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ThermoPhysical
Dec 26, 2007



I've heard that removing the proxy for Straight Talk's AT&T will help stop them from throttling you randomly. Is this true?

Also still wondering about having custom APN names.

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Stick100
Mar 18, 2003

Zero VGS posted:

I have been redirecting to multiple phones for years without incident. The moral of your story is "remember to remove redirection from phone numbers you've abandoned", not "don't redirect to multiple numbers".

True, but the ring one or the other or both aspect can get annoying real quick if you aren't expecting it.

hotsauce
Jan 14, 2007

Zero VGS posted:

I have been redirecting to multiple phones for years without incident. The moral of your story is "remember to remove redirection from phone numbers you've abandoned", not "don't redirect to multiple numbers".

I agree. Now that I've ported to Google voice (freedom BTW) I have my house (Ooma) work cell and Nexus 4 all ring. Works fine. I did this for years without any issue ever with my old GV number prior to porting my main number the other day. Never missed a single call.

Stick100
Mar 18, 2003

hotsauce posted:

I agree. Now that I've ported to Google voice (freedom BTW) I have my house (Ooma) work cell and Nexus 4 all ring. Works fine. I did this for years without any issue ever with my old GV number prior to porting my main number the other day. Never missed a single call.

Glad it's worked well for other people, whenever I have two numbers redirecting I get incredibly inconsistent behavior. But then again with GV sometimes I'll miss a GV call and no phone will ring (even if only one is redirected) and the only evidence I get that I missed a call is that I get the email sometimes with transcribed voicemail.

I'm super happy with being able to redirect myself, emails of missed calls and transcribed voicemails that I can't complain.

FISHMANPET
Mar 3, 2007

Sweet 'N Sour
Can't
Melt
Steel Beams
Even with only one number for Google Voice right now, I get a huge number of missed calls or voicemails in Google Voice when my phone never rings. That may be the Sprint integration being terrible though.

ThermoPhysical
Dec 26, 2007



FISHMANPET posted:

Even with only one number for Google Voice right now, I get a huge number of missed calls or voicemails in Google Voice when my phone never rings. That may be the Sprint integration being terrible though.

I've found that removing and readding the number fixes this. Sometimes.

SB35
Jul 6, 2007
Move along folks, nothing to see here.

ThermoPhysical posted:



Also still wondering about having custom APN names.


There's an app called Carrier Name that will allow you to change it to pretty much anything. On straight talk I don't know about at&t Sims but the Tmo SIM shows "home" as the carrier name.

Changing it is of course aesthetics only as changing the carrier name displayed won't change anything with your data settings

SB35 fucked around with this message at 07:37 on Nov 25, 2012

FAUXTON
Jun 2, 2005

spero che tu stia bene

Sprint does not actually have 4G in Tampa. Was strolling around downtown (around the university/river/park near the police building) earlier and never once picked up 4G.

Visiting family down here is really pushing me towards jumping ship to prepaid+N4 on an ATT/TMo MVNO (Likely Straight Talk). Both my father and his wife have T-Mo phones, and my father's got an iPad with an ATT SIM in it, none of which drop signal. Sprint's coverage is just so loving bad here. I have the extended battery in my GNex, and the god damned thing loving dies in 6-8 hours from a full loving charge. I mean, I can't fault Sprint too much for having this weird desire to stick to civilized areas (he lives in the sprawl way North of Tampa where we have to take a loving toll road to go anywhere worth going) but I have never seen them fail to provide at least workable service. Here I've repeatedly gotten an empty triangle in the signal indicator. Not the grey no-bars symbol, but a line drawing of a triangle indicating absolutely no signal whatsoever, as though I might as well have been deep in goddamn NORAD or a loving mineshaft somewhere. I could see weak/thin/sluggish coverage in this exurb sprawl bullshitland, but nothing whatsoever? :cmon: Sprint, you're better than this, but if you're getting out-covered by T-Mo, maybe we need a heart-to-heart.

I often wonder if there's an unpursued antitrust violation where the Big 4 have been colluding to stay out of each others' way across the CDMA/GSM divide in the boonies. Sprint covers the Omaha suburbs pretty well, whereas ATT/T-Mo don't, yet it's reversed down here in Spring Hill (FL) with Sprint being non-existent and ATT/T-Mo running the table. Considering they get paid regardless due to roaming agreements, it's feasible. Despite it being :tinfoil: as all hell as it is.

Hughmoris
Apr 21, 2007
Let's go to the abyss!
Has anyone heard about using a WP8 device on Straight Talk AT&T? I've contemplating buying the 920 retail and using it on ST but I haven't heard of it being successful yet.

*Never mind, after some research it looks like people have them working on ST.

Hughmoris fucked around with this message at 08:23 on Nov 25, 2012

ThermoPhysical
Dec 26, 2007



SB35 posted:

There's an app called Carrier Name that will allow you to change it to pretty much anything. On straight talk I don't know about at&t Sims but the Tmo SIM shows "home" as the carrier name.

Changing it is of course aesthetics only as changing the carrier name displayed won't change anything with your data settings

Yah, I know it'd be cosmetic only. Just something that'd be interesting. Thanks for this though!


The Entire Universe posted:

Sprint does not actually have 4G in Tampa. Was strolling around downtown (around the university/river/park near the police building) earlier and never once picked up 4G.

Visiting family down here is really pushing me towards jumping ship to prepaid+N4 on an ATT/TMo MVNO (Likely Straight Talk). Both my father and his wife have T-Mo phones, and my father's got an iPad with an ATT SIM in it, none of which drop signal. Sprint's coverage is just so loving bad here. I have the extended battery in my GNex, and the god damned thing loving dies in 6-8 hours from a full loving charge. I mean, I can't fault Sprint too much for having this weird desire to stick to civilized areas (he lives in the sprawl way North of Tampa where we have to take a loving toll road to go anywhere worth going) but I have never seen them fail to provide at least workable service. Here I've repeatedly gotten an empty triangle in the signal indicator. Not the grey no-bars symbol, but a line drawing of a triangle indicating absolutely no signal whatsoever, as though I might as well have been deep in goddamn NORAD or a loving mineshaft somewhere. I could see weak/thin/sluggish coverage in this exurb sprawl bullshitland, but nothing whatsoever? :cmon: Sprint, you're better than this, but if you're getting out-covered by T-Mo, maybe we need a heart-to-heart.

I often wonder if there's an unpursued antitrust violation where the Big 4 have been colluding to stay out of each others' way across the CDMA/GSM divide in the boonies. Sprint covers the Omaha suburbs pretty well, whereas ATT/T-Mo don't, yet it's reversed down here in Spring Hill (FL) with Sprint being non-existent and ATT/T-Mo running the table. Considering they get paid regardless due to roaming agreements, it's feasible. Despite it being :tinfoil: as all hell as it is.

T-Mobile actually has towers here in Omaha but they don't legally need to sell the service from them. They used to have service here a few years ago (my research shows as far back as 2003) but it's gone now. They still have towers, however. My cousin has i-Wireless, a T-Mobile MVNO and it worked perfectly fine while he was here. T-Mobile just doesn't want to sell service here.

As for AT&T not working, I've heard that they work fine and actually fair better than Sprint does (when I checked one of those sites that shows the best carrier for your area, it showed that AT&T was #2 and Sprint was #4. Verizon was #1, so who knows? Either way, I'm not anticipating having a bad signal here. Can't be as bad as Sprint where the signal is so awful, it ruins my Nexus S 4G's battery in mere hours (four hours and it's dead if I'm on 3G).

If I can't get 100% perfect service, I can always borrow my mom's Boost Mobile for a quick call. :v:

Stick100
Mar 18, 2003

ThermoPhysical posted:

Yah, I know it'd be cosmetic only. Just something that'd be interesting. Thanks for this though!


T-Mobile actually has towers here in Omaha but they don't legally need to sell the service from them. They used to have service here a few years ago (my research shows as far back as 2003) but it's gone now. They still have towers, however. My cousin has i-Wireless, a T-Mobile MVNO and it worked perfectly fine while he was here. T-Mobile just doesn't want to sell service here.


I just looked up open signal maps and TMO is not even listed in Omaha. Scanning open signal maps in a couple cities, Verizon seems to have really nailed coverage/towers with ATT as a close second.

ThermoPhysical
Dec 26, 2007



Stick100 posted:

I just looked up open signal maps and TMO is not even listed in Omaha. Scanning open signal maps in a couple cities, Verizon seems to have really nailed coverage/towers with ATT as a close second.

That's actually the site I was looking at when I saw that Sprint is the #4 carrier in Omaha. Just couldn't remember the name.

I've checked and T-Mobile's site lists that they have towers and even shows a few places that have T-Mobile prepaid cards. I called those places and they said they don't have them but they knew of a few towers. I can't remember where I found it, but apparently, there's like four towers or something for them.

TMO doesn't exist here, you're right. But I'm not sure how my cousin could've gotten T-Mobile's service to work. I even remember him making a call back to my aunt and my mom and I both talking on his phone just fine.

I found a couple videos on YouTube showing they did have service at one time in Omaha and a few people online who posted in 2003 about T-Mobile's terrible Omaha service (the guy in the YouTube video wasn't pleased either).

I'm really confused with TMO's service here. The site you mentioned does show there's no towers, but my cousin who was here two years ago didn't have problems.

Either way, I'm going with AT&T Straight Talk and I found some interesting stuff:

http://androidforums.com/nexus-4/650234-straight-talk-play-store.html

http://androidforums.com/nexus-4/649586-here-how-make-mms-work-straight-talk-att-nexus-4-a.html

According to comments in these two threads on Android Forums, you may or may not need two different APNs for AT&T. One for MMS and one for SMS/Data/Voice. Some people have no issues with just one single APN with the instructions from Straight Talk.

Most people seem to agree that, if you remove the proxy (or just don't add it), your speeds will be faster and ST may not be able to track you via the proxy.

Does anyone know if there's any truth to this? Also, if anyone can shed more light on the TMO in Omaha situation, that'd be good too.

Stick100
Mar 18, 2003

ThermoPhysical posted:

That's actually the site I was looking at when I saw that Sprint is the #4 carrier in Omaha. Just couldn't remember the name.



That website is populated by user data, so TMO may well have service there and no one has populated the map. Also TMO should roam with ATT for voice/text so someone with TMO service might just use ATT towers.

Zuhzuhzombie!!
Apr 17, 2008
FACTS ARE A CONSPIRACY BY THE CAPITALIST OPRESSOR
Would anyone mind giving me some instructions on how to migrate an existing ATT number/account to a Straight Talk plan?

Do the links in the OP set up new accounts only?

Capt. Morgan
Feb 23, 2006

Straight Talk porting info.

Gourd of Taste
Sep 11, 2006

by Ralp
Hey prepaid dudes, the virgin mobile site is going to have the one v for fifty bucks tomorrow, for cyber Monday. It's not the best phone ever but it's decent and fifty is amazing.

Hughmoris
Apr 21, 2007
Let's go to the abyss!
Anyone have any first or secondhand experience with ST AT&T in Anchorage, AK? I have a family member station in Anchorage and I'd like to get them setup with ST up there. My googling isn't turning up much.

Delta-Wye
Sep 29, 2005

Hughmoris posted:

Anyone have any first or secondhand experience with ST AT&T in Anchorage, AK? I have a family member station in Anchorage and I'd like to get them setup with ST up there. My googling isn't turning up much.

I had standard AT&T there and had fine service, but I also didn't have a smart phone so I was only getting voice service.

IuniusBrutus
Jul 24, 2010

Ok, so my T-Mobile micro SIM just arrived. It was only a $1.05 shipped from T-Mobile, so I figured I'd give it a try.

How should I go about porting my AT&T number over to them? I'd like to use the $30/month 100/unlimited/unlimited plan. It seems like I have two options:

1.) Port my current number over to Google Voice, and activate a new number with T-Mobile. Forward my incoming GV calls to my phone, and just tell everyone I text or call frequently to recognize my T-Mobile number.

2.) Port over my current number to T-Mobile, take my chances with not having service for a few days and having it be a pain in the rear end if I decide to switch carriers.

What would be easiest?

SB35
Jul 6, 2007
Move along folks, nothing to see here.

IuniusBrutus posted:

Ok, so my T-Mobile micro SIM just arrived. It was only a $1.05 shipped from T-Mobile, so I figured I'd give it a try.

How should I go about porting my AT&T number over to them? I'd like to use the $30/month 100/unlimited/unlimited plan. It seems like I have two options:

1.) Port my current number over to Google Voice, and activate a new number with T-Mobile. Forward my incoming GV calls to my phone, and just tell everyone I text or call frequently to recognize my T-Mobile number.

2.) Port over my current number to T-Mobile, take my chances with not having service for a few days and having it be a pain in the rear end if I decide to switch carriers.

What would be easiest?

Do you have a smartphone? Because using the Google voice app you can send messages and make calls that all look like they come from your GV number. (No MMS)

ThermoPhysical
Dec 26, 2007



Since ST GSM uses AT&T and T-Mobile, is it possible to use data and voice at the same time?

Zero VGS
Aug 16, 2002
ASK ME ABOUT HOW HUMAN LIVES THAT MADE VIDEO GAME CONTROLLERS ARE WORTH MORE
Lipstick Apathy
Yes, not being able to do voice and data at the same time is only a CDMA restriction. AT&T actually did a series of commercials about it when they lost iPhone exclusivity, to scare people out of switching to Verizon.

ThermoPhysical
Dec 26, 2007



Zero VGS posted:

Yes, not being able to do voice and data at the same time is only a CDMA restriction. AT&T actually did a series of commercials about it when they lost iPhone exclusivity, to scare people out of switching to Verizon.

I actually remember those commercials now that I think about it.

Would think cause one to use more data / voice on ST or does it matter?

Zero VGS
Aug 16, 2002
ASK ME ABOUT HOW HUMAN LIVES THAT MADE VIDEO GAME CONTROLLERS ARE WORTH MORE
Lipstick Apathy

ThermoPhysical posted:

Would think cause one to use more data / voice on ST or does it matter?

That's not a sentence, but no: you will not use any more of either by running them both at once, if that's what you were asking :confused:

ThermoPhysical
Dec 26, 2007



Zero VGS posted:

That's not a sentence, but no: you will not use any more of either by running them both at once, if that's what you were asking :confused:

Sorry! I was posting from my phone. That's good to know though, thanks!

IuniusBrutus
Jul 24, 2010

SB35 posted:

Do you have a smartphone? Because using the Google voice app you can send messages and make calls that all look like they come from your GV number. (No MMS)

Is there a way to force my phone to place/receive calls using the GV app over wi-fi when available rather than using my minutes?

plester1
Jul 9, 2004





IuniusBrutus posted:

Is there a way to force my phone to place/receive calls using the GV app over wi-fi when available rather than using my minutes?

Calls made via the GV app still use minutes, it just spoofs your caller ID to show your GV number.

If you want to make GV calls via WiFi, you need to use another app like GrooveIP, which is an awesome app btw.

hypersober
Mar 27, 2006
...
I want to port my number to GV and I'm not entirely sure how to approach it. My straight talk service end date is December 9th, when should I have Google port my number? Also, would I need to order a new sim from straight talk to sign up for a new account or can I use my current one?

IuniusBrutus
Jul 24, 2010

plester1 posted:

Calls made via the GV app still use minutes, it just spoofs your caller ID to show your GV number.

If you want to make GV calls via WiFi, you need to use another app like GrooveIP, which is an awesome app btw.

Thanks! Sadly, GrooveIP does not exist for iPhone. Do I have another option? Or will I just have to wait until I get my new phone?

GV is porting my number right now, so once that's complete I can gently caress around with getting everything set-up.

Zero VGS
Aug 16, 2002
ASK ME ABOUT HOW HUMAN LIVES THAT MADE VIDEO GAME CONTROLLERS ARE WORTH MORE
Lipstick Apathy

IuniusBrutus posted:

Thanks! Sadly, GrooveIP does not exist for iPhone. Do I have another option? Or will I just have to wait until I get my new phone?

Talkatone (which is free and which I happen to prefer even on Android to GrooveIP) is also available on iPhone/iPod.

ThermoPhysical
Dec 26, 2007



Since browsing in Desktop Mode on Chrome / default Browser will change the user_agent to look like you're browsing from a desktop, would it be a bad idea to use Desktop Mode while on Straight Talk?

Could it be seen as tethering? I've looked around and noticed that T-Mobile has flagged people because they thing they're tethering. Is ST going to do that from AT&T?

Zero VGS
Aug 16, 2002
ASK ME ABOUT HOW HUMAN LIVES THAT MADE VIDEO GAME CONTROLLERS ARE WORTH MORE
Lipstick Apathy
I can only speak for T-Mobile, but for some odd reason with them, if I set my user agent on my PC to be an Android, I can tether all day (in fact I tethered a few gigs for a week straight now). But if I take the phone and use "Request Desktop Site" in my Smartphone Chrome, it doesn't give me the Paywall page. Maybe they're using multiple criteria.

IuniusBrutus
Jul 24, 2010

Does T-Mobile pre-paid allow you to disable your voicemail yet? I want to go entirely to GV voicemail.

hotsauce
Jan 14, 2007

IuniusBrutus posted:

Does T-Mobile pre-paid allow you to disable your voicemail yet? I want to go entirely to GV voicemail.

Yep. Dial 611 and tell them. I did it this weekend and was on and off the phone in 3 minutes. Got a text confirming my account was updated. Some have said T-Mo will ask you 45 times to confirm, but the guy I talked to did it on my first request without hassle.

I was terrified about porting to GV and only having 100 minutes. It's actually very liberating. I have it ring my Obi when I'm at home and ring my work iPhone when I'm out. I don't even need 100 minutes, but if I do, there are there.

Now to get Sipdroid and pbxes.org all set up (GrooveIP sucks rear end for VOIP).

ThermoPhysical
Dec 26, 2007



Does Straight Talk allow you to disable voicemail as well?

SB35
Jul 6, 2007
Move along folks, nothing to see here.

ThermoPhysical posted:

Does Straight Talk allow you to disable voicemail as well?

Haven't tried recently, but as far as I can tell on StraightTalk (Tmo) no, I still get the random voice mail on occasion that somehow misses getting picked up by GV

ThermoPhysical
Dec 26, 2007



SB35 posted:

Haven't tried recently, but as far as I can tell on StraightTalk (Tmo) no, I still get the random voice mail on occasion that somehow misses getting picked up by GV

Hmm.. how often does that happen?

SB35
Jul 6, 2007
Move along folks, nothing to see here.

ThermoPhysical posted:

Hmm.. how often does that happen?

Rare. Maybe once a month or less. It's always blank three second messages too.

ThermoPhysical
Dec 26, 2007



SB35 posted:

Rare. Maybe once a month or less. It's always blank three second messages too.

That's not too bad. I get blank messages now on sprint's Google Voice integration

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Judge Schnoopy
Nov 2, 2005

dont even TRY it, pal
So I've got my current verizon phone set up with google voicemail. I'm getting a new phone on t-mobile. My wife and i frequently use picture messages, as does our extended family, and I really don't want to have 2 numbers.

Am I best trying my luck to port my number to T-Mobile to keep MMS support? Or is there a way to make Google Voice work yet? I'd like Google Voice so if I hate t-mobile and switch in two months, I don't need to tell everybody I have yet another phone number.

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