[NOTE: The following is a paper provided by a fellow camper at San Benito. They have successfully used GTE services quite extensively for conference calls and Internet telecommuting. This is the most practical guide associated with real experience I have found to date on the subject.]
Internet via Cellular Phone FAQ
by Steve Richfield
dataless@,ix.netcom.com
Q. What does it take to surf the Internet via cellular phone?
A. Maniacal attention to detail, as follows:
1. Conventional Wisdom Misconceptions: This obviously entails utilizing a cellular modem (e.g. as manufactured by Motorola) to connect your computer to your cellular phone. However, at cellular phone rates, you will obviously never be able to pay for your second month, so why bother. This line of reasoning is entirely wrong, at each and every step, and only extreme care to every detail will get you successfully and inexpensively connected.
2. Cellular Carrier Selection: Most cellular carriers have a rate plan where you can get unlimited "free" cellular usage with various time and geographic restrictions. These most often include free weekend usage for calls made from and to their service area. However, these plans vary widely, and some carriers may also throw in free evening usage. For example, in the San Francisco Bay area, including area codes 408, 415, 510, and 707, you can get free usage from 7:00PM to 7:00AM and on weekends from Cellular One for $50 per month, which may actually reduce your cellular bill, even with Internet usage, below what you are now paying. It takes a week or so of intensive play to learn to properly serf the Internet, which is frustrating to do only on weekends, and prohibitively expensive to do at 20 cents per minute. Consequently, the choice of carrier is crucial. However, before signing up, make sure that your intended locations are served by the carrier. Have someone who is on the service drop by those locations and read the S meter. You will need at least 4 bars for trouble-free operation with a standard external antenna, or al least 2 bars to operate with a custom directional antenna. Most RV parks are in small valleys that are in cellular shadows, which may present problems for Internet usage. If you got sucked into GTE, trash them and get what you need.
3. Cellular Camer Setup: Call and ask them if you are on the free-off-time rate plan. They often "forget" to sign you up, then hit you with the $5K bill at the end of the month! Have them disable "beep through on busy" if possible.
4. Internet Provider Selection: The key question is whether they are a "full service" provider. The test is to ask them if there is any problem running NetScape or Mosaic on their system. There are plenty of providers that support the standard PPP interface, so there is no reason to go with less. I use Netcom, but there are plenty of other good providers. Netcom has other access numbers around the country, good modems, and reasonable support. This should cost you around $20 per month. If you got sucked into CompuServe or America On-line, you will probably do well to trash them and sign up for what you need.
5. Internet Provider Setup: You will doubtless follow the standard registration process, which will fail miserably. All of the advice I have received frrom tech support in this regard has been wrong since they know nothing of cellular phones, so don't expect much. The best approach is to ask them for a guest logon code - which will get you on the system by using Terminal in Windows Accessories. Try logging on as a guest and be observant. Are you loosing characters (no 16550), getting additional garbage (no V.42), is the computer responding even though you aren't typing (no V.42), etc. I initially had all of these problems. This must be absolutely clean before you are ready to proceed to real registration. The worst that can happen is that you proceed without first working out the problems, whereupon you will then be paying for the service without being able to use it, and the system will continually crash just as you are about to finish some complex sequence.
6. Net Browser Selection: You may well be using two net browsers - the one recommended and/or supplied by your carrier, and the one you really want to use. In the case of Netcom, they supply NetCruiser for "free", and which is worth exactly what it costs. It crashes about every hour, and usually at some crucial moment when the most is lost. Their tech support people don't want to solve problems with software that is not their own, and their own software has too many problems for practical usage. Even their own tech support people use NetScape and Mosaic rather than suffer the problems attendant in NetCruiser! NetScape and Mosaic are available for $25-$40.
7. Net Browser Setup: Follow the instructions, and be sure to add the commands indicated in the Modem Setup section of this FAQ to the Modem init string.
8. Cellular Phone Selection: You need a full-power (3 Watt) phone with an external antenna and an RJ-11 adapter. The only equipment that qualifies here is a Motorola "bag phone" with a "Cellular Connection" adapter. Your carrier may require "digital capability" to get the cheap rate, as Cellular One does in the SF Bay area, which means purchasing a digital bag phone. I would recommend purchasing a digital phone even if you don't need digital, since it leaves you the greatest future flexibility for an additional $100. Your carrier will often loan you the money at little or no interest to purchase the phone. Cellular One did this for me, and tacked on an additional $28 per month onto my bill for 2 years to pay for it. If you presently have Cellular service, you probably have an unsuitable phone. Sorry, trash it and get what you need.
9. Cellular Phone Setup: You need to disassemble the Motorola Cellular Connection (with a torx driver) and install a standard circuit board jumper onto J3. This will allow you to adjust the output signal level, either manually or though DTMF control. You must "reprogram" your phone to set a bit to disable the "failed call page flag". These are complex procedures that you may wish your cellular provider to perform, which they will usually do for no charge. Then, you must set the phone into "ANALOG ONLY" mode, which resets whenever power is cycled. If you are concerned with physical location by the government, you'll also want a "quick disconnect" adapter for your antenna, so that you can disconnect the antenna while you turn your phone on and kill the digital mode, thereby denying the cellular carrier the opportunity of determining your range from the cellular node. You should set your phone's not selector to the "HOME ONLY" state so that you cannot operate from the nodes of other providers, lest you be charged the standard 95 cents per minute for the privilege.
10. Antenna Selection: You absolutely need an external "magmount" antenna. These typically have a TNC type connector, while your phone will probably have a Mini UHF type connector. To connect between them, you'll need an adapter that you can get from Radio Shack. To avoid loosing 1/3 or more of your power, these usually need their 20 foot RG-58 cable replaced with "Mini RG-8", which can connect with a twist-on RG- 59 type connector if the outer strands of the inner conductor of the Mini RG-8 are cut off, leaving 7 inner strands. I have been experimenting with Yagi-Uda style directors and reflectors to enhance operation with good results, and can typically add two S meter bars without disturbing the magmount antenna! These are not commercially available, but my kids will make one for you incorporating the latest design details for a reasonable price.
11. Antenna Setup: Slight repositioning, even by inches, can have a big effect on operation. Metal lunch box sized objects can be used as reflectors to improve gain (spaced 3.5 inches from the antenna). You need some, albeit poor, reception from two nodes. Single node operation makes you sensitive to loss of your Internet connection due to momentary propagation problems. Hence, if there are two directions where you pick up a signal, you may have to optimize the poorer of the directions rather than the better of the directions in order to keep your connection through momentary interruptions.
l2. Modem Selection: You absolutely need V.42 and 4800 baud support. You really want a modem that supports 7200, 9600, and 14400 baud, and which has automatic speed fall-forward/fall-back, which generally only comes with a "cellular" modem, the best coming from Megahertz. You absolutely can’t use any modem that makes reference to Rockwell chips, which mentions RPI compatibility, or where you can see the Rockwell Logo on big square chips (A sort of circle with the bottom third missing), unless your Winsock and all other software supports Rockwell modems. You should be alerted if your modem comes with software or if there is any stated system requirements. You'll probably also want FAX capability. If you have been computing for a while or have purchased a complete system, you probably have an unsuitable modem. Sorry, trash it and get what you need.
13. Modem Setup: Your net browser probably understands your modem, but not cellular. You are probably using a cellular modem without a cellular connector, connected to a Cellular Connection adapter to a Motorola Transportable phone. To make this work well, your modem probably needs more initialization than is provided for in the modem initialization strings of most browsers. Further, you probably intend to use an Internet browser, a VT-100 emulator program, and a FAX program, each of which has its own limitations. The trick to get past this impasse is to store the desired configuration into the modem's non-volatile RAM, and call it up as needed. Most modems hold two such user-definable configurations, but one of these is typically used by FAX software to hold the "auto-answer" configurations. Use the AT&W1 command to save your configuration, and ATZI in your initialization string to return to that configuration.
14. Serial Interface Selection: If you aren't using a PCMCIA type modem card or an internal modem, you'll need a suitable serial interface to plug your external modem into. A "standard" 16450 compatible interface is NOT suitable - you need at least a 16550 compatible interface with its 16byte FIFOs. The ultimate serial port is the Pro-Class High Speed Serial Port (PC-HSSP) from Practical Peripherals, with 1K byte FIFOs. This will allow you to minimize your net browser and do anything else under Windows without fear of losing any data.
15. Computer Selection: You absolutely need Windows, you really want a 486/33 or better with 8 Meg RAM. Net browsers are computationally intensive, and low-memory crashes are common on 4 Meg systems when switching between your net browser and other large systems, such as Microsoft Word.
16. Computer Setup: If you intend to use Windows 95, there is a bug that wipes out the WINSOCK file that is easiest to fix BEFORE Windows 95 is installed. Call your net browser supplier for assistance. Enter the Control Panel, then 386 Setup, then mark each type of activity for 1ms time slices. This keeps other processes from tying up the computer and overflowing the fifos.
Q. How do I configure the non-volatile RAM in my modem?
A. Before proceeding with this step, first check your modem manufacturer's Web site to verify that you have the latest firmware. Check your modem specifications, but the following commands should serve as a guide. If you get an error message, the command probably doesn't apply to your modem. Get into a terminal emulator program so that you can talk to your modem, and enter AT to which your modem should respond with OK to show that everyting is working correctly. Then, depending upon your situation and modem, enter the following commands:
AT Echo OK to verify modem attachment.
AT&F1 Start with a standard cellular configuration.
AT/S Display a helpful cheat sheet.**
ATS10=100 Keep your modem from hanging up on glitches.
ATS30=255 Eventually disconnect if the connection deteriorates.
ATS24=255 Enable low-power mode when not in use.
ATS28=1 for V.34.
ATS36=4 Abort any attempt to connect without error correction.
ATS79=1 ETC startup speed = 4,800 baud.**
ATS91=10 RJ-ll data Tx level.
ATS92=10 RJ-I1 FAX Tx level.
ATS108=0 Overcomes early static, but blinds to disconnection.**
ATL3 Crank the modem's speaker up to full volume.
ATW2 Report DCE (modem-to-modem) speed.
ATX2 Disables a crummy busy recognizer if needed.
ATL43 Set the maximum block size in MNP to 256.
AT:E1 Enable the compromise equalizer for RJ-l1 connection.
AT+MS=11,1,2400,14400 V.34 with automode from 2,400-14,400.
AT&WI Write the configuration to NVRAM location #1.
[NOTE: those commands marked ** have a handwritten note indicating error. I do not know what this means].
Now that you have purchased and set your system up, it is time to make it work. I recommend the following procedure:
1. Call 611 and ask how you sound, and listen to how they sound. Keep them on the line for a couple of minutes with idle chat to see if the line remains clear. You can stand some noise, but there are limits. The cleaner the connection, the higher the baud rate that can be sustained, so there is no such thing as good enough - better is faster.
2. Log onto the guest account as described in the Internet Provider Setup section and make sure that everything is working. You should be able to log on at 4800 baud. If no guest account is available, simply call your Internet provider's number from a standard terminal program but don't attempt to log on, just sit there and watch for garbage.
3. Following the instructions and register into the Internet Provider's system at 4800 baud.
4. If you have problems, DO NOT tell them that you are a cellular user. They will instantly attribute all of your problems to cellular and won't address the actual problems.
5. Remember to use the *DATA (*3282) modem bridge provided by your cellular carrier, if one is available. This will probably double your baud rate! To make this work smoothly, you may need to enter this sequence as though it is the way to dial an outside line, as a phone credit card, or other means available via the software you are using.
Baud rate guide: 1200 baud: Some older modems, as used on the DICE BBS, only do V.42 at 1200 baud. Hence, higher speeds are not possible with these systems.
2400 baud: If there is any ability to send data, 2400 baud works.
4800 baud: This requires a reasonably undistorted and only slightly noisy connection.
7200 baud: Possible over a normal "clean" connection.
9600 baud: Possible only over a perfect connection to a node with a wire line connection to the cellular carrier's main switching system. While 9600 baud can work with poorer connections, the throughput quickly degrades due to retransmissions.
14400 baud: I have used this speed, but the actual throughput was only about half due to retransmissions.
19200 baud: You can sometimes connect at this speed, but it is definitely not worth using due to retransmissions.
In summary, speed can be jacked up to about twice the fully functional speed of the cellular connection. However, throughput does not improve due to retransmissions. However, if the connection degrades slightly, operation ceases, the system times out, and your work is lost. Hence, select a speed where the byte transmission counts proceed smoothly. If you see that your file transmissions often stop for many seconds, you are running too fast. When convenient, stop, log off, drop your speed, and log back on.
Typical Strange Problems:
Q. I tried to log into the guest account, and got a nearly continuous high- speed blast of garbage. What's wrong?
A. There are some obscure modems that require some command to enable V.42. If this is the case, include it in the init string of your modem program. However, your problems may not be over, since these modem manufacturers often default disable those features that don't quite work correctly. Otherwise, underneath the sticker on one of those large chips in your modem you will discover a Rockwell chip. The modem manufacturers know about the problems with Rockwell chips, so they cover them up with stickers! Your only hope here is to trash the modem and get one as described in the Modem Selection section.
Q. Everything works fine, but every time I send E-Mail, it stops after 2 or 3K and the system times out. What's Wrong?
A. Your connection to the computer is not as good as your connection from the computer. Things are barely working going to the computer, with data going at typing speed (or slower) due to retransmissions.
This was no problem sending commands, but when you tried to send thousands of characters, the process could not be completed in an acceptable amount oftime. Drop your speed.
Q. I have a sold 4-bar connection, but I periodically loose my connection. What's wrong?
A. The S meter only shows strength, not quality. If a plane flies over and reflects a signal that only serves to degrade the signal that you are receiving, the S meter will be unchanged while the ability to send anything is lost. A better antenna will help, but not as much as you might expect. A lower speed will also help. However, this is best addressed by making sure that an alternative node is reachable. If this problem is severe, call 611 and talk with them a while to see what you can hear. You can try to get them to help, but don't expect much. They'll be amazed that you are doing as well as you are. Don't tell them that you are trying to access the Internet -- they know that this is impossible!.
Q. I have a solid 4-bar connection, but periodically it drops to 1 or 2 bars. What's wrong?
A. Your main signal is being jammed as described above, and your phone has selected an alternative weaker but functional node. However, your modem may not be able to communicate over the weaker connection at the speed that you have selected, causing your net browser to go "brain dead" until the connection returns to 4 bars. The problem is that the cellular system may have decided that 2 bars is enough and not go back to the original connection! If the signal were weaker it would give you a better node, and if it were stronger then you could use it. Ultimately, this requires an antenna adjustment to make the weaker node either stronger or weaker.
Q. I keep getting General Protection Faults when using my net browser. What's wrong?
A. If you are using NetCruiser, I told you so (see Net Browser Selection). Another common cause is a shortage of RAM (less than 16MB). Otherwise, contact the supplier of your net browser and ask for assistance.
Q. Everything has been working fine for months. Suddenly I find hundreds of dollars of roaming charges on my bill. What happened?
A. You were sold out like I was. Your provider sold your area to another provider, who quietly continued to service you but at a greatly accelerated rate. They make a big press announcement expand service, but say nothing when they reduce service. This could have been avoided if you had set your phone up for "HOME ONLY" as described in the Cellular Phone Setup section above.
Q. Things were working fine last week, but I now have more disconnections with the same signal strength. How could this be?
A. There are a variety of ways that your modem init string can get clobbered. The most common is loading a new version of your net browser software. Review your modem init string to see if S10=250 and other commands are still there. Another possibility is that you antenna may need a minor adjustment.
[NOTE: The comments about not using GTE have been retracted. The Richfield’s are now using GTE services out of Hollister to get the roaming charges associated with that area in the San Benito TTN campground. GTE is the only alternative available. With GTE they are getting good signals at both San Benito TTN and Morgan Hill TTN where I am essentially unable to get a usable signal on my Nokia multimode phone. This GTE coverage is limited to central CA, the Bay Area, and the north coast. It does not extend to southern CA or the Sacramento area. Those are roaming areas.]
[I checked at the GTE store in Hollister about plans. Typical monthly charges (in a 1 year commitment plan) are $30 base, $15 for 150 minutes prime time, plus $11 for 1,000 minutes off time, for a total of $56 plus tax per month. They go up to $80 for 1,000 minutes prime time. Extra time in the home area is the same as roaming. Roaming fees are $0.38 within CA, outside CA they are $0.99/minute. They sell a Motorola bag phone for $175 with the plan, and there is a $10 setup fee.]