I am getting this error from my Windows Phone 7 (Samsung Focus). Just for that reason I updated the freaking phone to no-do to no avail. The router is just fine. My laptops new and old running Windows XP and Windows 7 connects fine. iPhone and iPad also connects without any problem. Just this one.
Since I don’t know what the phone is trying to do and what the error means, I really cannot troubleshoot either. None of the answers I found online did work.
Update: I kept getting this error at free WiFi hot spots in airports while traveling.
If you are like me, you have contacts working for companies that provide a cell phone. Sometimes it is possible to give up your personal phone and use the company provided cell phone exclusively for all your mobile communications. But in many cases the number of minutes are limited. There may also be security and other concerns. So you want to keep your own cell phone along with the company provided cell phone. All was fine until end of 2010. I had the iPhone until end of 2010.
This year I got a Samsung Focus, a Windows Phone 7 phone. How many “phone” in that, it still feels weird to say it.
After setting up the phone, I realized that my contacts can only have one cell phone. Who in the world carries more than one cell phone anyway? Microsoft has made that decision for me. So, it is convenient. Except, in my case it is not. Well, I could label it as work phone 2 you say, which is what I did. The only problem is that I cannot send texts to the so called work phone 2 by selecting it from contacts. If it is not labeled as mobile, it won’t appear in the drop down for sending text messages.
OK, I can go to contacts and copy and paste the number. Wait, there is no copy and paste on Windows Phone 7. Who needs copy and paste? Microsoft could not come with a scenario where copy and paste would be useful right? I just described one.
I was planning to upgrade to iPhone 4 when I was eligible in February this year. I ended up getting a Windows Phone 7, Samsung Focus. I needed to know a way to give away my old iPhone 3G and now the 3GS. What I mean is, being able to use them in India.
First I had to update the iTunes to the latest version. Without this, limera1n wouldn’t show up after installing.
I used limera1n to unlock. I read in many places that I should not use it if I plan to use other jailbreak software later. I forgot what they were.
There are plenty of web sites that told me how to install limera1n but it was very simple. Downloaded the app, ran it and followed on screen instructions. I could even run it multiple times without causing problems. I don’t know which bootrom image is in my iPhone 3GS.
Once the limera1n app showed up on the iPhone, ran it. There is an option to install Cydia. I used WiFi at the time. Installed Cydia and that is it. So far I have installed only one app. SBSettings. I hid the limera1n, cydia and other apps so that things won’t get messed up when I give the phone away.
Here are some screen shots of the unlocked, jail broken iPhone 3GS. The theme I am using is KillSignCarbonBlue.
Here is how I took screenshots of my iPhone screens. I didn’t know such a simple feature existed.
I have more images of my old 3G and 3GS on Airtel in India, I will try to upload later. Oh and the phantom vibration of iPhone, that is an AT&T phenomenon. No vibration after inserting Airtel SIM.
Before I got the Windows Phone 7, I had iPhone 3GS. Some of my friends have iPhone 4. So, comparisons here are mostly between the latest version of iOS and Windows Phone 7 OS.
The OS will set you back 4 years and some if you are coming from iOS.
The device I have is Samsung Focus (SGH i917).
This phone has power button and camera button on the right side. In my opinion, it was a bad design choice. Four of my fingers are held on the right side of the phone (I hold it in my left hand) and it is very hard to avoid those buttons. I keep pressing those buttons unintentionally. There are way too many buttons on Windows Phone 7. But I think that may have been unavoidable because the hardware is not owned by Microsoft and also may also turn out to be a good decision for lower end phones that may be coming up later. Location of the buttons could be better.
The screen is large and bright. I don’t like micro USB ports but I can live with that as long as I don’t need to buy proprietary cables at exorbitant prices. Unlike iPhone, rest of the phone hardware (except the screen) feels very cheap. I wouldn’t want to pay the same price as iPhone for this one. But at the current price ($49 with 2 year contract I think) it is a good one. I got the phone without contract from AT&T and it was $224 with premier discount. I thought that was a really good price for a smartphone of this quality.
The speakers are very good compared to iPhone and the quality of sound is impressive. I get better 3G signals everywhere compared to my friend who carries iPhone 4.
I took my iPhone 3GS to India and put an AirTel SIM card and I had poor reception. So, it is not the AT&T but the iPhone. The same SIM worked perfectly fine in a Nokia phone with really good reception.
I got the Windows Phone 7 knowing that it doesn’t have copy paste yet. But here are some surprises I wasn’t aware of. I will update this place as I find more stuff.
Windows Phone 7 cannot connect to hidden WiFi hot spots.
Windows Phone 7 cannot load custom ring tone.
On Windows Phone 7, you cannot remove or update the main live account that is added without completely resetting the phone. I am not sure if could change the Apple ID on iTunes and not loose any data. There was no tying ID on the iPhone itself as far as I can remember.
As a side note, you cannot change the gamer tag associated with a live account. So, beware when you add that account to your phone. It created a junk gamer tag for me. Now I cannot associate my real gamer tag with that account. Bummer.
Windows Phone 7 weather app cannot find “Cupertino”. I figured that app is not the main weather app on Windows Phone. It was the one provided by Samsung.
YouTube on Windows Phone 7 is a joke. I gave up watching YouTube there. If you are a YouTube fan, iPhone is still better for watching it.
There is a Google search application kindly provided by Google. So, you can do a more effective search on web. Bing search is okay for searching other content like local music and market place. I still don’t get good results from Bing web search.
Answers to your Windows Phone 7 queries are all on answers.social. Microsoft.com which is a dog. Other sites don’t have any information on Windows Phone 7 because there are not many users or not many power users out there.
I could not find answers to a simple issue like adjusting ringer volume independent of music volume. The sound from headset is pretty loud and clear when I listen to music (something I really like about this phone) and I turned the volume down. Now my ringer volume also goes down and I couldn’t figure out how to keep that at a constant level.
When I type something and want to make a correction in a word that has no spelling correction, I couldn’t place the cursor in the middle of the word. I have to either remove the entire word or remove letters from the end of the word and type again. Update: I am able to do that by pressing and holding on the word. I am not sure if this was an app specific problem.
The OS really feels V1. Probably worse than the original iPhone OS.
I thought I was getting out a bad software called iTunes. Zune software seems to be worse that that. This one doesn’t feel like coming from Microsoft and seems to be competing with iTunes for the worst syncing software.
There is no feature in Windows Phone 7 or Zune software to sync with Outlook. You can sync with Exchange but not with Outlook. Bummer for some corporate adoption. Not all corporates allow Exchange integration over carrier data. Personally I don’t like to do it either because it requires me to install corporate security software on my phone. All I need is some contact and calendar information from Outlook. iPhone and iTunes does that beautifully even though it is an Apple phone. Exchange sync is also not good for your data limit. You know how large those emails are.
I don’t remember how it worked on iPhone, but on Windows Phone 7, you cannot listen to Music or music streaming applications when connected to a PC, even when all you are trying to do is charge the phone. I found a workaround that is kind of annoying. You click on the safely remove device and stop the Windows Phone 7 device. It doesn’t automatically continue playing in some cases like Slacker Radio (oh, and there is no Pandora on Windows Phone 7, if you care. That is not surprising though. It is not on Xbox 360.)
Biggest bummer for me was that there is no Skype on Windows Phone 7 and you cannot do video chat because there is no front facing camera. And there is no Windows Live Messenger app either. I need to look for a VoIP solution on this phone to make cheap international calls.
Update: Feb 3, 2011
So, is Microsoft trying to pull a Vista to Windows 7 success on this one? Bring an inferior product first and then heroically fix and release a superior product? I hope not because this may be a different game.
In case of Windows Vista, people just waited. Waited on another Microsoft OS, Windows XP. When they fixed the Vista, users jumped in from XP. Now there were people who moved on, moved on to probably Mac OS X. They probably never came back.
In case of Microsoft’s mobile OS, most people would have moved on to other platforms. People like me waited a while before moving to iPhone or Android. Now it is very hard for me to accept anything inferior to iOS. There is no doubt in my mind now that the Windows Phone 7 OS and its ecosystem is inferior to iOS and its app store. Personally, if I go back to iPhone, I am never coming back. That could also mean that I need to move on to the computer OS where iTunes work better. I know how bad it is on Windows.
Update: Feb 9, 2011
Attachments in emails sent from iPhone are not showing up on my Windows Phone 7. iPhone is 3GS and WP7 is Samsung Focus.
Conclusion: Unfortunately, I have to list this article under FAIL category for now.
I have been an AT&T customer for almost a decade. Well, I came to AT&T as a Cingular customer. I am not terribly unhappy about AT&T but there are few areas I think they keep ignoring.
Every time I complete the contract and go to a new phone, my old phone becomes a paper weight. AT&T doesn’t seem to have a policy on unlocking the phone once the contract term is complete. I would like to give away the phone, like my iPhone 3G to someone outside US. Sure you can find ways to jailbreak and unlock it. But I prefer a simple mechanism to do that. Apple doesn’t seem to help either. This is not an environmentally responsible policy from either AT&T or Apple.
AT&T’s call quality (this could be the fault of iPhone as well) is not that good. AT&T 3G in the Silicon Valley is terrible. I am tired of submitting reports through that app. All the places I have had 3G or coverage problems, I still have the problem. May be Silicon Valley is not a priority for AT&T or the local governments do not cooperate with them. Either way, I do not get a good voice or data service from AT&T.
I did not like iPhone 4 design. The flat back side and sharp edges are not for me. I am a Windows user and iTunes is not really good Windows citizen. I also don’t like an application requires a few background processes even when I don’t need them.
Here are a few things I would be looking to if I make a switch, in addition to the above 2 primary requirements.
iPhone on another network could be tempting. Hopefully without those sharp edges.
No need for a computer to download and sync. May be it is not a big deal but iTunes turned me off from the idea of updating and syncing via a computer.
I prefer the OS update comes from the OS vendor, not the hardware or service provider. They do not have enough motivation to keep my phone up to date. If the last supported update to the phone comes 6 months to an year after the phone release, then it becomes a paper weight.