Hi

I have owned various HTC handsets over last 5 years, all running Windows Mobile, all on O2.

In every case, probably more than 5 models tried, when in my home I was able to connect to my Wifi network and use any data services imaginable via my Wifi, instead of via the mobile networks data plans.

So,

1. when at home I could run Apps, browse web, collect email etc etc, using my Wifi, just as I would with a laptop, and in this case any data usage was covered by my ISP contract at home,

and

2. when out of home I would do the same with HSDPA, 3G, Edge, GPRS, .. whatever the phone could find and in these case of course the data usage was covered by my phone contract.

Now my daughter has a Nokia E63, it is unlocked but carries the 3 Logo on it. I have tried it with both 3 and Vodafone SIM cards, but these are SIM cards that at moment have no data plan. I am hoping to use with Wifi when at home in similar way to what I am used to with the HTCs.

Although when at home it sees my Wireless network, in most cases (e.g. even opening Google in a browser) it refuses to use the Wifi, and gives a message that I have to switch to 3 Mobile network. In some case (e.g. visiting Nokia own mobile site) it is fine. Even more mysterious, facebooks app tries to open BT Open Zone WLAN connection, even though I am nowhwere near any BT Open Zone hotspots, it even tells me to close the active conneciton I have (my homes Wifi).

My daughter is very frustrated with this, and now wants to change the handset for a Blackberry.

Happy to upgrade the contract to include some data, but regardless will still want to use my Wifi connection when in the home.

Whats going on? I called 3 and they weren't a lot of use. From what I know of Blackberry I worry it will be the same or similar (force you use Blackberry network even when in your home Wifi area)

Ideas?

an option would be to remove the three branding completely and restore it to the generic nokia configuration. Three are prone to doing ridiculous things.
http://nokia.nigelcoldwell.co.uk/firmware.htm
A suitable product code would be 0582369: RM-437 CTR EURO-A Midnight Black )

i don't have an E63 but i think it uses the same system as my N95 did.
under Menu > Web > Options > Settings > General. you can set the access point to be used by the browser. you need this to be set to your wifi. Additionally though the settings within a bookmark can be used to override this. so for example the facebook bookmark maybe set to use the Three APN, and it also may not be to facebook but some crazy Three version of it.

I would suspect it has more to do with the 3 Operator Branding rather than Nokia. Although this sounds like it has gone way further than operators normally corrupt the proper manufacturers software. The best people to talk to would be the techies at your local Nokia Service Centre, but they probably won't un-brand it for you.

If you don't mind destroying the warranty, you can un-brand (no the same as un-locking) it by changing the product code to that of the real Nokia phone and re-flashing the firmware using Nokia PC Suite. You may find a small phone shop that will do this.

Having gone through this, and seen the mess Orange had made or my brother in laws N70, they had made the menus totally un-nokia, and totally different to my N70.

Personally I would never buy a branded phone again.

I thought I would update you, because I am still having problems.

I decided to follow your suggestions and remove all 3 branding. Using the instructions provided (nigelcoldwell) I first downloaded Nokia PC Suite (ovi) and made sure the PC and phone were communicating. WIthout any trouble I synced all categories with PC and made a backup.

Then using NSS as described I rewrote the Product codec to 0561988, which I checked on several formats is the right generic code for this phone.

But...

When I reconnected to OVI suite as instructed, OVI suite reported the phone had no updates available, so I selected the option to reinstall the firmware,

At end of re-install process, phone is meant to re-boot, but it froze and did not re-boot. I made a hard reset to it, and it came back perfect it seemed with no 3 Branding

But…

Now, when I reconnect the phone to Ovi Suite, the phone is really troublesome. First time the PC detects it connected via USB (phone USB mode is set to PC Suite). OVI suite also detects it, but as soon as I try to synchronise again and make a restore (e.g. to get all the contacts back in to it), the USB connection breaks, and PC and the phone lose all connection, and even shutting everything down and re-connecting doesn’t work. I have to restart the computer and phone before they will talk again, so… so far although I have debranded the phone, I have not managed to get my contacts back in to it.

I am trying to reinstall the firmware one more time.

So I repeated the process, this time firmware re-installed without failure, phones book up screen looked different, (grey wall paper instead of blue). Ovi Wizard detected the phone come back and automatically took me to restore screen. Restore failed, and now again the PC wont recognise the phone. Even Windows reports USB device not recognised.

WHole reason for embarking on this was try to get the phone "free" from being tied to using data services (threes) when in the house with Wi Fi Access point there. and I can report that certainly the web browser now works via the Wi Fi, so thats a start.

the before phone and the after phone are essentially different. migrating the settings from one to the other will not work.

the problem is that the ovi suite is confused. the two phones have the same imei number and so ovi thinks that it can treat them as the same phone. as a simple example the settings saved with your old phone may tell it to use theme '#1 Three default' but that theme is not there. hence the crash.

the only things you should restore are contacts, bookmarks etc. the non device specific items. after that you can remove the backups in the ovi directory.