I have been using the free Vipnet Mobile Broadband SIM in my phone for 10 days now and it’s been great! In all the years I have been going to Croatian seaside, I was newer able to use internet, so this is a nice change.
There was just one tiny problem before I was able to use my new mobile broadband: internet settings. As you might know, in order to use data transfer on your mobile, you need to set three things:

– APN (access point name)
– user name
– password

If you phone is supplied by your mobile provider, those settings might already be set, otherwise you need to obtain them and set manually. The call to VIP support cost me EUR 3 – due to roaming charges; the number is free for VIP users, but my SIM is data only, no voice 🙂

I soon received an SMS with following settings:
– APN: data.vipnet.hr
– user name: 38591
– password: 38591

Palm Treo 680 worked with those settings. In order to use a PC, you need to configure your phone as a modem over serial Bluetooth link. You then initiate DUN (dial up networking) from your PC. Username and password are the same as above, dial up number is standard GPRS dial-up:

*99#    or    *99***1#

The 1 stands for first network settings configured in your phone (you might need different number here).
While Treo 680 worked OK, my UMTS phone Samsung SGH-Z400 needed an additional setting: in Windows modem setup, under Modem Initialization following AT command string needs to be entered:
at+cgdcont=1,”IP”,”data.vip.hr”

The last item is APN and is dependent on your mobile network provider.
Looks like Nokia and some other phones also need this setting. Unlike Palm Treo 680, those phones seem to use the internet settings we entered in the phone for browsing only and ignore them completely when using Dial Up Networking – they obviously use username and password provided in Windows DUN dialog, where APN is not provided (and hence needs to be entered as modem initialization string).

***

In 10 days I used about 170MB and still had 30MB left when I also bought the USB stick for $26 – with HRK 20 included + free 200MB data option. The stick is a bit more convenient, since you yust plug it in & connect, whereas with the phone, BT must be on on at both ends, DUN settings correct and still we have to take care that the phone battery does not run flat.

***: I was only able to write this post to position marked with ***. Looks like my Tre0 680 only support text entry box with 2000 characters…