A couple of months ago, I came across a very weird issue with Google’s chat client (GTalk) on my Android phone.

After installing a new custom ROM, I have full Internet connectivity over my service provider’s 3G network (Cytamobile-Vodefone), except for GTalk. GTalk kept failing to connect over 3G, but it was fine through WiFi. Of course my first thought was that the custom ROM’s GTalk client was problematic. Also GTalk is not treated as any application within the Adrnoid OS, since it’s considered one of its core apps, so root access was a requirement. I even tried upgrading the the custom ROM’s Beta version, hoping that this glitch is fixed. But despite all effort, at the end of the day, the result was the same! In every forum I checked, I couldn’t find anybody else facing the same problem.

Since the problem occurred only over the 3G network, I decided to take a look into the phone’s APN settings (Settings -> Wireless and Network -> Mobile Network -> Access Point Names). I noticed that for some reason, I was using the old APN settings of Cyta which were:

APN name: cytamobile

Username: user

Password: password

 

I found this very weird, since I was 100% that I always used the most recent, simplified settings, without a username/password. So I reverted back my settings, et voilà! My GTalk connected right away, and my 3G Internet was faster than before, as this APN seems to point to a newer, faster server.

Summing up, the CORRECT APN settings are:

APN name: internet

Username:

Password:

 



 

 

It’s really questionable WHY this is happening. Why the old server still exists but not operating correctly. But then again I though that this must be an old forgotten server the custom ROM creator found and used. So I didn’t bother myself much about it.

But just yesterday, a friend of mine had a brand new gorgeous Samsung Galaxy Note, and she was facing the exact same problem with her stock ROM! Thanks to my bad experience above, I immediately found the problem and her GTalk worked. It’s an I.T Miracle! Therefore I decided to post the solution to this common issue, as I highly doubt Cyta’s support line, or any third party will be able to help you in case you face this problem 🙂

I hope my quick post was of some help to an Android fan out there 🙂