Greetings. I am a new user to XDA but a longtime reader and geek who uses and is well familiar with multiple desktop and mobile OS's. I say this because the problem I am writing about is possibly the most confusing I have ever faced. In fact, if it wasn’t happening to me personally I would swear it was impossible, so please read on. I would be grateful for any – any – ideas. I will attempt to describe the problem and my troubleshooting steps as clearly and concisely as possible – but it’s a weird problem so needs some discussion.
PRECIS: Samsung Galaxy S II intermittently loses ability to connect to and sync with IMAP servers, BUT ONLY intermittently and ONLY on one particular mobile network. Much testing has been performed as detailed in this post.
HARDWARE / OS: Galaxy S II originally purchased on contract from Three UK, unlocked, and currently running Android 2.3.4, debranded to XXKG5 firmware and generic CSC XEU.
SIMs USED: Roshan (Afghanistan) pay-as-you-go and AT&T (USA) contract with unlimited international data.
SYNOPSIS: I have good data connectivity (slow EDGE, but generally reliable) from the local Afghan provider Roshan using my PAYG SIM. I am able to set up both of my IMAP accounts, have them log in, sync, send mail, etc, but after an indeterminate amount of time, routinely lose the ability to connect at all. However, all other data services and syncing continue to work fine (web browsing, Gmail, calendar, contacts etc) – only IMAP connectivity is broken. No errors appear, but mail just stops coming. Once this has occurred, the only thing that seems to correct the problem is time – it will eventually start working again, but is by no means reliable. Changing how often the accounts check for new mail has no effect. A change to Wi-Fi restores connectivity to the IMAP servers immediately, but then the problem returns over the Roshan mobile network. Yet, I can swap in my AT&T SIM and all works fine immediately, reliably, and never displays the problem. The IMAP connectivity issue exists only with my Roshan PAYG SIM, and only after some amount of time.
HARDWARE TROUBLESHOOTING: The phone and IMAP have worked fine on multiple networks in multiple countries. In the UK, on 3UK and Orange. In the UAE, on Etisalat and du – all with good HSDPA connections. In Afghanistan, the AT&T SIM connects usually to Etisalat but other networks as well, all with EDGE data where available. (Unfortunately for scientific testing, AT&T does not allow connection to Roshan.) And also in Afghanistan, my PAYG Roshan SIM works fine with everything EXCEPT the IMAP problem. Altogether, it seems the GS2 itself works as advertised.
MOBILE NETWORK (ROSHAN) TROUBLESHOOTING: The exact same PAYG Roshan SIM which causes the problem in the GS2 allows a reliably-syncing connection (and servers automatically detected, BTW) over the same mobile network to the same servers using my old iPhone 3G running iOS 4.2.1. Likewise, my boss has perfect service to these servers using this same network with his Roshan PAYG SIM in my old Nexus One on Android 2.3.4. And, my GS2 does fine on this network for all except IMAP.
ANDROID OS TROUBLESHOOTING: In an effort to troubleshoot a potential glitch in the OS, I have flashed multiple versions. The Roshan/IMAP problem exists on both the 3UK-branded H3GKF4 2.3.3 as well as generic XXKG5 2.3.4. And again, a Nexus One running 2.3.4 on the Roshan network does fine also – incidentally also in my office, so at least theoretically connected to the same cell path.
EMAIL CLIENT TROUBLESHOOTING: In an effort to isolate a fault with the Samsung email client, I purchased and installed Enhanced Email, with both 2.3.3 and 2.3.4 installed. Same results: fine on Wi-Fi, fine with AT&T, unreliable in both clients with Roshan PAYG SIM.
(LACK OF) CONCLUSION: Can it be possible that I have uncovered a ridiculously obscure bug? How can just one data service type (IMAP) be affected on just one network (Roshan) yet all other services are fine, and the IMAP problem does not exist with other SIM’s and/or networks? Is there anything something like a traceroute I could run to see what’s happening to my IMAP requests?
If you’re still reading, thanks for staying with me this far. I’m completely baffled, and frankly, more than a little frustrated that what is meant to be the best smartphone in the world can't reliably get my mail on the network I need it to, while a tired old iPhone and Nexus do so all day long. Any ideas?
Kind regards,
Adam
UPDATE: Did nothing, started working
All --
For the past two workdays, IMAP email has arrived in both the Samsung Email client (set to check every 5 minutes) and Enhanced Email (set to check every 10) on the Roshan mobile network. I have done absolutely nothing to cause this to happen.
Of course I am very pleased all is working as advertised, but the episode has still somewhat tarnished my previously stellar opinion of this phone and diminished my trust in it to a degree. Regardless, I'm glad. If the problem resurfaces, I will repost here.
I suspect the reader will agree that "it just started working" isn't a very satisfying fix, so if someone else experiences a similar issue with IMAP and/or knows more about how it works, I would really like to learn. Feel free to drop me a line on <<[myxdausername] at gmail dot com>>.
Kind regards,
Adam
Related
This is an interesting subject to me as the company I work for is acutally in the business of providing a service just as being discussed.
I'm not going to turn this into an advert, but let me give you a quick overview of our service. We run a fully mananged network which connects to a customers office network and to the 4 major MNO's in the UK (plus a few outside the UK, and were expanding). We have at least two private AP's on each MNO plus terminals can connect via a VPN over the internet. We support a number of terminals (mainly from HTC from the Wallaby to the Prophet, but also some from Panasonic, Symbol and Intermec) that connect VIA GPRS but also through GSM DUN as a fallback.
I've worked on the terminal side for about 7 years, I've been involved in development of most areas of the code at one time or another, but for a long time I was responsible for the module that is responsible for connecting to and maintaining the connection to either the MNO network (our AP's or the Public AP) or our own network (via GSM).
The one thing I've learned while doing this is that you can't rely on the MNO for anything. We've had MNO's disconnect us from AP's without warning, we've had IP connections stop passing data again without warning, we've had AP's reject a connection when out auth server told the AP to accept it.
This being true, if your claiming your software is reliable and expecting someone to bet their business on using it, you'd better make sure that it can handle all these issue. Theres nothing worse than trying to explain to a customer why his message didn't go through when both the back-end office and mobile device claim their connected.
And one last thing, and its a big one, Cost. Its easy to make a system that costs so much to run that its economically unviable. Remember every GPRS byte or GSM second costs money, so polling for messages every few seconds may not be a great idea.
Hurm....
This was supposed to be a reply to this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=43426
I have no idea how it got into its own thread...
Appologies.
That is exactly my point of veiw. Why have to be constantly connected? Its a dirty solution. The only ones who benifit from a middle man are the service providers. Thats why I have put all my effort into using what is reliable. A normal phone call.
I have spent the last 9 months creating something that can reliably transfer data over calls. When I say reliable I mean when data is sent the user will get a confirmation for each packet sent an can be 100% certain it arrived intact when with the confirmation.
Depending on the phone plan it can be cheaper than other means of communication like gprs and mms on phones. When there is no flag fall I can transfer the same data as an mms (on my account anyway) for about half the cost. In free times transmition can be free. What makes the technology usefull is the price. In Australia all forms of data transfer are VERY high, but that is not the case in other countries.
You miss my point somewhat. I don't know about Australia but here in the UK your not actually charged for having a GPRS connection up and running just for the data you transfer over it and so our GPRS connections are up all the time assuming you have coverage. Its how you manage the connection (detecting the IP layer stopping working for example) and the data that flows over it thats important.
When it comes to GSM though your right, there is no way you want to have a permanent connection up, it has to be on-demand based. That in itself leads to problems, the main being that you have to handle charging your customer for the data calls you make to the terminal. Or if you don't connect to the terminal, and it only connects to you, how does the terminal know when messages are waiting.
For us, GSM us a last-ditch solution when GPRS isn't available. However in the UK we've generally found that if you can make a GSM call you can connect to GPRS, and if GPRS is down for some reason, the whole cell is generally not available (so GSM doesn't work either). There are occasions where a hardware failure on a MNO (not at the cell but in the rest of the network) may cause GPRS to stop working but allow GSM to work but situations like that are rare and generally quickly rectified by the MNO.
Just installed Windows Live Messenger on my Hermes with WM6 and when I try to sign in I get this message:
"There is a problem with the server. Please try again later"
I can log in using eBuddy. Is this a problem with WLM or is it 3UK?
Cheers
---
3 Mobile Broadband
No Landline, No Hassle.
www.3mobilebroadband.com
www.3mb.co.uk/forums
I've got the same problem with my Trinity on swedish 3.
I just called their tech support, and according to them it should be working just fine...
I've had a call logged with Three for weeks now, and to be frank, their Indian call centre makes a chocolate teapot in the middle of a Sahara desert look like a positively sensible idea.
They keep coming back saying that they can’t help, because the TYTN II isn’t a “3G” phone (meaning a THREE BRANDED PHONE) (they don’t seem to understand the difference between “Three” and “3G”)
So, as a first off, (as this is the only reproducible easy error I’ve found so far), can I ask you to try going to www.zdnet.co.uk and see if you get a web page or and error. If you get the same error as me, which is “Request Error (Invalid Request)” then it will give me a bit more evidence to go and beat them up over again as H3G are ADAMANT that they do not block ports and don‘t monitor traffic, however, I believe they have a bluecoat proxy server monitoring everything, and they are notoriously easy to stuff up if you don’t know what you are doing with them.
Anyway, on to the Messenger problem…..
From my testing so far…….
Test 1
If you have even so much as a whiff of a Three SIM in the phone, it won’t connect to messenger over the Three Data connection OR over Active Sync.
If you connect it up over active sync or wireless with either the radio (i.e. phone) disabled, or without a Three SIM card, Messenger WILL connect using your alternative data connection (e.g. ADSL connection)
Conclusion - A Three SIM card some how stuff’s messenger (Seen a similar thread with a Vodafone SIM, but I don’t have one of those to test with).
Test 2
If you pop a T-Mobile or Orange SIM in the phone and perform the same tests, messenger is fine over either active sync, wireless or the Mobile operators data connection. Conclusion - This backups the previous conclusion that having a Three (H3G) SIM in there kills messenger.
(At this point, if anyone from marketing at T-Mobile or Orange is reading, if either of you will offer the same data mobile broadband data tariff (obviously in a working format) as Three on PAYG, we will ALL drop H3G quicker than that chocolate teapot will melt).
Test 3
Three are various custom versions of WindowsLive.cab knocking around and some of the earlier ones will actually connect (even with a Three SIM card installed) and actually work, however the Live Mail part then gets stuffed, as its not got all the features of the current Live, with the Push Mail, and the download options, but it does give a Conclusion that earlier Live messenger clients will connect.
The later ones (including Dutty’s ones) still fail to connect, so Dutty, if you are reading, and have any ideas, please feel free to chip in.
Test 4
MSN Mobile (NOT live version)
I found an earlier version of MSN Mobile, and this seems ok ish (i.e. messenger will connect, but again, you lose the nice push mail functionality)
Other Tests,
I’ve tried various combinations of various Radio and OS Rom’s and live.cab installs, without success.
Tests I’d like to try, but don’t have the hardware for
The one test I haven’t been able to try yet (and would like to) is seeing if messenger can be made to connect from a non Three device (i.e. my TYTN II, or your Hermes) whilst using a proper Three Connection.
i.e. Messenger on my TYTN II, going through Active Sync to a laptop, which in turn is connected to the Internet via a Three branded phone or USB Dongle. If That fails to connect, then it’s a fair conclusion that Three do in fact block ports, as the Dongle would be doing the connection. If it worked, then it would be fair to say that the actual SIM is causing the problem. Either Way, it would be really good solid evidence to go and get support to actually take notice.
Which would lead onto another Test, which is if there are any Three Users out there who it works, for, trying you SIM in either of our devices to prove if its some Three SIMS that are actually causing the problem.
(In techie speak, does anyone know if its possible from a SIM card to have a hosts file, or do port redirection ON THE SIM?)
I work up in London, so if by any chance, you are in that Area, please PM me, and maybe we can meet up to try and come up with ideas.
Hi gjbird999,
well i have done a few tests as suggested by you:
www.zdnet.co.uk returns "Request Erroe (invalid_request)"
WiFi ON/phone function OFF/3UK sim in - MSN messenger fails to connect.
WiFi ON/3UK sim removed - MSN messenger connects successfully!
WiFi ON/phone function OFF/3UK sim back in - MSN messenger connects successfully!
WiFi off/phone function ON/3UK sim in - MSN messenger fails to connect.
i guess this kinda proves that 3UK is blocking the ports either by mistake or deliberately the thing is MSN Live can connect to my hotmail mailbox ok to check email etc, just won't connect to MSN messenger.
I have tried calling the 3UK customer service for some other problems before and lets just say that it was amuzing enough to try get them to understand the problem let alone sorting it....
i hope you can get somewhere with them! keep us posted please!
In a sweidish TyTn II forum we are alot of people that gets the error msg There is a problem with the server. Please try again later..
Its been like this for 3-4 weeks..
I have Tre and its still not working
I have a Swedish Tele2 business telephone subscription and i can connect to MSN Live without any problems. However I got a nag about 30 days trial when starting MSN Live the first time, isn't MSN Live for free?
Edit: Tele2 is the part of Comviq used mainly by business users...
I get the same message on 3UK, strange that a sim cardstops you from using MSN when your connected via wifi!
southeastblue said:
I get the same message on 3UK, strange that a sim cardstops you from using MSN when your connected via wifi!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well i am not entirely sure about this because I did managed to connect after reinstalling the sim with the phone boot up without the phone function on, but if i just switch the phone function off then try connect with WiFi without rebooting the phone, it won't connect
using WiFi is not so much use for me because if i can access wifi, it would probably means i am at home already! I guess i can always use the webmsn but that kinda sucks...
Three tech support is on hold, and I'm back to M$ basing at the moment. But I'll try to get into the local 3 store and see what zdnet does on their "open access" 3g Cards that are totally unresticted
hiya, just wanted to post up as im in the exact same boat, 3uk contract using my own htc hermes. having the exact same problems with live as has been described here. so good luck ! if you want any help with anything i'll be happy to help
same problem in italy!!
Ive got live installed on schaps rom -
It seems MICROSOFT now want to charge me for using it - I keep getting a message saying I can use for 30 days trial period and then will have to BUY a pass to keep going.
Cmon ms Btards whats going on.
Anyone else getting this.
will think twice when upgrade time comes if it isnt free
Jon
After first emailing me back saying there were no problems, and was all my fault for not setting up the phone properly M$$$$$$$ admit there MIGHT be a problem their end (or at least with their crappy software)
Thank you for writing back to Windows Live Mobile Technical Support. This is Sheila and I understand that you are still unable to connect your HTC TyTn II device to Windows Live Messenger. I am sorry for the frustration and inconvenience.
****USERNAME****, this issue you have with Windows Live Messenger has been identified by the product team as high-priority and we want to assure you that we are working seriously on a fix for this problem. Due to the complexity of this matter we currently project weeks of testing for our engineers to resolve this issue. We understand the importance of this and we are doing everything within our means to correct the situation.
We cannot commit to a specific timeframe as to when the fix will be released. Please do bear with us regarding this matter and thank you very much for the patience you have shown. You may check with Windows Live Mobile from time to time for updates.
We appreciate your continued support as we strive to provide you with the highest quality service available. Thank you for using Windows Live Mobile.
Sincerely,
Sheila
Windows Live Mobile Technical Support
I'm also on 3UK. I was using windows live messenger fine on my E65 (not the crappy version they give you) up until about a month ago. and since switching to my hermes, I also haven't been able to use msn messenger.
i suspect its all down to 3UK.
i only say this because on my E65, no updates were installed, it just one day stopped working
just want to make an update, my SPV M3100 on 3UK network is now able to connect to MSN again, I haven't changed any settings on the phone at all, so i guess it is either 3UK sorted out their porting issues or MS did... just glad it is working again!!
As is mine
I just gave a call to Tmobile for request a unlock code. The rep. did it for me but she told me that I will not be able to update over the air and use instant messenger after unlock. I am just wondering is it true and why.
That's mostly BS I'm afraid.
1. Updates are sent via Google, not T-Mobile. Mine received updates whilst I was only connected via WiFi. Note that if you want to "root" your phone, you will be switching off OTA updates anyway.
2. Unlocking it and of itself won't stop IM working, but changing the SIM to a different carrier might. The built in MSN client is designed such that it will not work over cellular data (e.g. GPRS, UMTS etc) and uses SMS messages to communicate when not connected via WiFi. If you have a non T-Mobile SIM card and are not connected to a WiFi network, it will complain that it cannot read the phone number from the SIM card and fail to log in to MSN. Meebo on the market is one way round this, but this isn't everyones cup of tea.
Regards,
Dave
Im on at&t and can use IM without issue. Granted I am on ADP instead of RC33 which may have an impact since I only have gtalk but I just wanted to report my findings.
Above responses are correct. Of the four IM providers listed in the IM app, only GTalk communicates to its servers via data. The other three use customized sms gateways (i.e. they will eat up your monthly sms allocation rather than using the dataplan) and thus probably won't work outside of T-Mo. There are plenty of third-party IM apps that can connect you to AIM, YIM or MSN using the dataplan though.
Unlock away!
I unlocked my g1 using the T-mobile requested unlock code and everything works just fine. I don't think that person knew what they were talking about (but then it seems that they rarely do).
G'day all XDA'ers. I got my phone from eXpansys unlocked just a week or so ago. This is not my first Windows phone but my first WP7 device for sure. I have been using the forums and the wiki to get my Focus up and rocking.
All is going well except full data service. No i know it sounds odd but data service is "kinda" working. By that i mean that i can get my corporate Exchange email ok and for some reason m.cnn.com will come in ok. For a local newspaper site it will render about 1/4 of the main page and thats it and Fark i will get a logo. All other sites fail in either stock IE or Browser+. Its trying.......just not succeeding. Looks like GMail and Hotmail can't sync over this borked celldata connection either - company Exchange only.
Last phone was a Blackberry and verified with the carrier that no flags or anything needed to be changed on their end. I verified with the *#7465625# that all locks are disabled. Most annoying is that i popped my SIM into my gf's iPhone and everything works fine.....and it was unlocked and she is with a different carrier.
I put on Samsung's Network Profile tool but i don't have any other network profiles to select. Auto config is on.
Not sure where else to look. Calls work, SMS works, MMS isn't supported on my carrier so didn't test. I really thought i had it figured out until the iPhone test worked.
For reference carrier is M3 Wireless Bermuda but to keep it interesting my liveID is registered to Canada.
Thoughts?
Also i got the Device Info app from Marketplace and see i am getting an IP and it is from my carrier's range. And though i should add that APN settings have been triple checked.
The Network Selection type is manual with carrier network selected and roaming is enabled.
And as an update the Hotmail did eventually update.......no word on the GMail
Little more detail
This might be a carrier limitation......maybe. I noticed that when i popped my gf's SIM into my phone i see a Digicel network profile now in Samsung's tool. Even after swapping out my M3 SIM the Digicel profile is still there - no M3 profile loaded/created. I need to get the data service on my gf's phone reactivated for a test but there might be something here.
Again....a small handful of sites work and Exchange and Hotmail works. I can't see the rhyme or reason of it. Google.com mostly loads (no logo) but detects my gmail account....but m.google.com won't work. Mobile version of bermudasun works but not other paper. m.cnn.com is groovy but not m.youtube.com.
will post back with more detail. Wish i could see what the carrier proxy or dns information was......
Hi everybody,
since yesterday I have a weired problem:
i booked a data roaming plan of my provider (austrian) to get some emails and stuff during my stays in foreign countries (switzerland at the moment).
The first day, everything went fine. But: the day after (yesterday) i was suddenly unable to connect to my IMAP with k-9 (was working the first day). I also recognized that a connection to the google services (indication with green status bar - modification from Nexus) isn't possible as well.
Almost no app can connect, for example the browser reports:
Data Connectivity Problem
The server failed to communicate. Try Again Later.
Market is not working etc.
On the other hand, a few apps are able to get some data: E-Mail (with Exchange), a Provider app (showing used minutes and data and such things) still work.
Even though data is being used (as shown in the provider app), i can see, that there is some communication going on (with the arrows beside the connection type "H", "3G" and so on). So what the hell is going wrong?
Unfortunately I cannot test domestic data until next week - but WiFi is working flawless (status bar turns green, I can access all websites, E-Mails, etc.).
I am running out of ideas.
One last hint: I tested a few apps (3G Watchdog and Onava Light) and uninstalled them later on. But yesterday evening I did a backup and reinstalled JVQ - the issue was there even after initial firmware installation (JVQ).
Thank you for any help,
kind regards,
ww
P.S. can someone give me a hint, where I can find certain logs to maybe get an idea of the error: alogcat doesn't show me anything, there is no /dev/log directory...
my specs are below in the signature...
Ok, it seems that I narrowed it down.
It depends, with which provider the mobile roams. If it is the "preferred" provider here in Switzerland (sunrise), only the few mentioned apps are actually working - all others are still blocked (seems to be some kind of proxy or firewall or something like this, just guessing). Same result with another provider (Orange CH).
If I manually try another provider (Swisscom), it works with every app (at least with this one). Isn't this strange? Anyone experienced such a behaviour??? It seems, that all regular ports (80,...) are blocked, that's why I can't use k-9, browser and so on. Only a few ports (as exchange mail, whatsapp) seems to be open.
Kind regards,
ww
Similar problem
I have in the last few days experienced the very same problem. Roaming allows only e-mail, but not the browser. Any suggestion about what I can do?
It may depend from the provider's policy, I'm afraid. Only one choice is to disable auto network, and manually pick one by one, and to check.
I called my provider, they re-activated roaming again and after a few days it suddenly worked... still strange though...
Kind regards,
ww