Couple of Iphone Network questions (UK)

[alexcroox]

I'm a little confused about the whole WIFI/EDGE/HOTSPOTS thing with the iphone. Whats the difference between edge, and a wifi hotspot on cloud9 (or whatever its called).

With data roaming turned off, can i guarentee i will not be charged for using the internet when i connect to a random wirless network that lets me? And what are the names of the free cloud 9 hotspots we can use? do the routers have a generic name or not?

And is it possible to use the net when not near a hotspot and will it cost me anything?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Phil A.]

I'm a little confused about the whole WIFI/EDGE/HOTSPOTS thing with the iphone. Whats the difference between edge, and a wifi hotspot on cloud9 (or whatever its called).

With data roaming turned off, can i guarentee i will not be charged for using the internet when i connect to a random wirless network that lets me? And what are the names of the free cloud 9 hotspots we can use? do the routers have a generic name or not?

And is it possible to use the net when not near a hotspot and will it cost me anything?

Thanks for any advice.

EDGE (and GPRS) is data across the cellular network, and is included in your monthly charge. WiFi is basically any wireless network that you can connect to. You could connect to a Wireless network at home if you have one (no extra charge), at school / work (if they have one), or a public WiFi hotspot. There are different providers of the latter and the Cloud is just one of many. If you connect to a hotspot provided by the Cloud you don't pay any charges. To use another provider you may have to pay a charge but that will generally be done via your web browser when you try and connect through it. Turning Data Roaming off has nothing to do with WiFi (it stops you connecting via GPRS/EDGE when you are out of the country) and you will never be charged for connecting to the internet via WiFi unless you agree to it first. To use the net when you are not near a hotspot you simply connect via EDGE (if you're lucky) or GPRS (if you're not) - this doesn't cost you anything extra to your normal monthly charge

 

[alexcroox]

so turning on data roaming (while in uk) will allow me to access edge/gprs?

 

[Phil A.]

so turning on data roaming (while in uk) will allow me to access edge/gprs?

You'll get edge/gprs automatically in the UK even with Data Roaming turned off. if you see a plain blue box at the right hand side of the O2-UK on the top left of the phone then you are connected via GRPS. if it's got a white E in it, you're connected via EDGE. The other way of telling is that if you're only connected via GPRS web pages will take ages to load

 

[alexcroox]

ahh i did wonder what those boxes meant thank you so much! but what does data roaming mean while in the uk? if edge/gprs/and wifi all work with it off?

 

[Phil A.]

ahh i did wonder what those boxes meant thank you so much! but what does data roaming mean while in the uk? if edge/gprs/and wifi all work with it off?

If you turn it on, your iPhone will connect to GPRS/EDGE if you are out of the UK (such as spain, france, etc) and connected to another phone network (i.e. roaming). The costs of connecting via GPRS / EDGE whilst abroad are likely to be absolutely horrendous (figures as high as £20 per MB have been seen in the past!!), so you can turn of data roaming so it doesn't do this if you go on holiday. Basically what it means if you turn Data Roaming off (or leave it off as I believe it's the default) is if you are not connected to O2 in the UK, the iPhone won't connect over GPRS / EDGE and you'll avoid this charges. The setting doesn't affect operation in the UK at all whether it's on or off, and the great thing about the O2 contracts is all your UK based GPRS / EDGE data is absolutely free

 

[alexcroox]

woop! cheers for all your help, ill stop the annoying questions now

 

[Phil A.]

woop! cheers for all your help, ill stop the annoying questions now

No worries - glad I could help