcher = LWP::UserAgent->new();
$fetcher->proxy(['http','https','ftp','gopher'], 'http://192.168.200.10:9401/');
$fetcher->no_proxy('localhost');

# create our own proxy on localhost port 3128
my $proxy = HTTP::Proxy->new( port => 3128, agent => $fetcher );
# attach a filter to alter the responses returned by WIND's proxy
$proxy->push_filter( mime => undef, response => FilterPerl->new() );
# start the proxy running
$proxy->start;

Paste it into a file called something.pl and run it. The proxy will then run on localhost port 3128 for as long as the perl script is running.

[DaveRo]

It's been suggested I use privoxy on this thread:
http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...404#post180404

Have I got perl on the N810? I doubt it - it hasn't even got a decent text editor. But I expect it's available. Thanks for the suggestion.

Some stuff to work on here while I'm anchored in a bay with my feet up, a Mythos beer or two to hand....

[luxor84]

First of all, I want to thank you for this very interesting post. I go to Greece every year in summer to spend my holidays... and I love Greece (my grandmother is greek). Every year the problem is always the same: internet. So I hope next July to apply the counsel of this post.

But I want to ask you:
1) Where should I buy a new prepaid card wind? every kiosk?
2) On the website Wind have read that i should send a message ‘PLUS’ to 19349 (and not 349 as indicated in the post)
3) After I buy the sim, are there already the WIND plus settings on the phone?
4) What should I do to use the phone with my laptop? I mean... you wrote: "
In order to use the WIND plus service with a computer tethered to your mobile phone, you have to enter the following settings to your computer:
access point "gwap.b-online.gr", username "wap", password "wap" for your cellphone's PC suite and you also have to set the following proxy server on your web browser IP: 192.168.200.10 port: 9401 as well as on the windows connections panel (for IE and MSN Messenger)". Where should I cahnge exactly this parameters for the browser? In whick window?
5) is there a way to download more than 1 MB? I have seen on the posts that may be there is a way, but I have not understood completely

Thank you very much for your answers

[DaveRo]

Originally Posted by luxor84

...
1) Where should I buy a new prepaid card wind? every kiosk?

A Greek would best answer that, but in Corfu town there were several shops run by Wind, Cosmote, and Vodafone. I bought the Wind card and a Cosmote card at these. (It seemed much like Italy.)

2) On the website Wind have read that i should send a message ‘PLUS’ to 19349 (and not 349 as indicated in the post)

Yes - I used that number.

3) After I buy the sim, are there already the WIND plus settings on the phone?

There is a facility on the Wind website to specify your phone and send it WAP settings. On my phone (Nok N70) these settings do not configure laptop tethering - they just make the phone browser work.

4) What should I do to use the phone with my laptop? I mean... you wrote: "
In order to use the WIND plus service with a computer tethered to your mobile phone, you have to enter the following settings to your computer:
access point "gwap.b-online.gr", username "wap", password "wap" for your cellphone's PC suite and you also have to set the following proxy server on your web browser IP: 192.168.200.10 port: 9401 as well as on the windows connections panel (for IE and MSN Messenger)". Where should I cahnge exactly this parameters for the browser? In whick window?

I set the access point in the phone (under 'packet data') but you might have to set it in the operating system under dial-up connections. I don't use Windows so I'll let someone else say how to do that. What OS and browser do you want to use?

Proxy: I'm using Firefox (on Linux) and the proxy is set in the Firefox configuration - under 'connection'.

5) is there a way to download more than 1 MB? I have seen on the posts that may be there is a way, but I have not understood completely

As the OP mentioned, if you use a different access point you don't have all these restrictions. But it costs more.

Thank you very much for your answers

You're welcome.

Take a look also at the numerous Cosmote data options - more expensive but perhaps simpler. (I bought a Cosmokarte as well. Does anybody know what SMS to send to get a balance?)

[heinz57g]

was/is ''Wind Plus non-stop'' not originally to be a WAP-only service? could this not be the reason
that certain things are blocked and cannot be made to work? even if it worked before, maybe they
got smart and noticed how many users were actually on laptops etc.

see my post on the sticky above: i have a feeling the service is turned off, or at least not offered
anymore to new customers. wish somebody in GR cld check and confirm this, either way, as i will
only be there late july.

greetings - heinz -

[DaveRo]

Originally Posted by heinz57g

was/is ''Wind Plus non-stop'' not originally to be a WAP-only service? could this not be the reason that certain things are blocked and cannot be made to work?

Yes, I'm sure that is the reason. I was sometimes served WML pages instead of html - I assume that the proxy was altering the http requests in some way.

...even if it worked before, maybe they got smart and noticed how many users were actually on laptops etc..

Maybe they read this forum! I don't think they could reliably detect whether someone is using a tethered laptop, but they could certainly look at the browser identification strings (UA string) and detect browsers that don't run on phones. I was going to try changing the UA string of Firefox to Opera Mini to see if it was any better. But I doubt if Wind are bothered by a few people using the service in this way; we are paying, and it won't have much effect on the service.

.see my post on the sticky above: i have a feeling the service is turned off, or at least not offered anymore to new customers. wish somebody in GR cld check and confirm this, either way, as i will only be there late july.

I return in late August so let us know how you get on.

As I said above, I'd use and pay for a proper internet service if there was one at a reasonable price - like with WInd Italy. (Are you reading this, Wind GR?)

[heinz57g]

>> I'd use and pay for a proper internet service

thats probably the issue, because what is paid now (under 4 EUR/month) is plain luck on our side.
and if it is correct that thousands of students found out, and were using that 'service', i would not
like, but understand WINDs reaction - comparable real services, if at all available for tourists,
being 40-100 EUR/m.

has anybody ever used that service on modems like the HUAWEI E220? what would the setting be?

the EU has come up with a new regulation (yesterday?), and as far as i know, greece would be
included in some reduced cost schemes that ORANGE (and others) immediately announced.
give it a few days to be sorted out. either way.

greetings - heinz -

[pontusb]

Hi!

And thank You.

Just tried the Firefox addon with Firefox 2 on my Mac and with You suggested rules. It works perfect.

/Pontus

Originally Posted by DaveRo

I'm now in Greece (Corfu) using Wind Plus non-stop on a tethered laptop. Some experience:

The HTML mangling is bad using Firefox but I think I've partially fixed it by using this addon:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3207

Set up a rule as follows:
. (single dot for the regular expression - matches everything) old="application/xhtml+xml" new ="text/html"

This allows me to see a lot of sites I couldn't - including this forum and my own Wordpress blog! Whether they will all work I don't know.

I don't suppose that addon will work on the Nokia N810 which has the same mangling problem.

Plus non-stop doesn't work with other protocols (POP, NNTP) so I can't get usenet or use proper email - only webmail - which is a nuisance.

Edited:

1 Please feed back to me any experience of my Firefox fix. I'd like to interest the developer in providing a Firefox 3 version.

2 I intend to get a COSMOTE SIM as a backup in case I can't get a Wind signal in remote islands. Any equivalent cheap data package for that?