Small Business Tech

Nerdrobin left a comment regarding problems in syncing my Samsung t409 handset...

I saw that you mentioned issues with syncing with Outlook and that you also switched to the Nokia 6086. I have the same phone and have found a way to sync it directly with Outlook. You need to go to Nokia's website and download the Nokia PC Suite for the 6086 and get a Bluetooth adapter for your PC. After setting it all up, the Nokia PC Suite provides direct syncronization with Outlook through Bluetooth as well as many other nice features.

I actually had not switched to the Nokia, but my two sons do use the Nokia handsets. I am going to grab one and try this out. I must say that the Nokia phones are much more open than the Samsung handsets. They are able to easily load custom ringtones, while the Samsung prevents this entirely.

Labels: cell phone, Cellular, Nokia, Samsung, T-Mobile, VOIP, wireless

As we continue our march towards an all-digital world, we are going to have to make changes as old analog systems go away. As companies have perfected digital communications systems, they are eager to phase out the older analog systems. The reasons for the desire to fade out older analog systems is that companies want the frequency spectrum that is currently being used in an inefficient manner and they want to stop spending funds to maintain the older equipment. This has taken place in out-of-sight public safety (fire and police) communications and in high-profile cases such as broadcast television.

The next guidepost in the digital conversion trail is the cellular telephone system. The FCC will allow the carriers to shut-off the old analog cellular phone system in February 2008. What will be affected? I have listed below some of the common devices that will no longer function.

• Cellular Phones - It is speculated that their are 1 million active cellular phones in the United States that still use analog service. You are safe if you use a handset that is newer than five years old. The big and possibly disastrous effect could be on 911-only phones. Check if you or possibly your parents have one of these old 911-only devices. I know that my father has kept a 911-only phone in his glovebox for years.
• Car Communitions - General Motors OnStar, TeleAid from Mercedes-Benz, or Lexus Link will be affected for cars of fairly recent vintage. The manufactures are pointing out that most systems in 2003 or older models will no longer function. OnStar is offering to upgrade systems in 2004 and 2005 models for a small fee. The older models do not appear to be eligible for upgrade. This could affect up to 700,000 cars.
  
• Home Alarms - Check how your alarm system communicates with the central monitoring station. Many systems still use analog landlines, but some advanced systems used the analog cellular phone systems as a primary or backup. Any system older than 2006 should be inspected. These systems are generally not upgradable, so you will most likely need to purchase a new main board or communications panel at the least.

For more information consult with your cellular telephone provider, alarm system monitoring company, or automobile monitoring server. You can specifically visit OnStar's web site to check the status of your vehicle.

Labels: cell phone, Cellular, phone, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon

We have been early customers of T-Mobile's Hotspot at Home service. I still think that it is revolutionary, and surprised that a competitor has not hopped on the band wagon. I have heard rumors that Sprint was introducing a similar, but less versatile, service. I have not found proof on the Sprint or credible sites.

As a follow up to other's cell phone horror stories and my T-Mobile service experience, we have had one small problem with T-Mobile. Last month, we noticed that we were quickly using our anytime minutes and we did in fact go over five dollars. The strange thing was that no matter how we altered our phone usage we could not stop the hemmorage of minutes. Being a parent-I blamed the kids first. They swore they were not burning minutes. I began to suspect a problem with T-Mobile's billing system.

This month, I waited one week into the month so that we would have a variety of usage but not an overwhelming amount of data. Score one for T-Mobile that they allow customers to download current minute usage to Excel or similar spreadsheet software. I was ultimately able to manipulate the numbers to show T-Mobile that a problem existed. I was never able to pin down the problem, but the customer service representative was able to do so in a nearly one-hour telephone call. She discovered that T-Mobile was not crediting two users HotSpot at Home usage correctly. The usage was being subtracted from our anytime minutes.

The end of the story is that they refunded the overage last month, corrected this month's usage, and I apologized to the kids.

Epilogue: Do not ever pay T-Mobile late. I think that it would be cheaper to skip the mortgage for a week or two. The late fee for T-Mobile is $20 per line. That is right. Four lines = $80 late fee.

Labels: cell phone, Cellular, HotSpot, T-Mobile

Time for Summer Vacation

Yes it is that time for the family summer vacation. These really stress me out, but we need to get away as a family. We did not take a summer vacation as a family last year, because of an illness and ultimately a death in the family.

The stress is whether anything will break while I am away, and will I have cell phone or Internet access to address the problem. I have been checking T-Mobile coverage maps, and it appears that I will be in coverage areas during weekdays. By the way, T-Mobile has the most usable and responsible coverage maps of any cellular carrier. If there is an problem feel free to file a support ticket or call me.

We were initially going to fly, but we opted for what I call "The Great American Road Trip." It is just a more fun and relaxed way to travel. You do not need to worry about TSA checkpoints, schedules, or crazy weather delays. I get to keep my shoes on.

We will be visiting Atlanta, Knoxville, Smokey Mountains, and maybe one more east coast city between August 1st and the 9th. Highlights of the trip include Georgia Aquarium (Atlanta), The Blue Plate Special (Knoxville), Sister-in-law's house, Dollywood (theme park), and all that Smokey Mountain tourist trap stuff.

Labels: cell phone, Cellular, family, T-Mobile, vacation

Continuing with T-Mobile HotSpot @Home Service

I have found a problem with the phone book on the handset. As I have written about before, I had some difficulties in synchronizing the contacts from the my.T-mobile.com web site to the handset. I have discovered that none of the telephone numbers transfer from the site to the telephone. The problem appears to be a mapping issue. The site offers phone numbers such as Work 1, Work 2, Mobile 1, etc. The handset only has the fields of Work, Mobile, Home, etc. Since none of these match up then the numbers are unable to transfer to the handset. One bright spot is that any numbers entered into the Samsung handset do transfer to the online database.

We are going to begin using the one other handset that is available for the HotSpot @Home service, the Nokia 6086. This handset is a bit larger than the Samsung T409, but it offers a music player, expandable memory, and an integrated FM radio.

I will keep you up-to-date if any other issues that develop as well as how the Nokia handsets function. If you are interested in using this or other T-Mobile services be sure to contact my corporate representative. I am unsure if he will do so for anyone, but he did waive the activation fee for our service. Here is Richard's contact information...

Rich Kling

T-Mobile USA

Business Account Executive

4640 East Colonial Drive l Orlando, FL 32803

MOBILE: 407.970.0203 l FAX: 407.264.8779 l

Business Care: 1.800.375.1126

Richard.Kling@T-Mobile.com

Labels: cell phone, Cellular, HotSpot, T-Mobile

Day Three With T-Mobile HotSpot @Home

I tried the Sanford municipal wifi this morning. The phone attempted to connect, but there was no luck in making a connection. I am did not have my notebook computer with me, but I would guess that a terms and conditions page exists on the network. Many government wifi networks display a page of terms and conditions to which you must agree to connect to the network. I would not be out of question that the network also does not allow a VOIP usage of their network. I know that Seminole County government wifi outlets do not allow use of the Google Docs & Spreadsheets web site.

I have been attempting to use the online phone book feature on the my.t-mobile.com web site with some limited success. It has been difficult to transfer the correct telephone numbers from Outlook to the web site. I blame Outlook because the program has options for mobile phone and car phone numbers, and the T-Mobile web site does not know which the grab for a valid number. A little data clean up helped clear the situation. The value in uploading contact information to the web site is that it will synchronize with the handset and vice-a-versa the handset with the web site.

Labels: Cellular, HotSpot, T-Mobile, Telephone, VOIP

Day Two With T-Mobile HotSpot @Home

This was the first day using the service outside of the home. Really worked well. The wi-fi in the office worked as expected. We work in a concrete and steel building with just one wireless access point so coverage can be spotty. The phone seems to switch over to the T-Mobile network on a shorter radius than when a notebook computer or PDA indicates connection issues. I understand why the handset is eager to switch to the T-mobile network on the edge of wi-fi signals. Voice over the Internet requires a good, consistent access speed to work well. I would design it towards the conservative side for better customer performance as well.

I read that the handset would not connect to WPA secured access points besides the service included router, but that was proved false today. I have been on a WPA secured wireless network through out the day.

One problem that I need to research. I have a wireless email address which I forwarded to my soon-to-be-former Verizon handset and my T-Mobile phone. It sends messages triggered by my email server, because I need to know when certain people email me. The T-Mobile messages through the day have been very delayed a couple of times. I need to see if the server is delaying a send or if it is T-Mobile's problem.

I am going to attempt to use the Sanford municipal wireless network this evening or in the morning. Tomorrow evening we get to test T-Mobile's system capacity when we attend the Pepsi 400 NASCAR race at Daytona. In is usually impossible to call out at a Daytona feature race. I guess half of 250,000 fans holding their phones up when the cars pass overbooks the frequency spectrum.

Labels: Cellular, HotSpot, T-Mobile, Telephone, VOIP

Day One With T-Mobile HotSpot @Home

We opened the boxes this afternoon and got started with setting up the router. I setup the wireless router using the web interface using WAP encryption for the wireless signal. The only difference in the web interface was the different model number. Everything else is exactly the same in the WRT-54 family of wireless routers.

Next it was installing the handset battery and SIM card. Powered up and attempted to connect. I tried the single-button setup that is available on the front of the router, but that did not work. On the next attempt I setup the handset manually. I received an error message that there was an ISP/DNS error. I am impressed with the good descriptive error messages. This is where I ran into a couple of problems.

1. The T-Mobile router is in second place behind a Vonage branded Linksys router. For some reason, the T-Mobile router was unable to obtain an IP address from the Vonage router. This is strange because the T-Mobile router is replacing another wireless router. I setup the T-Mobile router with a static IP.
2. I had forgotten that I use a manual DNS address on my routers. I really like the OpenDNS service, so I needed to find and add those addresses.

The process seem to go much better after those small issues. The phone logged onto the wireless network without any issue. I did a couple of test calls by calling the home phone and then walking out of wireless network range. The switch was completely imperceptible by myself or the family member on the other end.

The Samsung T409 handset is very easy to use. For the first time in my life I was able to call someone, place them on hold, call a second party, and connected the two calls. I was then able to release one of the callers. I have never been able to figure this out on any cellular or home phone. The on screen directions on the T409 make it a very easy process. The only phone easier for conference calling is a Siemens' desktop Optipoint phone.

The my.T-mobile web site enabled me to upload all of my Outlook contacts into an online address book that was then transferred to the handset in a few minutes. A recommended addition that I would make would be the ability to tie the phone list into a Gmail or Yahoo contact list. Any changes to the phone address book in the future will automatically be transferred back to the site. Sadly, the changes cannot be synchronised back to Outlook.

Day one went well. I plan on trying the phone out on some different wireless networks such as the free municipal network here in Sanford in the coming days. I will update as we continue.

Previous posts about T-Mobile HotSpot @Home
Signed Up for T-Mobile HotSpot @Home
Vonage May Fall as Well

Labels: Cellular, HotSpot, T-Mobile, Telephone, VOIP

Signed up for T-Mobile HotSpot @Home Service

We are going to give it a try. The premise of this service is that our new wireless phones will operate on the normal T-Mobile network away from home. When we are at home they will connect with the T-Mobile branded Linksys wireless router to provide phone service via our Internet connection. I have seen some good reviews from a test of the system in Seattle, and I am excited to try it out. Supposedly the phones will connect to any wireless hot spot, but the free Linksys router is designed to reduce telephone battery usage.

The entire catalyst to change from Verizon Wireless has been the poor service that we get at home. We can only use our wireless telephones outside of our house. Even then we cannot stand on the north side of the house. I must admit that elsewhere the network is flawless. I have never been to any part of the country where I lost my Verizon signal entirely. I once stayed in a cabin in a deep valley at the edge of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, and I still had five bars. We could actually see a cell tower out the back window. I assume that it was Verizon.

I hate to leave Verizon because we have been a customer since they bought our provider in the late 90's. Does anybody remember the Primeco character, Primetheus? We are probably going to cut back to just one Vonage line as well. Our total savings should be $25 per month, and we will end up with one extra telephone line in our home.

Delivery of our equipment is scheduled for this week. I will take you through setup and initial use. Incidentally, I only live about 4 miles from a T-Mobile corporate store, but I had the equipment shipped because my T-Mobile corporate rep saved me $70 on the activation fees.

Labels: Cellular, HotSpot, T-Mobile, Telephone, VOIP