E75: SIP & USB mode

Question

Hello everybody.
I've just bought an e75 and I think that Nokia did a great job with this phone.
I'm using almost all the features of the device since I have an UMTS carrier with 10GB/month of Internet.
So far there are only two things that I want to report, one probably as a minor bug and one that instead I think is a Nokia choice (hopefully I'm wrong!!) that I don't agree with.
The first issue that I noticed is that when Fring in running (I guess it would be the same with any application installed on the memory card) and I connect the phone to my PC using the USB cable, Fring stop running and if I look for it in the application folder, also the icon is missing.
If I unplug the USB cable everything comes back to normal.
I've tried to figure out why I'm having this behavior and the only reason I could find is that, since Fring is installed on the external memory card, when plugged the phone driver *lock* the memory card and all the files (thus the applications as well) can not be accessed any more. It makes sense in terms of safety but I would prefer the phone to lock the files that have been using (running applications) so that I can use all the applications I want while the phone is charging.
The second issue is about SIP. The phone is capable of SIP calls (without using Fring) BUT unfortunately I could only place SIP calls using Gizmo. I can configure another SIP providers and the login is successful as stated in the "Registered" word. The problem is that every time I try to perform a SIP call, only the Gizmo provider can be used to place calls. I know that this is a *well known issue* in recent Nokia phones. And is a commercial choice. Still, I'm here to ask Nokia to unlock this feature and let the users decide which SIP provider to use. I bought an original Nokia phone with no brands exactly because I want to be free to do anything I want with it.
Please Nokia, let us use the SIP Internet calls without any restriction.
(Or at least write in the specs that "SIP calls can be placed ONLY with Gizmo carrier".....does it sound so crazy?)
For the rest it's a GREAT phone. Thanks Nokia for giving us such good devices.
Regards.
Sergio Tota 

Answer 1

Hi optimiser_ss,
Sorry for the delay in answering you. The first thing I did was to install the "SIP VoIP Settings". In this way you have extra settings in the "Control Panel ->Settings .net". If you don't install it, you can configure your SIP providers but you can't use them to place VoIP calls (Thus, as configured from Nokia, it's an useless configuration).
Once you install the  "SIP VoIP Settings" application, you first need to configure your SIP providers in the "Control Panel->Settings->Connections->SIP configurations".
I'm currently using an Italian SIP VoIP carrier, Eutelia.
Now you have to create an Internet Telephony profile using the SIP providers previously configured.
go to "Control Panel ->Settings .net". Go to "Advanced VoIP settings" and then to VoIP services.
You should see only the Gizmo VoIP configuration.If you click on the Options button you can choose the "New" command to create a new VoIP profile.
Once you do it, you should be ready to use the Internet Telephony service.
The first time you will try to place a VoIP call you will be asked if you want to enable the VoIP service. Of course you have to say yes and you will see a small white icon close to the one of the wifi connection.
Depending on your provider you can play with the codecs to find the optimal solution.
Remember anyway that you can download the SIP VoIP settings documenation to have full details on the configuration.
Some other comments on the SIP VoIP features of this phone. Probably I'm pushing it to the limit but I want to receive also incoming calls through my SIP account thus I leave the phone "always-on". Since it's always connected, the battery last hours. I think that the best approach would be to use the VoIP feature only when you need, to place calls.
The battery can't handle the fact that you staty always on, at least with an UMTS 3G/3.5G connection. Probably wifi would have better performance. From this side it seems that Fring has a better management of the power consumption but I have to check it out better.
Another annoying thing is that it's VERY tricky to switch between the UMTS and WiFi connections for the SIP VoIP service. If you configure your SIP provider to use your WiFi connection, let's say at home, when you go out and you might need to connect using the UMTS connection it doesn't switch automatically or ask you to change the access point.But even if you want to manually do it it's a nightmare!
If you want to edit the configuration you can't because the provider is locked because it's in use. And if you switch the phone off and on again the VoIP will start automatically thus you will not be able to change the configuration again.
I solved the problem creating a "Fake" SIP provider. When I want to switch between WiFi and UMTS I change the configuration in the ".Net Settings" of my provider and change the SIP profile to use from "eutelia" to "Fake".
After that I still have to reboot the phone and only after that I can edit the SIP configuration of the provider to make it use another Access Point. I would be SO happy if somebody tell me a smarter way to obtain these results!!!
Remember also that the quality of the call in terms of audio and latency strongly depends on your UMTS carrier as well.
Hope it will help.
Regards.
Sergio Tota