The (possibly) new WAP interface - Page 8

Jeremy Howard · 8 Sep 2004, 06:09 AM

The tagline will be optional (or removed), before the service is officially announced. We're still testing/tuning it. Bron's back in Australia now and will be starting with us full-time in the next couple of weeks - he'll have some time to finish this up then.

brong · 17 Sep 2004, 11:11 PM

As Jeremy pointed out, I'm not here yet

We've been back in Australia for a couple of weeks now, but the first week I was still finishing up at my old job - and so far we've got a car, a new bed, and new phones. Still need a house so I'm out from the parents-in-law, and then it's back to work...

I agree, the tagline should be optional. The problem at the moment is that the WAP software isn't integrated into Fastmail at all, it's a standalone app. As such, there's nowhere to store personalised configuration.

I don't know how reliable cookies are across different phones. I have my Nokia 6230 now, so I'll be doing most testing there (and on my old 6310 as well).

But yes - apologies that there will be a delay dealing with this stuff, but I don't really get a chance to do much work yet (it's just gone midnight and I've only got to this after a couple of days!)

Stay tuned though, I haven't forgotten about you!

Bron.

chrisjam · 22 Sep 2004, 10:56 PM

I'm having a strange problem. On my new Motorola MPX 200, Internet Explorer will let me log in to the wap client and use every link/page except the one to list my mailbox! It just freezes.

The same phone works fine with the same wap client (including viewing my mailbox) on the Orange (UK) network, the problem has begun when I switched to the O2 (UK) network.

Any ideas?

davidbstanley · 22 Sep 2004, 11:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by chrisjam
I'm having a strange problem. On my new Motorola MPX 200, Internet Explorer will let me log in to the wap client and use every link/page except the one to list my mailbox! It just freezes.

The same phone works fine with the same wap client (including viewing my mailbox) on the Orange (UK) network, the problem has begun when I switched to the O2 (UK) network.

Any ideas?

Have you got another wap phone you could try on O2? Everything is OK on Voda UK at the moment. It is hard to imagine what O2 could be doing that would cause this. I know the UK networks are messing about with access restrictions, supposedly to protect children. Voda recently blocked all internet access without telling anyone and required a credit card number to unlock it

vinmar · 22 Sep 2004, 11:16 PM

It was working for me on O2 last night.

I'll try again in a minute and let you know if I see the same problem.

chrisjam · 22 Sep 2004, 11:23 PM

I should mention i'm on the hopelessly crippled 'payandgo' apn. I will try david's suggestion of using a different phone and see how that goes.

WAP on a smartphone is pretty rubbish anyway. I wish fastmail had a mobile interface like Fusemail. http://www.fusemail.com/mobile/src/login.html I like fastmail's interface but whilst it continues to drag its feet in implementing features such as lightweight mobile html interface and a decent address book Fusemail is quietly implementing all of them. They even have RSS to IMAP built in now! Going to be a tough call when I have to renew in January.

davidbstanley · 22 Sep 2004, 11:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by chrisjam
I should mention i'm on the hopelessly crippled 'payandgo' apn. I will try david's suggestion of using a different phone and see how that goes.

WAP on a smartphone is pretty rubbish anyway. I wish fastmail had a mobile interface like Fusemail. http://www.fusemail.com/mobile/src/login.html I like fastmail's interface but whilst it continues to drag its feet in implementing features such as lightweight mobile html interface and a decent address book Fusemail is quietly implementing all of them. They even have RSS to IMAP built in now! Going to be a tough call when I have to renew in January.

I do not know whether Opera will produce a version of their browser for these Windows smartphones. They have a useful function called small screen rendering which works very well at converting large pages to something readable on a smaller screen. The best thing is that they have set up a proxy server (which requires a cheap subscription) which does the compacting remotely, saving your data phone bill. I am probably going to change to a Sony Ericsson P910 soon which will be able to run it. WAP will still be useful because of the small page sizes and the extortionate data prices charged by the networks.

vinmar · 22 Sep 2004, 11:41 PM

I got my new 7610 yesterday. Fastmail renders quite well through Opera.

The IMAP client seems to be the way forward though.

chrisjam · 22 Sep 2004, 11:49 PM

yep, o2 pay and go block IMAP access - even though I'm paying for a gprs bolt on

Took me a while to find this out (On o2's general ability to confuse anyone who understands the words 'internet' and 'web' see here: http://chrisj.fastmail.fm/o2web.txt)

So i'm stuck with the wap client. The problem is the wap client as it stands just does not work with my phone. It has other problems on a smartphone too - for example the login screen is a mess (there are no newlines between the username/password boxes and the labels / links) etc.

Really need a lightweight web interface - pocket IE also makes a mess of the full blown web interface.

vinmar · 22 Sep 2004, 11:57 PM

I'd like to meet the person at O2 who came up with that mess. Mobile Internet AND O2 Active mean AND WAP all mean the same thing. Mobile Web is their name for the 'real' internet.

vinmar · 23 Sep 2004, 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by vinmar
It was working for me on O2 last night.

I'll try again in a minute and let you know if I see the same problem.

Yup, it's still good!

chrisjam · 23 Sep 2004, 12:13 AM

nope still off for me.

Are you on o2 contract? I think it must be something to do with the pay and go proxy server.

vinmar · 23 Sep 2004, 12:32 AM

I am on contract, so perhaps you're right.

davidbstanley · 23 Sep 2004, 12:35 AM

What you said about the lack of new lines on the login page is correct. This does not cause a problem on my phone with a small screen, but it is clearly an issue with larger screens. This can be seen quite clearly in Opera. I am sure that will be easy to resolve.

danielrigby · 30 Sep 2004, 07:14 PM

I have the same problem as chrisjam. I'm also on O2 pay-as-you-go and can confirm that Fastmail wap stopped working a few months ago for some unknown reason.

As Chris says, you can logon, see that there are x unread messages, but selecting view mailbox just hangs there. If I stop the access and retry it, I get an error about a timeout or something.

There's also an error when I try to change mailbox (can't remember what exactly.)

So it's strange that some pages work but not others. Maybe it's something to do with the format of the generated WAP pages? Perhaps O2 blocks some of the info sent back from the phone?

All very disappointing

Daniel

8 Sep 2004, 06:09 AM	#106
Jeremy Howard Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,501	The tagline will be optional (or removed), before the service is officially announced. We're still testing/tuning it. Bron's back in Australia now and will be starting with us full-time in the next couple of weeks - he'll have some time to finish this up then.

17 Sep 2004, 11:11 PM	#107
brong The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 2,698 Representative of: Fastmail.fm	As Jeremy pointed out, I'm not here yet We've been back in Australia for a couple of weeks now, but the first week I was still finishing up at my old job - and so far we've got a car, a new bed, and new phones. Still need a house so I'm out from the parents-in-law, and then it's back to work... I agree, the tagline should be optional. The problem at the moment is that the WAP software isn't integrated into Fastmail at all, it's a standalone app. As such, there's nowhere to store personalised configuration. I don't know how reliable cookies are across different phones. I have my Nokia 6230 now, so I'll be doing most testing there (and on my old 6310 as well). But yes - apologies that there will be a delay dealing with this stuff, but I don't really get a chance to do much work yet (it's just gone midnight and I've only got to this after a couple of days!) Stay tuned though, I haven't forgotten about you! Bron.

22 Sep 2004, 10:56 PM	#108
chrisjam Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 104	I'm having a strange problem. On my new Motorola MPX 200, Internet Explorer will let me log in to the wap client and use every link/page except the one to list my mailbox! It just freezes. The same phone works fine with the same wap client (including viewing my mailbox) on the Orange (UK) network, the problem has begun when I switched to the O2 (UK) network. Any ideas?

22 Sep 2004, 11:16 PM	#110
vinmar Essential Contributor Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: UK Posts: 204	It was working for me on O2 last night. I'll try again in a minute and let you know if I see the same problem.

22 Sep 2004, 11:23 PM	#111
chrisjam Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 104	I should mention i'm on the hopelessly crippled 'payandgo' apn. I will try david's suggestion of using a different phone and see how that goes. WAP on a smartphone is pretty rubbish anyway. I wish fastmail had a mobile interface like Fusemail. http://www.fusemail.com/mobile/src/login.html I like fastmail's interface but whilst it continues to drag its feet in implementing features such as lightweight mobile html interface and a decent address book Fusemail is quietly implementing all of them. They even have RSS to IMAP built in now! Going to be a tough call when I have to renew in January.

22 Sep 2004, 11:41 PM	#113
vinmar Essential Contributor Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: UK Posts: 204	I got my new 7610 yesterday. Fastmail renders quite well through Opera. The IMAP client seems to be the way forward though.

22 Sep 2004, 11:49 PM	#114
chrisjam Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 104	yep, o2 pay and go block IMAP access - even though I'm paying for a gprs bolt on Took me a while to find this out (On o2's general ability to confuse anyone who understands the words 'internet' and 'web' see here: http://chrisj.fastmail.fm/o2web.txt) So i'm stuck with the wap client. The problem is the wap client as it stands just does not work with my phone. It has other problems on a smartphone too - for example the login screen is a mess (there are no newlines between the username/password boxes and the labels / links) etc. Really need a lightweight web interface - pocket IE also makes a mess of the full blown web interface.

22 Sep 2004, 11:57 PM	#115
vinmar Essential Contributor Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: UK Posts: 204	I'd like to meet the person at O2 who came up with that mess. Mobile Internet AND O2 Active mean AND WAP all mean the same thing. Mobile Web is their name for the 'real' internet.

23 Sep 2004, 12:13 AM	#117
chrisjam Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 104	nope still off for me. Are you on o2 contract? I think it must be something to do with the pay and go proxy server.

23 Sep 2004, 12:32 AM	#118
vinmar Essential Contributor Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: UK Posts: 204	I am on contract, so perhaps you're right.

23 Sep 2004, 12:35 AM	#119
davidbstanley Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Kent, UK Posts: 695	What you said about the lack of new lines on the login page is correct. This does not cause a problem on my phone with a small screen, but it is clearly an issue with larger screens. This can be seen quite clearly in Opera. I am sure that will be easy to resolve.

30 Sep 2004, 07:14 PM	#120
danielrigby Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 20	I have the same problem as chrisjam. I'm also on O2 pay-as-you-go and can confirm that Fastmail wap stopped working a few months ago for some unknown reason. As Chris says, you can logon, see that there are x unread messages, but selecting view mailbox just hangs there. If I stop the access and retry it, I get an error about a timeout or something. There's also an error when I try to change mailbox (can't remember what exactly.) So it's strange that some pages work but not others. Maybe it's something to do with the format of the generated WAP pages? Perhaps O2 blocks some of the info sent back from the phone? All very disappointing Daniel