I get several mails every week from readers unable to surf the Internet or receive picture messages on their mobile phones. Most of these problems arise because the phones have not been configured correctly, and almost all have a bone to pick with BSNL’s Cellone. The confusion arises because BSNL has one kind of settings for prepaid and another for post-paid, and the information on its website is outdated.

An engineer with BSNL’s Customer Care has written in to clear the confusion once and for all. Mr Bijoy Karmakar has clearly defined the settings which I would like to share with you. The steps laid out here are for Nokia phones, since these are what most people use.

Step 1: Configure the Service settings in your phone: Go to the Tools folder from the Main Menu. Select Settings—>Connection—>Access Points. From the Access Points menu, select Options—>New Access Point—>Use default settings.

Now fill in the fields as below:

Connection name: BSNL MMS

Data bearer: GPRS (or Packet Data)

Access point name: mmseast.cellone.in

Username: bsnl (in lower case)

Prompt Password: No

Password: mmsc (also in lowercase)

Authentication: Normal/Security off

Gateway IP (or Proxy Server): 10.210.10.11

Homepage: http://10.210.10.11:8514

Connection Security: Off

Session mode: Permanent

Step 2: Now you have to set up your phone to receive picture messages. BSNL currently allows picture messages within its network only. You cannot send or receive multimedia messages from someone with an Airtel or Hutch connection.

From the Main Menu, go to Messaging and select Options. Next go to Settings—>Multimedia Message to open another set of fields that should be filled in correctly:

Preferred connections: BSNL MMS (as configured in Step 1).

Secondary connections: BSNL MMS

Multimedia reception: Always on

On receiving msg: Retr. immediately

Allow anon. messages: Yes

Receive adverts: Yes

Receive reports: Yes

Deny report Sending: No

Message validity: Maximum time

Image size: Small

Speaker: Loudspeaker

Step 3: Next, configure your phone to surf the Internet. The GPRS/WAP settings are as follows:

Access Point: Enter either www.e.po (for post-paid users) or www.e.pr (for prepaid users)

Gateway IP Address: 192.168.081.163

Port: Enter either 8080 (for WAP2-enabled handsets) or 9201 (for WAP1-enabled mobile phones)

Security: Off

A good place to get your GRPS and MMS settings is usually the phone manufacturer’s website. All major mobile phone operators are covered here. But select your region carefully. This is because any operator’s settings for North India or South India will vary with the settings that are valid for Calcutta and its adjoining areas.

Make your computer boot fast

In response to another question on slack computers last month, reader Abir Atarthy wants to share some tips on how you can make your PC start swiftly. He has tested them on Windows XP Service Pack 2 and has found that the boot time on his PC has reduced considerably.

Please take a back up of your registry before trying out this trick. If it does not work, you will be able to get back your original settings. Here is his first tip:

Click on the Start—>Run—>type regedit and hit enter to open registry editor. Look for the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\Control\ContentIndex

Here, look for a key called “Startup Delay” and double click on it. Click decimal as base option. Its Default Value Is 480000 (75300:hexadecimal). Change the value to 40000. Now close the registry editor and restart your computer.

Abir Atarthy’s second tip:

Go to Start—> Run and type services.msc. He prefers to use the Services console instead of the msconfig because it describes what the service does. Also, he says, you can double-click a service and examine its properties. It lists whether a service is automatic or manual. Manual services are started in XP when you start an application that requires the service. Automatic services are started when XP boots. These services increase boot time. Many of the automatic services are necessary and important. Atarthy has listed some services that may not be needed for home users. Here is an abridged list.

Computer Browser: If your computer is not on a network, you don’t need this service. Right click on it. Click stop.

DHCP Client: If you are not on a network, you can stop this service.

DNS Client: If you are not on a network, you can stop this service.

Fax: If you don’t use your computer for fax services, you can disable this one.

Messenger: This service sends alert messages on a local area network (it is not the same as Windows Messenger). If you are not on a network, you can disable this service.

Remote Registry: This service allows remote users to modify the Registry on your computer. If you are not on a network, you can disable this service.

Send in your computer-related problems to askdoss@abpmail.com The solutions will appear soon