Blackberry WAP Browsing on XDA2 - MDA II, XDA II, 2060 General

Blackberry WAP Browsing on XDA2 - MDA II, XDA II, 2060 General

I believe a number of us are using Blackberry on our XDAII.
However, we have only Email Push/Pull and Lookup services.
Has anyone gotten WAP browsing to work as well on top of the blackberry service?
Note that I am not talking about setting up a separate GPRS setting for WAP browsing. I have unlimited GPRS Blackberry service and would like to tap on to the same scheme w/o additional charges.

Related

FREE GPRS

Hi,
Have anyone experience free GPRS?

I DO
Yes I have and still on it 8)
Its free somehow? :?:
Anyone else have got it too?

What do you mean, all GPRS is free, isn't it? :shock:

GPRS Data Plan
No, GPRS isn't free. You need to go into a data plan
depending on the network that operates it. Nothing
is free in this world especially with telecomunication.
Some might have Free GPRS maybe on a trial run etc.

on my nokia i have a BT genie simcards this gives me unlimited wap and gprs for free also 300txts per month its not the newer 02 online sim they only allow 300min of wap/gprs....
anyway i used to use gprs on wa all the time on my 3510i then i got my xda...
using the GPRS connection for the net dont work for me but yet works with the wap explorer but if i use my wap dialup conection i get free internet useasge but i think its only like 20kb/s which is quite cool really shame it dont work on gprs though

John - just goes to show how little you know about what you're posting on then, doesn't it?

Quest
Hi Anon,
Are you trying to tell me you can get free GPRS
on your O2xda? I would love to know how you do it
then......that is if you care to share here.

WAP over GPRS on O2 incurs no charge, you need to speak to your network as this is not something that is true across all networks.

Quest
Dont worry, I already found a way to use GPRS on my
O2Xda surfing the internet for FREE.

Would you care to illuminate the rest of us Quest? We like free!

Free Mobile Web
Does Anyone know how i can get Free Mobile Web over GPRS. If anyone does then PLEASE let me know.

Did you know the word "gullible" does not appear in any dictionary?

Free GPRS (maybe...)
I sometimes hear that if you configure the WAP/MMS access point name instead of the internet one, you may get fee connectivity since WAP is usually billed on the service level, and MMS is billed per transaction. If you don't get IP, you may be able to get free mobile-to-mobile traffic, or maybe even find a proxy which will allow browsing.
I'm just relaying what I heard here. I have not tested anything, I do not recommend doing this, and I definitely recommend not assuming something is free until you get the bill. Your mileage may vary beyond all comprehension.

I found some web pages talked about o2 offering free WAP and txt messages... also mention of o2 as genie etc. This may all be old news?
O2 Wap / Mobile Internet settings:
Homepage: http://wap.O2.co.uk/
Dialup access number: 915000
Gateway (IP) address: 193.113.200.195
Username: O2wap
Password: password
Session type: Continuous / permanent
Port number: 9201
http://www.filesaveas.com/psionwap.html

Freebies
Hi.
I have the old genie free wap access too. Until about a month ago, O2 allowed access through port 80 (WEB http) and 6201 (Wap wsp) but they have just blocked port 80 so I can now only get the crappy o2 active site and for anyhing else i need to go through the 'find' option at the bottom of the o2 Active site. Problem is I can't get half the bloomin' wap sites I used to get and I resent having to use the active home page to view anything, I don't like moaning because I only pay £10 a month and get free wap dialup over gsm (no gprs) but i think it's a bit below the belt to just block me. anyone else having this problem?
Is there anyway to tunel through 6201 or can I use a different proxy for http traffic (o2 give 193.113.200.195, which has stopped working) cos I'd like to be able to get my active sync working mobile again.
HELP ME!!!!!!

my gprs is almost free... $4.99USD/month
only ports 80/110/25/995/443 and some other port are open though... enough for me.

Re: Freebies
Hi, This is my first posting on this forum, so I hope I understand the question properly. I'm using a very old Genie (O2) SIM card. This gives no GPRS, but practically unlimited GSM (cellular line) dialup WAP access via shortcode 915000 or 07712927927.
Username o2wap
Password password
My GSM WAP proxy settigs are:
HTTP 193.113.200.195 Port 8080
WAP 193.113.200.195 Port 9201
SECURE WAP 193.113.200.200 Port 9203
SOCKS 193.113.200.195 Port 1080
I'm using an i-Mate PDA 2K (Blue Angel)
I can surf WAP and web pages, including some secure servers, e.g. Amazon, but since some time last month, it hasn't let me log in to this forum or my internet banking account.
I find sometimes my links to WAP pages in Favourites stop working; they work again after I delete and re-create them. I find links to WAP pages only work if they begin wsp://
and I suspect mine got changed to http:// during synchronisation with ActiveSync.
Hope this helps
John
Posted using i-Mate PDA 2K (Blue Angel)
ROM VERSION 1.12.22 WWE
ROM DATE 09/27/04
EXTROM 1.12.134 WWE
RADIO VERSION 1.02.00
PROTOCOL VERSION 1337.32

outz said:
my gprs is almost free... $4.99USD/month
only ports 80/110/25/995/443 and some other port are open though... enough for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With the current weakness of the dollar, $4.95 will get you about 1.2MB of GPRS use in rip-off britain with rip-off O2 currently!
Nigel

Tmo USA 'Allyoucaneat"data for $19.99 per month. It's a brave New World!! :wink:..... but then the TV isn't that great...

geting wap on the xda 2s
hi im new to this, i have a XDA 2s using o2 payasyougo. i get 300 free wap time and 2mb GPRS. i have no problem connecting to WAP and GPRS but i cant seem to view any web pages or WAP pages. nothing loads up or it just says error conecting to server. i installed a WAP browser Klondike but even that doesnt load anything up not even 02Active. But i can view web and WAP pages through "MobileWeb" connection settings, but that CHARGES ALOT PLEASE HELP...

XDA IIs POP3 over GPRS ?

Im sure this is a fairly basic question for you guys buy here Go’s!
I have recently become the proud owner of an XDA IIs , Question is I have set up my GPRS settings as per instructions from O2, So web browsing, text and MMS all seems to be fine, However is it also possible to access my POP3 account via GPRS / LAN ??
Account in question is an easilymail account server address “customermail.easily.co.uk “ seems to work if I swap back to dial up and access via wanadoo / yahoo dial up
(O2 access is PAYG online 300)
Any thoughts / help much appreciated

You can't access a pop account via GPRS, you have to access it through O2's Mobile web service. You should have the settings in your IIs

it depend on the network you use i can recieve my mails from my normal internet pop3 mail box but i cant send them over SMTP
which i asume is because my cellphone network block the ports of SMTP but not pop3

O2 UK have 2 different types of GPRS access WAP & Mobile WEB.
Normally you would use the O2 Mobile Web GPRS settings to get full internet access. Unfortunatly this is not available to O2 PAYG customers only contract/post pay customers. As a PAYG customer you can only use the WAP GPRS.
Its something i have had a row with them recently. I always knew it was not available but on the online info for the PAYG it clearly stated that the free 1MB GPRS was for WAP & WEB access. But after complaining and even telling them if it is true then they are false advertising and i would be complaining to trading standards they confirmed its not available.
They have even now restricted Dialup GSM WAP access to WAP only. That used to provide full internet access although at the slower speed of 9600. My contract sim gives me 500 free GSM WAP minutes and the online PAYG cards my wife and daughter use give 300 GSM WAP Minutes with the £10 topup. So i made quite a lot of use of it originally.
If you don't mind the extra hassle there are some wap email sites that will grab and display your pop email for you.
wsp://mail2web.com/pda/
That is actually PDA formatted instead of wap formatted. You can also access it from PC but just change the wsp:// to http://
Hope this helps
[/url]

Probably teaching granny to suck eggs here but just in case you don't know, the SMTP server for O2 uk is smtp.o2.co.uk
using this with your incoming email server should allow you to send as well as receive when using UK O2 mobile web tariff. This obviously won't work via WiFi but U should still be able to receive.

T-Mobile USA GPRS cannot reach google web sites

I signed up for the T-Mobile USA internet (GPRS) few days ago.
I could establish the connection using my Universal.
I could browse most web sites, and could download emails from my company exchange server and Hotmail.
Only one strange thing, i could never download emails from Gmail. It will go to the login process, and when it reaches the Sending and Receiving... it will go forever.
I also noticed that I could not browse any google.com web sites including www.google.com, mail.google.com, news.google.com etc..
I tried to get T-Mboile technical support help but it has been useless and helpless. Somebody told me that it might be something to do with the MTU size that the T-Mobile network can pass along today.
If I swicth over the connection to Wifi or dial up via GSM, I can reach everything including Gmail and Google web sites just fine, from the same device (Universal).
Any one, that uses T-Mobile USA GPRS as well, can you please help?
Thanks.

hey I have t-mobile usa also but with the PDA2K (BlueAngel) when I was running WM5.0 and now back to 2003se I had no problems connecting to google.com/pda but I do know that their is a registry hack to make it go to the default google.com but I wouldn't advise it, becuase it interfeirs with other web sites.
Also T-Mobile has 2 data plans WAP and Total Internet the wap is limited to wap sites and such but the other is open to all sites, check your settings to make sure you are connecting to GPRS and not WAP.....
The difference is like 20 or 30 a month though
WAP 19.99 or 9.99
GPRS 29.99 and up for MyMail or VPN MyMail

I have the full GPRS (the new name: Total Internet for $30). Now its bundled with the hotspot and they are not longer offering the $20 for GPRS only.
Can you tell me what access point you set in your device? Mine is set to wap.voicestream.com and use no proxy. i noticed some ppl posted before that they proxy instead.
Thanks.

your connection is incorrect if you notice it is set to wap. even though you have the total internet that is only connecting you to the wap
your access point should be
internet2.voicestream.com or
internet3.voicestream.com
I used 3 on WM5 and it was fine I also use 3 on wm2003se

negative. I could connect to internet2.voicestream.com but not internet3.voicestream.com
internet2.voicestream.com gives me exactly same result.
I can connect to any websites but not google.com with both wap.voicestream.com as well as internet2.voicestream.com
very strange. anybody in Texas particularly has same issue?

I'm out of Massachusetts, but was in Dallas a few days ago and had no problem connecting to Google. I use internet2.voicestream.com

This issue has been driving me nuts for 6 months. I've been trying to nail down the problem, I'm wondering if it's a regional setting with T-mobile's servers or incorrect account set ups. Some people with other Universals and Wizards in other area's claim they do not have this problem.
Here's a general thread on Ho-fo that's been getting some hits, when I posted about it here on XDA forums there wasn't much response.
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=605044
I actually have a couple friends how work for T-mob that thought the problem was with my JasJar until they got ahold of the MDA and discovered the exact same problem.
I've emailed google, just got a response saying they would forward the concern to their tech's. Please share any info or response you get so we can try to get this resolved!!

I've actually had the same problem and I'm on Cincinnati Bell (which is also Cingular & AT&T). I used to be able to connect with no problem on my PDA2k but with the Universal I can't connect. Actually, I've been able to hit the www.google.com/pda site and type in a search but then it just sits & spins forever.

I have the same problem with my MDA from T-mobile. It only happens sometimes. It always connect to google and m.gmail when using wi-fi, but is very hit or miss when connected over GPRS.
Thats the least of my problems however, as I am constantly getting dropped from the GPRS data network even with full coverage, and I'm in the NYC area. I have alerted T-mobile to both problems and am considering turning in my device since i still have a week to do so not because of the device but because of the connection issues with the network.
This has been a bit of a nightmare when it comes to email, because I came from using a blackberry where all my accounts were instantly pushed, to this now when sometime i get email, sometimes not, my Gmail doesnt work properly, and it can take a half an hour for the email to finally reach me.

No problems here
I have no problems connecting to Google.com from my Blue Angel, or from my friend's Wizard. I'm still waiting for my Universal.
I don't have Total Internet Plan, though. I just have the T-Zones hack: In Settings/Connections/Connections, go to "Edit my proxy server" and select "Advanced". HTTP server should be set to 216.155.165.50:8080. Any other HTTP settings should be cleared.
I've noticed in the past two days, however, that Google seems to have changed what it considers a "mobile device", based on the client's User-Agent string. It goes to www.google.com/xhtml if it detects a mobile device. Previously it went to www.google.com/pda , but for a smaller number of devices. Google's "mobile" page has fewer links on it, and is not as useful as the main page.
I use NetFront 3.2, which allows me to change the User-Agent string to make it look like a desktop browser. Today I changed it to:
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; en) Opera 8.51
I also changed the language/platform to en/x86.
This seems to make Google go back to the normal page.
But no connectivity problems are happening with GPRS. I can search Google, browse results, search newsgroups, search News, etc.
There was an T-mobile outage reported in California last week (search HowardForums). Perhaps this is related (routing issues?).
PS: It seems to depend on the User-Agent, whether www.google.com/pda or www.google.com/xhtml is used. If I run Pocket Internet Explorer, it still goes to /pda (searches work fine). If I run NetFront with factory settings, it goes to /xhtml. If I run Opera, or change Netfront as above, then it goes to the Google main page. In no cases does it have problems connecting. Response is a little faster on the main page, though, which would seem to indicate that Google Mobile does something which is slower.
[rant]
Google saying that they "don't support T-Mobile devices with Google Mobile" is like saying "best viewed with xxx browser". The phone provider should have no effect on the usability. Nor should Google have to go out of their way to provide a different experience for Mobile users, or to second-guess their needs based on a User-Agent string -- anyone with any browser should be able to use Google, and nothing special should be done for mobile.
I say disable Google Mobile, by changing the User-Agent.
[/rant]

I have a T-Mobile MDA with the Total Internet plan and Google works fine for me.

Thanks for feedback folks. This isn't a new issue, I've had this problem for 6 months. I currently have my user agent set to IE 5.5/NT so that I can access my bank web page, I've tried several combinations of user-agent settings with no luck, can you explain the exact changes I'd need to make to try your current setting?
Also, I'm hoping that when Netfront releases a WM5 compatible version I can run through a proxy server (which I've also heard solves the problem).

This is with Blue Angel (SX66), WM2003, T-Mobile T-Zones proxy, NetFront 3.2, so your mileage may vary. I will be getting an O2 Exec any day now.
Tools/Browser Setting/Misc/User Agent/Edit
Title: (anything you want to call it)
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; en) Opera 8.51
appName: (blank)
appVersion: (blank)
appCodeName: (blank)
language/platform: en / x86
Tools/Browser Setting/Network/Proxy (T-Zones only, not Total Internet)
Use Proxy: (checked)
Proxy (hostort) 216.155.165.50:8080
Note that NetFront 3.3 is coming out soon. I'm sure it will support WM5.0, but right now Access says "(* Its verification is not completed.)"
Have you tried Opera? It works with T-Zones proxy, at least in WM2003, if you set the proxy in the GPRS Connection Settings.
It might be worth trying the T-Zones hack. Go to My T-Mobile, log in, and then go to this T-Zones page (if that does not work, go to "Plan&Services, Learn About Services, Communication, T-Zones"). Add T-Zones (aka T-MobileWeb) to your plan. Then you should be able to use the proxy as described above. You can remove it later if you don't want to pay the $6/month extra. Some people have even reported being able to add it and remove it immediately, but keep the services.

I tested to connect to the internet via T-Mobile GPRS with my universal as a USB modem hooked up to my laptop.
And it gives a totally different behaviour compared when used directly from the Universal (with pocket IE and Mail application).
Besides a decent speed, I could browse to google, perform search etc, everything seems to work perfectly (from my laptop, Universal as a USB modem). When I browse the same thing again from the Universal, same problem occured again, never get any search result back from google, and GMail will stuck in the step "Sending and Receiving..." which will go forever until it times out.
I also tested with my Wallaby the same thing to make sure its not the device problem, and it turned out the same problem exists also.
I really could not pin point where the problem is. Please help to think, folks. Its not the device problem? Is it T-Mobile GPRS network problem? Or what?

Are there packet sniffers for PPC? Something like tcpdump, traceroute, ping? That would be my next step. See where it's hung up.

There are some PPC tools for that stuff, I played with an app called TCPTune (I think) but couldn't accomplish anything, I'm totally ignorant of the network stuff.

Re: No problems here
leek said:
In Settings/Connections/Connections, go to "Edit my proxy server" and select "Advanced". HTTP server should be set to 216.155.165.50:8080. Any other HTTP settings should be cleared.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Holly crap I made this change (still with full Tmob internet plan) and a few registry edits based on your Netfront settings (probably butchered my registry) and manually forced a connection via my WAP settings and THEN LOADED GOOGLE OVER GPRS!! FULL HTML GOOGLE, NEWS GMAIL, IMAGES, ON MY JASJAR VIA GPRS OMG!! I'm really feeling very strong emotional feelings of like towards you right now Leek! :lol:
I'm having some trouble with google local not returning results (starts to load a page with a text box and then stops), not sure why but I suspect it's a problem with my hacked up user agent registry settings.
So, here's my question - I really don't mind paying the full $20 for regular GPRS (and wouldn't want to worry about full access via the $4.99 tzones going away), how do I either make this work using my regular GPRS settings (so I don't have to use an alternate connection) or how do I get the WAP settings to work as my primary settings for all programs? I was able to update my feeds and load images over this WAP settings just fine, but when I tried to check my email or load Agile messenger it tried to load my regular GPRS settings.

In order to figure out exactly which change made this work I went back and reset my PPC to a backup from last night. The only registry edits I have now are my old ones that made PIE show the version as "MSIE 5.5" & the platform as "Windows NT 5.0". Other than the changes below, I'm using the T-mobile CAB settings from i-mate.
I went into settings > connections > and below My Work Network I went to Manage existing settings and then clicked on the Proxy Settings Tab. The two check boxes were already checked but the proxy server was blank so I entered the 216.155.165.50 and then click on advanced. and it then showed that server under Type HTTP but the port was 80 not 8080, I then clicked on the HTTP server and edited the port to 8080 and then hit ok. I left all the other servers that were listed as is.
From the main Connections > Settings screen I then clicked on manage existing connections, it brought up the T-mobile WAP connection and then I click-held on that and selected connect. I then loaded PIE, navigated to Google and grinned as it loaded everything.
Under this connection type most other web pages I've been trying work fine, although some (like howard forums and search.yahoo.com) don't work. *edit hofo might be down right now*
The problem I was having initally with Google local (via web, haven't tried the local java app) is resolved and it now loads fine, as I suspected it must have been my hacked up user agent registry settings. I'm now also able to check and send POP email with this WAP connection, Agile Messenger connects to the servers.
Big thanks to leek for posting this fix here, now how can I make this my default connection and should I try to downsize my account to just the $5 tzones account?

found how to make it the default connection method (connections > settings > advanced > select networks > and then set the top drop down to "my work network".
Leek, buddy, I owe you a case of beer... This had been driving me nuts for 6 months, you solved it!!!

hi galt and leek,
I'm so excited to read that you guys succesfully solved this.
i could not try it out anymore, I changed my T-Mobile plan yesterday, I removed my total internet plan as I don't want to pay $30 per month without even able to access my primary email account: Gmail and google around.
SO, can you give summary again how to make this works?
I assume no extra application to install beside all standard application built in WM5.
Pls clarify:
1. Get T-MobileWeb /t-zones plan ($5.99)
2. set the proxy setting for HTTP with the port 8080 and left others empty (including the SOCKS, WAP)
3. Use the APN: wap.voicestream.com
Do I miss anything? Any reqistry setting I have to make?
That's it? And you can have full access to the internet? Can you clarify if Gmail is working via POP3?
I tried the proxy setting when I still had my total Internet plan but it did not work out. :`(

GPRS restrictions

Which networks have their GPRS unrestricted? I'm currently on o2 and want to get my e-mail (Home e-mail server) on the move but o2 only allow you to access your o2 email address items. I moved from Virgin due to my parents complaining they could never get hold of me. I'm thinking of Orange because they have a similar choice to o2 of free texts when you top up, but am wondering is their GPRS unrestricted? Could I access my email on it?
Thanks,
Karl

You will need to use the Orange server for your outgoing email but you can download from any mail server - I know because that's what I do.

Thanks for your input TB. Am I right in thinking Orange's GPRS charge is £3/MB? I believe o2 is £2.35, but they do not allow access to other email servers except their own? Or am I wrong there and have been mislead by the internet?

I did have a tarriff of £1 per MB but I have switched to unlimited evening/weekend data for £5 per month.
The mail server thing at O2 seems to be a real pain. It's reasonable for them to expect you to use their outgoing server but on an unfettered internet connection, just about ANY incoming mail server should be fine, as is the case with Orange.

Is WAP still in use?

Hello everyone,
First off, I apologize if this is the wrong type of question, but you are the only community I know that has the knowledge of the technical details am I looking for. I have asked this in several communities but failed to deliver a proper question and get a proper response. In any case, if you are about to delete this post, please direct me to a more appropriate community.
Here is my train of thought, I hope you can follow:
So, I have this presentation about the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) which I am having a hard time finding any recent news. All I can find is old articles about WML 2.1 and new phones that support WAP.
The more I search the more I start thinking that WAP is a thing of the past. But the problem is that I am not sure if this is correct. If it is dying, what is replacing it?
The WAP is a stack of 5 protocols. The top one is the application layer which includes the WML language. Under WAP are the various wireless interfaces (CDMA, EDGE, etc). WAP browsers send requests to WAP gateways in order to view a website which is written in (or translated to) WML. So far, so good.
What about Opera Mini??? This a browser designed for mobile phones that is capable of reading HTML (to a degree). How does Opera Mini access the internet? My guess is that it is not using WAP, but the standard TCP/IP stack. Can a cell phone (not a smart phone) use the TCP/IP stack? Is it powerful enough? What about Mobile IP? Is it TCP/Mobile IP?
I know that WAP is still in use. Motorola recently announced a series of low budget cell phones that are WAP-enabled. But doesn't the speed of 3G and the average phone with WiFi support renders WAP useless?
So, I guess my question is: if a mobile phone today (both cell phones and smart phones) access a website using a HTML-capable web browser, does it use the standard TCP/IP stack, a mobile version of it, or each phone has a proprietary model?
Am I even making sense??? :S
Thank you for your patience.

there are still wap pages out there but doubt that will inc
if your network operator support it wap pages will work in any browser
just as ugly www pages

Parts of WAP are still in use, however the majority of it has been replaced.
As I understand it the first version of WAP required special gateways and didn't use HTTP as the application layer. WAP 2.0 however dropped all this rubbish, and just went with HTTP.
In regards to the wireless protocols, the GSM protocols GPRS and EDGE are still used when there is no 3G signal available, however 3G is the preferred method. I don't believe there are any operators who only provide a 3G service without GSM fallback. 3G networks typically use a packet-switched network design for data services, similar to the internet.
The format of the pages themselves is another interesting one. The majority of 'mobile sites' nowadays just use regular HTML, or a subset of it. There are a few different XHTML standards targeted at mobile devices. The level of support varies greatly between handsets, however practically all phones made in the last five years will support some sort of CSS. WML is a markup language designed for WAP usage, however AFAIK it is basically not used now. I don't believe smart phones (Android at least) even support rendering WML pages. WML is an even stricter subset of HTML, and to be honest I don't really think is worth bothering with
Hope this helps, if you want some clarification of anything let me know!

thelucster said:
Parts of WAP are still in use, however the majority of it has been replaced.
As I understand it the first version of WAP required special gateways and didn't use HTTP as the application layer. WAP 2.0 however dropped all this rubbish, and just went with HTTP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was exactly what I wanted to find out. Thank you very much.
So, if I understand this correctly, when a mobile application wants to access a website with standard HTTP, it still uses the WAP 2.0 Stack; correct? If this is true, then Android or iPhone, or WinMo, or the rest, all have the WAP 2.0 stack embedded in their OS? Or is the WAP stack old and it has been replaced by proprietary TCP/IP implementations?
I think I am a little confused :S
thelucster said:
WML is a markup language designed for WAP usage, however AFAIK it is basically not used now. I don't believe smart phones (Android at least) even support rendering WML pages. WML is an even stricter subset of HTML, and to be honest I don't really think is worth bothering with
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, WML was for WAP 1.0. WAP 2.0 supports XHTML Mobile Profile. So since there is no WAP 1.0 there is probably no WML also.
thelucster said:
Hope this helps, if you want some clarification of anything let me know!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It indeed helped. Thank you very much.

Hi, this thread has some factual errors, so figured it may be valuable for someone who looks for information and ends up here, to have a set of good information available in the thread.
kimolias said:
So, if I understand this correctly, when a mobile application wants to access a website with standard HTTP, it still uses the WAP 2.0 Stack; correct? If this is true, then Android or iPhone, or WinMo, or the rest, all have the WAP 2.0 stack embedded in their OS? Or is the WAP stack old and it has been replaced by proprietary TCP/IP implementations?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not sure what "mobile applications" that want to access websites you are talking about. The typical apps available on a device from the factory that need to connect somewhere are Browser, MMS and Email applications. Of these, the Browser is the one that wants to access a website and the browser has built-in the protocols it needs.
And also to clarify lets make it clear that WAP specs includes both specs for markup language (how to display the content) as well as transport protocols (how to send/get the data). But, for this post I will only comment on the data transport protocols and completely ignore the markup languages (WML, xHTML-MP and HTML) and how or where they are used.
BROWSER
Let's split the Browser into two types of browser first, to make things a little more clear.
1) WEB Browser
2) WAP Browser
The WEB Browser uses the "regular" HTTP protocol to connect directly to webserver (on top of TCP/IP provided by the operating system) to get content.
The WAP Browser can use WAP 1.2 (Wireless Session Protocol/Wireless Transaction Layer) to connect to a WAP Gateway, and the WAP Gateway in turn uses regular HTTP to get the content from the webserver.
The WAP Browser can use WAP 2.0 (Mobile Profile HTTP) to connect to a WAP Proxy, and the WAP Proxy uses regular HTTP to get the content from the webserver.
I do not want to make this confusing by even mentioning the secured versions of the above, cause it's messy.

MMS (a.k.a picture messaging)
Multimedia Messaging also uses WAP. When a MMS Message is sent to a cellphone recipient, the cellphone actually only receives a SMS message (a.k.a. text message) which includes a Notification that a new MMS message exists. Then, the cellphone must open a data connection (GPRS,3G, CDMA or whatever the device/carrier uses) and then use WAP 1.2 or WAP 2.0 to connect to a WAP Proxy or WAP Gateway and then use that connection to download the actual MMS Message. When sending messages the cellphone also uses WAP 1.2 or WAP 2.0 and WAP Gateway/Proxy to deliver the message to the carriers MMSC (Multimedia messaging center).
EMAIL
Email has it's own set of data transport protocols. Depending on the users account it could use protocols like POP3 or IMAP to receive and manage the arriving emails. To send, it could use the SMTP protocol. Unless, it's a Microsoft Exchange email client and uses MS proprietary protocols.
Conclusion so far: As you can see, "mobile apps" can use a variety of protocols to get or send data over wireless connections. Generally the only thing they have in common is that they all ride on top of TCP/IP and the operating system creates that TCP/IP layer on top of the wireless technology (GSM/CDMA/3G/4G/WiFI etc) connection.
To return to the original question of whether WAP still is in use (in 2010), the answer is that WAP in use in almost every handset on the market and doing well. However, it is the WAP protocol stack that today is the important part of the technology. WAP 2.0 pages (xHTML-MP formatted) are also very common and ringtone delivery pages etc all use this over WAP connections as this way the carriers can charge for the content with your monthly bill. Without it, they can't control the payments and credit cards or other means must be use.
Further, if you buy a ringtone or similar by sending a text somewhere, you get a WAP Push message in return with a link for downloading the content. This link would not work over regular HTTP as then the carrier can't track if you downloaded the content you paid for or not.
For Android or Meego or other "new" popular platforms, the OEM maufacturers of devices can buy the WAP Stack's for WAP connectivity or MMS from companies like Winwap Technologies (winwap.com) that specifically provide such technolgy for the manfuacturer.
In the end, the consumer does not need to know if HTTP, WAP or something else is used as long as they get what they paid for and want.
Hope this helps somebody?
Cheers,
Aaron (a developer of mobile that's been around too long...)

TEXT, MMS, and Email formats
I may not be using the proper verbage however I am hoping the process/question is clear.
Are the different protocols used for the three above needed for actual transport of the specific message types etc?
I am assuming the phone / computer / ??? has the protocol to play/view. Could they all be sent via sms text type format. Message plus attachment sent via wifi? once reaching destination program opens them ?
I am sure you woule need applet and servlet but is there a protocol that can do that without using a cellconnection plus data connection?

t_galownia said:
TEXT, MMS, and Email formats
Are the different protocols used for the three above needed for actual transport of the specific message types etc?
I am assuming the phone / computer / ??? has the protocol to play/view. Could they all be sent via sms text type format. Message plus attachment sent via wifi? once reaching destination program opens them ?
I am sure you woule need applet and servlet but is there a protocol that can do that without using a cellconnection plus data connection?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Generally anything is possible if you have access to the infrastructure. But, if you are not a telecom carrier or big enough OEM manufacturer - your only choice is to use what is available.
EMAIL: WiFi is fine for email, but you still need to run SMTP on top of WiFi to send the actual email to some SMTP server.
MMS: WiFi is not fine for MMS, unless you have MM7 or other special access to the telecom operators MMS Center.
TEXT: WiFi can not be used. TEXT (correctly called SMS or Short Message Service) uses it's own protocol that's built into the GSM/CDMA protocols. Impossible to send over WiFi unless you use WiFi to send to your own server where you have an actual wireless modem that sends out the TEXT (or again; you can probably pay your telecom carrier and spend money to build a system that let's you send your TEXT over WiFi to some server that handles the rest for you).
hope this helps...

Excellent feedback
abbe-dev said:
Hi, this thread has some factual errors, so figured it may be valuable for someone who looks for information and ends up here, to have a set of good information available in the thread.
I am not sure what "mobile applications" that want to access websites you are talking about. The typical apps available on a device from the factory that need to connect somewhere are Browser, MMS and Email applications. Of these, the Browser is the one that wants to access a website and the browser has built-in the protocols it needs.
And also to clarify lets make it clear that WAP specs includes both specs for markup language (how to display the content) as well as transport protocols (how to send/get the data). But, for this post I will only comment on the data transport protocols and completely ignore the markup languages (WML, xHTML-MP and HTML) and how or where they are used.
BROWSER
Let's split the Browser into two types of browser first, to make things a little more clear.
1) WEB Browser
2) WAP Browser
The WEB Browser uses the "regular" HTTP protocol to connect directly to webserver (on top of TCP/IP provided by the operating system) to get content.
The WAP Browser can use WAP 1.2 (Wireless Session Protocol/Wireless Transaction Layer) to connect to a WAP Gateway, and the WAP Gateway in turn uses regular HTTP to get the content from the webserver.
The WAP Browser can use WAP 2.0 (Mobile Profile HTTP) to connect to a WAP Proxy, and the WAP Proxy uses regular HTTP to get the content from the webserver.
I do not want to make this confusing by even mentioning the secured versions of the above, cause it's messy.

Database Users

welcome