Cannot connect to TMobile Hotspots with iPhone

Question

Cannot connect to TMobile Hotspots with iPhone

Hello,

I wanted to ask if anyone out there has had any success connecting to TMobile Hotspots through the iPhone Safari browser from the TMobile Hotspot login page. I can log in just fine using my computer, but when I use the same username and password on the login page in Safari on my iPhone, login fails. I have now tried 5 different Starbucks, in Arizona and in California, and I get the same exact behavior on each of them.

Unfortunately the TMobile Hotspot support is next to worthless, I have been in an email ping-pong match with them for nearly a week now and they don't seem to know what an iPhone is yet. At any rate, unless I've completely missed the boat, Starbucks / iPhone connectivity has been a fairly highly touted feature, and as of yet, I cannot seem to find anyone at either Starbucks / TMobile who can tell me how this works, or even if it works yet. I'm not quite sure why it wouldn't work, save a browser-identifying/ dependent feature of the login functionality on TMobile's Hotspot login page, or some shortcoming of the Safari browser on the iPhone -- presently my iPhone settings allow all cookies.

If anyone out there has had any success logging into TMobile Hotspots with your iPhone, or can give me any guidance, I'd love to hear from you.

Cheers,

Brad

G5 dual-2.3Ghz, 4.5GB RAM, Nvidia 7800GT, Mac OS X (10.5.1), Powerbook G4-1.33GHz-17", 1GB RAM, Radeon 9600-64MB

Posted on Jan 2, 2008 4:23 PM

Reply

Answer 1

BlingMe

Level 2

370 points

Jan 2, 2008 10:41 PM in response to Bradley O'Hearne

From my experience of being in Starbucks with my laptop....the only way I can get into the T-Mobile Hotspot is to sign up for T-Mobile. You can pay a monthly fee or a daily fee (I believe $9.95).....as if I wanna pay for a whole day when I'm only in there for a short time to enjoy a cup of coffee. For what I pay for the coffee....I should be able to hop on the Wireless Hotspot for free for the 30 minutes I'm at Starbucks. Anyhow.......I wonder if you have to sign up and pay for it while using your iPhone too. I have never tried!

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Answer 2

mkoth

Level 1

4 points

Jan 3, 2008 1:57 AM in response to Bradley O'Hearne

Yes, I succeeded to connect to a T-Mobile hotspot on the Munich airport. I am an iPhone subscriber of Orange (France) so T-Mobile charged me 8 Euros for an hour of surfing. You first have to get connected to their hotspot that supplies all the parameters like IP adress and DNS server(Preferences/WiFi/Select network).

Then launch Safari and you are forced onto the T-Mobile web site where you can subscribe to the service by leaving your credit card number.

Unfortunately I didn't succeed yet to connect to an Orange hotspot that is supposed to be included in my subscription and as you are mentioning Starbucks that should also offer free access to their hotspots this might be a comparable situation.

Manfred Koth

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Answer 3

J Blanton

Level 2

177 points

Jan 3, 2008 7:24 AM in response to Bradley O'Hearne

Are cookies enabled on your browser on the iPhone? (Settings -> Safari-> Accept cookies --> "Always")

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Answer 4

Jan 3, 2008 1:36 PM in response to BlingMe

That's just it though -- I have a paid T-Mobile Hotspot account. Using that account, I can login to it using my computer, but not using an iPhone. Like I said, 5 Starbucks in 2 states, its pretty lame that I cannot use a paid TMobile Hotspot account with the iPhone.

Brad

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Answer 5

Jan 3, 2008 1:39 PM in response to mkoth

Manfred,

Thanks for the reply. The approach of this Hotspot, be it the fact that you are outside the USA or maybe something specific to the airport, is different from the Starbucks I've gone to in the USA. In the USA, you can connect to the wireless using computer or iPhone. But you do not have Internet access until you open up Safari -- you will be automatically redirected to the TMobile Hotspot login page, where you can login to your Hotspot account. At this point, a successful login will give you access to the Internet. Problem is, I can log in using my computer, but not my iPhone. The iPhone fails regardless of the login.

Brad

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Answer 6

Jan 3, 2008 1:42 PM in response to J Blanton

Are cookies enabled on your browser on the iPhone? (Settings -> Safari-> Accept cookies --> >"Always")

Yes -- it doesn't matter. Login on computer works. Login on iPhone fails.

Brad

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Answer 7

mpg31337

Level 1

0 points

Jan 13, 2008 5:50 PM in response to Bradley O'Hearne

Hi,

I haven't had a problem using T-Mobile hotspots.

Did you log into your T-Mobile hotspot on the computer and then the iPhone right after? T-Mobile only allows one device to connect per account at a time. If you log the second device in, you get the same error as if you had entered the wrong password. I've also experienced at least a 5 minute timeout when I've just turned my first device off without clicking the 'Logout' link in the browswer pop-up window.

Another thing you can try is temporarily setting your hotspot account password to something extremely simple. (Rule out typos)

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Answer 8

Jan 13, 2008 10:39 PM in response to mpg31337

Thanks for the reply -- yeah, that was something I learned from finally talking on the phone with TMobile Support. Perhaps that has accounted for a couple of the circumstances, but I don't think all of them. I'll give them another test tomorrow.

Brad

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Answer 9

Raymee

Level 1

0 points

Jan 20, 2008 9:06 PM in response to Bradley O'Hearne

I have had the exact problem...I noticed that the iphone is not listed as a compatible handheld device on the tmobile info site. My iphone sees the signal , though. I have never been successful logging in on the iphone. ( I also have an account with them).

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