T-Mobile data plans suddenly stop working

I have been using a T-Mobile Dash Windows Mobile 5 smartphone for almost a week now and enjoying the seamless web integration that T-Mobile has put into the Dash.  Push email, the T-Zones connectivity, even web browsing on the Dash has been a real joy.  I have especially liked using the Mobile Google Reader to keep up with my RSS feeds when free time makes itself available.  Until this morning, that is.

Sometime this morning I lost all ability to connect to the web.  Nothing is working, I get various error messages indicating the server is unavailable.  I spoke to Kevin who reports he lost his connectivity a few days ago and it still hasn’t come back online.  Matt Miller reports that his connectivity dropped recently, although he got his back after a few days.  Hearing this coupled with my own experience I sensed a pattern so I hopped over to the authority on mobile phones, Howard Forums.

It didn’t take me long to find a bunch of T-Mobile customers from all over the US reporting the same loss of connectivity.  What’s confusing is the lack of an apparent pattern, some people report the ability to connect came back after a few hours, others report the ability to get push email but not surf the web, others that they can use the WAP connectivity but nothing else. 

Some folks are offering the theory that T-Mobile finally caught on to users who have been using the web services by exploiting a hole in T-Mobile’s setup and that the carrier has blocked all the various ports to shut that down.  That is backed up by this internal T-Mobile Customer Service screen (posted on Howard Forums) to help reps deal with calls about this issue:

If this is the root cause of the total loss of data connectivity it is even affecting customers (like me) who have the total internet service from T-Mobile for $30 a month, we can’t connect at all.  Surely T-Mobile wouldn’t shut down their highest paying customers to curtail those who might be exploiting their system.

It’s not just the Dash owners that are suffering, it seems to be affecting almost every data user no matter the device they are using, although Windows Mobile devices seem to be particularly affected since they are heavy into data connectivity.  Let’s hope that someone can shed some light on this so a solution can be reached, the lack of access to my email is killing me, and I know it’s adversely affecting others too.

Comments

[arebelspy]

James: I've got a solution that's only a minor hassle to set up. The solution involves setting your proxy to a T-Mobile server. Set your proxy as 216.155.165.50 (port 8080). You'll have access again.

if you're using a PPC/Smartphone and you also need an access point name, wap.voicestream.com should do it. Set that up and you'll have full internet access on T-Mobile again.

-arebelspy

[arebelspy]

James: I've got a solution that's only a minor hassle to set up. The solution involves setting your proxy to a T-Mobile server. Set your proxy as 216.155.165.50 (port 8080). You'll have access again.

if you're using a PPC/Smartphone and you also need an access point name, wap.voicestream.com should do it. Set that up and you'll have full internet access on T-Mobile again.

-arebelspy

[Alasdair]

James - I've seen a recent post (looking for a reference) that T-Mobile (UK) are shutting down access to all apps apart from their own WAP browser and authorised 3rd party apps, it may be a wider implementation of this - when I find the post I'll cite my source as a supplementary comment

Al

[Mike]

Yep, the proxy info works I've been using it for about a year. Too bad it limits the file download size.

[William C Bonner]

I'm paying for the bottom level of web access from my phone, a RAZR. The strange thing is that opera mini and gmail java apps stopped working from my phone, but I can still use the bluetooth connection from my laptop and connect to everything on the internet that I need.

[jk]

UPDATE: I spoke with T-Mobile tech support and they confirmed they made security updates to their network and that feature codes (SOCKS) were changed as part of that upgrade. She was able to reset my account (T-Mobile Internet) remotely and told me it would take up to 48 hours for the change to take affect. She admitted that the "security updates" were to prevent unauthorized data connections and that they had knocked customers off the grid. She also stated that tech support intervention is required for existing customers to get this resolved on a customer by customer basis.

She had me turn my Dash off while she made the change to my account and when I turned it back on everything was back to working normally, including all web stuff like email, exchange server sync, TZones, etc.

[jk]

UPDATE: I spoke with T-Mobile tech support and they confirmed they made security updates to their network and that feature codes (SOCKS) were changed as part of that upgrade. She was able to reset my account (T-Mobile Internet) remotely and told me it would take up to 48 hours for the change to take affect. She admitted that the "security updates" were to prevent unauthorized data connections and that they had knocked customers off the grid. She also stated that tech support intervention is required for existing customers to get this resolved on a customer by customer basis.

She had me turn my Dash off while she made the change to my account and when I turned it back on everything was back to working normally, including all web stuff like email, exchange server sync, TZones, etc.