New Phone - can't get Mobile Data to work

[Bcfaigg]

Hi folks, due to an unfortunate incident involving my much-loved Samsung Galaxy S3 and a swimming pool, I have had to buy a new phone.  As funds are tight, I have opted to try out a Star U9501 (Chinese phone) from Ebay.  The phone looks and feels lovely - very similar to the Samsung Galaxy S4, but I cannot seem to get the internet working.

Basically, calls and SMS work fine - and signal strength is good, but no matter what I try, it will not connect to the internet.  I have visited a Vodafone store, who have confirmed the APN settings are correct, but were unable to suggest a solution.  I have also tried an Android app called Tweakker to manually set the APN, but with no luck.

I have just tried the phone with my missus' phone SIM (Giffgaff) and also an Orange PayG SIM, with the following results.

Vodafone SIM - I get no mobile data, no matter what I try to enable the internet. I have reasonable signal strength - and the signal bars are blue on the phone (Android 4.2 - Jellybean).

Giffgaff SIM - Phone identifies the carrier as O2 (which is correct), and signal bars are Orange - but again, cannot get phone to connect to the internet.

Orange PayG SIM - Signal bars are Green - and it connects to the mobile internet (get H internet)!!!

So it would appear that the hardware is working OK, but I cannot seem to get the APN configured correctly on either Vodafone or Giffgaff (O2). I have even tried disabling 3G to force the phone to connect via 2G, but same result - cannot connect.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what the problem may be, and how I can get this working.  I don't really want to send the phone back (was a UK seller - so shouldn't be a problem), as it looks and feels really nice.  But without mobile data, my commutes to work will be very boring

Cheers
Bcfaigg
P.S. I note that this phone is WCDMA 850/2100Mhz - whereas most UK phones are WCDMA 900/2100. Could this be relevant? My understanding is the phone still should work.

[Nabs]

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@Bcfaigg wrote:

P.S. I note that this phone is WCDMA 850/2100Mhz - whereas most UK phones are WCDMA 900/2100. Could this be relevant? My understanding is the phone still should work.

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You might be looking down the right tracks here. All the UK networks use 2100MHz for 3G but some also make use of 900MHz, I know Vodafone and O2 certainly do. It could be that the area you are in (or travelling through) uses the 900MHz frequencies that this phone doesn't support

You should still get a 2G data connection but it will be quite slow.

Nabs

[Bcfaigg · Accepted solution]

Ok, after spending a fair amount of time hunting around on the internet, I chanced on the solution to my problem on another thread on this forum:

http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Other-manufacturers-and-OS/Data-connection-on-a-Dapeng-A75/m-p/119093...

Credit to smccartney (Message 13 in above thread) for coming up with the (remarkably simple solution).

All I had to do to go to the Access Point Name ('APN') settings and change the Authentication Type from its default 'Not Set' to 'None'.  After that, my internet is working fine.

It would appear this may be an issue common to a number of Chinese phones, so hopefully this will be of use to other people in the same situation.

Regards

Bcfaigg

[graves007]

Fantastic - this fixed my problem straight away! Thanks so much as I was getting very frustrated and calls to Vodafone were no help...... they were saying it was the phone of course....... I have a Star I9500W (similar to a Samsung Galaxy S4).

[hrym]

To be fair to Vodafone, they can't really help with a device they don't sell (and therefore support).  However, it might be worth adding this tip to the help scripts.

[DannyNicholson]

:cathappy:thanks worked for me too

[KatarinaMcGuire]

OMG! You are a fabulous human being. I have been struggling with this all week and it has been very frustrating. I thought I had tried tweaking everything, but that one I hadn't! It's funny that it's such an easy solution, but a hard oen to figure out. But yes, the setting the authentication type to none worked for me! Yay!

Cheers!

[taokat]

I'm having this problem with my new Galaxy Ace 3. Wifi connection works fine but as soon as I switch it off I get the message "you are offline" when I try to access any websites. I have mobile data checked and it is lit up green in the top drop down bar. I checked the apn settings were correct on the Vodafone website and tried the change mentioned in this thread and still no joy. Please can someone help.

[DaveCD]

Hi taokat

You can check that the settings are correct here.

Was this phone obtained from us or was it purchased elsewhere?

DaveCD

[taokat]

I bought the phone online from a website other than Vodafone, but took it into a Vodafone store to get a new sim, and they put all the settings on for me.

Sorry, I should have updated thsi earlier. Although the mobile data wasn't working, as I described, last night, having phoned Vodafone this morning, when I went to check it (while on the phone to them) it was working fine. So, no idea what the problem was last night, but it's fixed itself now.

Thanks anyway.