GPRS disconnecting after 5 minutes

quote:Originally posted by BillLill

Hi Guys

I am using around 10 or so PDT8137 Pocket PC's which connect to GPRS (Telstra in australia). Problem is after about 5-10 minutes the GPRS session is disconnected which is causing a few hassles for the drivers using the devices. I have checked with Telstra and there is no auto-disconnect setting been configured so it must be related to the modem settings on the actual devices. Incidentally this does not happen using Symbol MC9000 units. Is there anywhere I can look on the device to alter the idle time allowed before disconnect? perhaps a registry entry?

Cheers

I don't know of such a registry entry. However, does it also disconnect when there is active data transmission? If not, then, I write a bit more about running a Pocket PC Ping client in the background to keep the connection up.

HI thanks for the reply - no if you are using the session then it does not disconnect.

quote:Originally posted by BillLill

HI thanks for the reply - no if you are using the session then it does not disconnect.

That's good. Then, all you have to do is the following:

1. get the free vxUtil from here
2. install, start, go to Functions/Ping...
3. configure the screen as follows:

where change www.pocketpcthoughts.com to, say, your desktop computer's address (or anything non-obtrusive; say, www.google.com).

Note the following:

1, the Delay parameter will only have effect on successful pings, while Timeout (ms) only on unsuccessful ones; this is why you should fill in both values.
2, you must increase # Pings from the default 5 to, say, some thousands.
3, start Pinging with clicking the Ping button; after this, you may continue doing anything else.
4, over USB Internet sharing, you won't have successful pings; over GPRS or any "real" Internet connection, you will (I've also made the screenshot after some pinging over GPRS)

Fortunately, the app only takes 2-3% CPU (I've measured this on a 520MHz PL720), so, running this app in the background won't consume much resources.

Also note that the WM operating system, as I've explained in several of my articles, may choose to shut down processes. (See for example the " Killed op. system process? " section here.) Therefore, if you start (and don't shut down) a lot of apps after starting vxUtil, the latter may silently die, resulting in the termination of the GPRS connection. Therefore, if you need to make sure your GPRS connection doesn't terminate and you don't use any Net app, periodically (say, every 2-3 minutes) check (with, say, a task switcher app like Alt-Tab of Spb Pocket Plus or the PHM PowerToys) if vxUtil is still running. If not, restart it.