Registered: Jul 2001
Location:
Posts: 9

End of Omnisky beta in Europe

Wondering if anyone could help....

Omnisky will end their beta testing in the UK as of 3rd August and will not be offering a consumer service.

I am therefore trying to get my Omnisky branded Visorphone to dial up a normal ISP. Unfortunately it won't work despite my messing around with all the settings ect.

Basically as far as I can see there may be several problems i.e the Visorphone is 'locked' by Omnisky so it won't dial anywhere but their no., changing the sim for a different (data enabled) service means the phone won't even switch on etc.

Does anyone have any suggestions, I emailed Omnisky but haven't heard back as yet (and really don't expect too).

Greedydog

Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 44

Yes, I am also cheesed off that OmniSky has decided to drop the consumer service. I don't know what to do either. After buying their kit and spending a lot of time trying out their service and sending in numerous bug reports we get nothing!
I tried to swap SIM cards with my other GSM phone but got nothing at all. I expect that there is a block of some sort which seems pretty unfair. I will continue to try to get them to respond but don't expect much luck. I have the Xircon modem for which there is a GSM connection cable and that should get me into any ISP, but it looks like the Visor Phone is doomed. I wonder if Handspring would unlock the phones for us. There must be an answer, so let's keep on looking.

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Bob McDermott

Registered: Jul 2001
Location:
Posts: 9

Yup!

We paid for the damn things it's the least they could do to allow us to use them when they unilaterly ditch the service! If I had known that the Visorphone would be useless without Omnisky I wouldn't have bothered with all the testing amd survys and emails and bug report etc!

There must be some way of using them after all its a Visorphone rebranded not a proprietory device. Come On Omnisky do the decent thing!

Registered: Jul 2001
Location:
Posts: 9

Got it working!

Managed to get the Visorphone working. I think yhe Omnisky Visor phone is locked so only BT Cellnet sim cards will work. Tried Orange and One 2 One but no joy, don't have Vodafone.

Now Omnisky, we bought the equipment, how about letting us unlock the phone to use with our own mobile networks?

Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 44

Well, that might work, and I'll try it a little later and let you know. But I thought that the SIM card had all the smart info and the phone was just a phone. I'll send more email to OmniSky, try the tech support, and see what they say.
Bye for now
Bob

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Bob McDermott

Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 44

Well, there's good news and bad news:
The good is that with a BT Cellnet SIM one can use the VisorPhone, but only as a phone!
The bad is that, as you said at first, on the data side it only dials OmniSky. I will write to them about providing a fix for this for us loyal beta testers. We really only want it put back as a normal VisorPhone whice the user can configure to any service he uses. We'll see what they say, but don't get too excited yet.
Regards
Bob

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Bob McDermott

Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 44

Thinking about this problem I feel that it must be the OmniSky software which has the setup fixed for dialing OS only. I am tempted to delete all of the OS bits from my Visor and see if that would help. But I expect that the normal Visor Phone has its own software to put on the Visor. I wonder how we can get that. Maybe Handspring would give it to us. I will call them tomorrow.
Cheers
Bob

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Bob McDermott

Registered: Jul 2001
Location:
Posts: 9

Fixed

I'v managed to get the Visorphone to make data calls, all I did was create a new connection in prefs and dial out via that to a ISP number. Even Omnisky apps work as long as the connection is live before using them. Still no joy with other mobile networks though, I think the phone is locked in a similar manner to contract mobiles.

Andy

Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 44

Andy
Could you please explain in more detail how you got the connection. When I try to use a different connection and set the network to my ISP, it won't work. The VisorPhone switches to dialing OmniSky. Have you deleted any of the OS software in the Visor? That is the next step for me, since it won't be any good after Friday. But, still, I wonder if there are some bits which we should keep.
I spoke to a guy at OS support yesterday and he is going to email me a little utility which will unlock the phone from BT Cellnet. You can get the same thing if you call them.

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Bob McDermott

Registered: Jul 2001
Location:
Posts: 9

How I did it.

Bob,

1. Make sure the Visorphone is switched off.
2. Switch on Visor.
3. Select Pref->Network->Fill in details to dial ISP.
4. Whilst still in Network screem switch on Visorphone.
5. Go back into you're network connection no., tap on the edit line then exit.
6. Tap connect.

This usually works but sometimes it still (usually after a problem dialling) dials Omnisky.

As to Omnisky despite 3 emails I have still heard nothing and would appreciate it if you emailed the unlocking utility to me if possible

[email protected]

Thanks

Andy

Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 44

I had to call OmniSky today to say that my unlock code has not arrived. The guy said that they had not received it yet. If you check out the OmniSky board on Yahoo you can find the code someone else did get, and I will send it to you when I get mine, but the code apparantly is specific to a certain model of VisorPhone. So there seem to be more than one code around.
Another issue is getting the Handspring CD with wireless internet stuff. I think it includes Blazer and some email apps. Don't know what else. But you can get Eudora browser and email on their site. I have not tried them yet, though.
But it does look like the VisorPhone will work pretty well on its own as the dialing apps are in the Handspring. Thanks for the details on making the connection. I'll try that tonight.

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Bob McDermott

Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 44

All's Well that Ends Well, said Will once upon a time...and for me the OmniSky saga has ended with a pretty satisfactory conclusion (although not very smooth)
I got the unlock code by email on Friday, and it worked. So I can use either a VodaPhone or BT Cellnet SIM in the VisorPhone.
I decided to do a hard reset to purge the Visor of all OmniSky software, and then restored my apps and data, but only after taking out all of the OmniSky files from the Backup Folder. Also took out AIM files. There was some data which didn't come over, but that may be restored from my PC at work on Monday (I hope).
I have been dialing into my normal ISP using the Standard Modem setting and it seems to work fine. Even at 57 kbps. I did keep the VisorPhone modem setup but it doesn't work at all. Maybe that was special for the OS modems.
The only problem is that the SMS part does not work at all. When I push the blue button on the VP I get a fatal error/reset message. I don't know how to fix that. Also the web clipping apps don't work either. I think that Palm has a way to get them to work which I will try tomorrow.
The phone works fine as a phone.
So in the end I have the Platinum + VP for �240 and don't have to rely on OS for ISP which will save more �� . So, this looks like a pretty good deal in the end. But let's keep on exchanging notes to get all these loose ends worked out.

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Bob McDermott