Free Texts: Includes virtually free texts from mobiles Discussion

r_holmes22

espresso wrote: »

Could the download have been started just before midnight?

:eek:

Thanks for the suggestions, people. I downloaded the software at about 10pm. The credit has been dripping away throughout the day. I check my balance, leave it 15mins or so then check again to find another 1p or 2p has gone. I switched Vyke off about 5pm and credit has remained static since, so it's almost certainly the software.

I don't know whether this is related to the problems Vyke mention with Vodafone? I have no idea whether the new version of the software was on the site when I downloaded it last night. I'm wondering whether Vodafone have implemented something to ensure they continue to get decent revenue from this type of application.

Either way, unless I've set something up wrongly, this is certainly not a cost effective texting solution on my setup. Just thought I'd raise it in case anybody else with the same combination loses £££££££s before checking their credit.

inmypocketnottheirs

r_holmes22 wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestions, people. I downloaded the software at about 10pm. The credit has been dripping away throughout the day. I check my balance, leave it 15mins or so then check again to find another 1p or 2p has gone. I switched Vyke off about 5pm and credit has remained static since, so it's almost certainly the software.

I don't know whether this is related to the problems Vyke mention with Vodafone? I have no idea whether the new version of the software was on the site when I downloaded it last night. I'm wondering whether Vodafone have implemented something to ensure they continue to get decent revenue from this type of application.

Either way, unless I've set something up wrongly, this is certainly not a cost effective texting solution on my setup. Just thought I'd raise it in case anybody else with the same combination loses £££££££s before checking their credit.

It would sound to me that you are not on a data tariff. When on a data tariff, you only pay for the actual content downloaded. Having an application open does not incur any charge. It could be that Vyke is pinging the server and this will result in a data flow. But if on a data tariff (i.e even 1mb a month) the amount of data used by Vyke would be absolutely minimal.

I would check with your network what the data charges are.

HTH

r_holmes22

Thanks for that; I'll investigate. It does seem to me that it's Vyke pinging the server that's incurring the charges. I'm just surprised at how much it's costing. It looks to me as though they round the charge up to 1p each time Vyke pings the server, elthough I haven't experimented enough to be sure.

I was keeping tabs on some football scores over the weekend and it only cost me a few pence to check Premiership and Championship scores a few times and the occasional click through to see who scored, so thought the data usage tarrif was actually quite decent.

Disco_Des

r_holmes22 wrote: »

Thanks for that; I'll investigate. It does seem to me that it's Vyke pinging the server that's incurring the charges. I'm just surprised at how much it's costing. It looks to me as though they round the charge up to 1p each time Vyke pings the server, elthough I haven't experimented enough to be sure.

I was keeping tabs on some football scores over the weekend and it only cost me a few pence to check Premiership and Championship scores a few times and the occasional click through to see who scored, so thought the data usage tarrif was actually quite decent.

You can set the frequency of "server pinging" from within Vyke as well to keep down costs.

Disco_Des

redux wrote: »

for instance, Nokia 6070 has

Web > Configuration Settings > Default
Web > Configuration Settings > Account
Settings > Connectivity > Packet Data > Packet data settings
Settings > Configuration > Default configuration settings
Settings > Configuration > Activate default in all configurations
Settings > Configuration > Preferred access point

I tried these settings on my Nokia 6233 on Orange Contract and it made no difference....... back to the drawing board!

r_holmes22

Disco_Des wrote: »

You can set the frequency of "server pinging" from within Vyke as well to keep down costs.

Thanks. It was already on the second-lowest setting (5mins) and my credit is still plummeting with the 10mins setting.

When I start the application it asks whether I want to allow Vyke Pro to send to the Internet (which I do). Initially it reports being offline, but turns to 'Online' after a few seconds. I immediately disconnect and find my PAYG credit has dropped by 1p. I ask Vyke Pro to check my credit (which I guess is my Vyke credit) and nowt happens, I just get the animated 'bubbles' icon for a while. After a minute or so I disconnect and, again, then find my PAYG credit has dropped by 1p again.

Note, I've not been able to send a text message yet. Like some others on here, I just end up with the animated bubbles icon even if I leave it five mins (which, incidentally, results in yet another drop of 1p in my PAYG credit), so I'm assuming all is not right with my setup.

I've noticed, like a number of others, that Vyke does not appear to be actually connecting. I can't send messages and there is no phone number in the 'this phone is registered to' section. I'm now completely bamboozled as to where my credit is going if I'm not even reaching the Vyke server!!

That said, it does report 'online' in the Vyke Pro menu screen shortly after I start the application. However, if I select the option to disconnect then try to reconnect it just displays the animated bubbles screen indefinitely (and another 1p of PAYG credit bites the dust).

swagman

My experience over several weeks has been that smsbug is, well, 'buggy', that Vyke Pro will not run on several (many?) phones, that Vyke lite may run but without access to your phonebook in some (many?) cases.

Smsbug works for me, and you can create a phone book online BUT each text costs one credit and to get delivery reports costs a further credit. The unrealised (by me) snag is that if you choose the option to get reports only when delivery fails, smsbug keeps trying every several minutes and sends you a fail report EVERY TIME! So one text not delivered can creep up in cost.

On smsbug you also get periodic failures to send or deliver, but your credit has still gone down.

Overall I have found that the cheapest and most reliable route to low cost texting is 18185, but this is from a PC. One penny a time and, for me, never a failure. All your sent texts are vieweable online, as is your running billing. You do have to create an account with direct debit, but as the same account offers very cheap landline calls and staggeringly cheap international calls, I have found it all worthwhile.

So the combination that has suited me best is 18185 texting from home and smsbug (with delivery reports switched off) from mobile.

mandcj

Hi

I've read the whole of this board but am still not clear on a couple of things. Can anyone help?

Context is a languages student daughter about to spend a year in France and Italy, so we're interested in containing SMS (and talk) costs. I'm a fifty-something who's reasonably IT literate but struggling to keep up with some of the technology!

Assuming Vyke will load and work on our mobiles (vodafone contract, vodafone payg and virgin payg), are we likely to incur 'roaming' charges for data use?

Is there still an issue with Vyke on vodafone of has this been worked around?

Apologies if I should have found the answers elsewhere, any pointers gratefully received!

redux

mandcj wrote: »

Hi

I've read the whole of this board but am still not clear on a couple of things. Can anyone help?

Context is a languages student daughter about to spend a year in France and Italy, so we're interested in containing SMS (and talk) costs. I'm a fifty-something who's reasonably IT literate but struggling to keep up with some of the technology!

Assuming Vyke will load and work on our mobiles (vodafone contract, vodafone payg and virgin payg), are we likely to incur 'roaming' charges for data use?

Is there still an issue with Vyke on vodafone of has this been worked around?

Apologies if I should have found the answers elsewhere, any pointers gratefully received!

As some of those are payg, without a built in data allowance, I think I'd suggest that because of the Vyke Pro version doing these pings every so often, which will use data up each time, the Vyke Lite option would be better.

Then the Vyke charge is 2 US cents a message. The data used per message is 1.5 to 2k, and on Virgin the data tariff is the same whether roaming or in UK - 0.5 p/kB.

As for talk costs, read Martin's article about roaming and its discussion article(s). Maybe local SIMs, maybe a global roaming one. As a general principle, using a separate callback service can save quite a bit, and Vyke has good tariffs for this and can trigger calls from the same Java client

Some Italian SIMs have significant add-on data packages while in Italy if she might be using a laptop, but I haven't studied them as much since an excellent roaming option on Wind was scrapped. You might read about them on the PrepaidGSM site mentioned in the roaming article

mandcj

Thanks Redux, I'll go back and re-read the article. Hadn't registered the issue about payg not including data so Vyke lite might be better. Thanks for your advice.