OK, some news about T-Mobile’s GPRS and using it for Linux. A couple of weeks ago, chat stopped working when I was connected via GPRS. Last week, HTML stopped working. As it turns out the ability to use Unlimited t-zones for full GPRS connectivity was a fluke; the result of T-Mobile not having yet blocked the appropriate TCP ports. They apparently have them blocked now. After switching back to the full-rate Internet plan, I continued to have issues with FTP. I called up T-Mobile to figure out what was the matter.

Upon stating that I had question about which TCP ports were open, I was transferred from Tier 1 to Tier 2. After stating that I was using Debian Linux to connect to my phone, I was transferred directly to Tier 3 support. The guy was really cool, and I found out a couple of things that are updates to my previous post about GPRS on Linux.

With Ericsson phones the Access Point does not have to be set via an init string; it is set in the phone. Also, the CID is the integer in the number dialed. Here are the updated chatscripts:

/etc/chatscripts/tmobile-connect:

# File: /etc/chatscripts/tmobile-connect
#
# Chat script for GPRS connection
# with T-Mobile t-Zones

TIMEOUT 10
ABORT ‘BUSY’
ABORT ‘NO ANSWER’
ABORT ‘ERROR’
SAY ‘Starting GPRS connect script\n’

# Get the modem’s attention and reset it
“” ‘ATZ’

# Dial the number
ABORT ‘NO CARRIER’
SAY ‘Dialing…\n’
OK ‘ATD*99***2#’
CONNECT ”

/etc/chatscripts/tmobile-disconnect:

# File: /etc/chatscripts/tmobile-disconnect
#
# Chat script for disconnecting via GPRS
# from T-Mobile
“” “\K”
“” “+++ATZ”
SAY “GPRS disconnected.”

If you are going to pay full rate for T-Mobile Internet, go ahead and get set up for VPN. That way, you have a routable IP. Changing the ATH0 to ATZ resolved the problem with the Bluetooth connection being locked up; upon disconnect it is fine. I can redial instantly without issue.