Based on materials fromandroidcentral.com
What is APN? In short, APN is an abbreviation for Access Point Name, an access point name, an identifier that provides the phone with the information it needs to connect to a wireless service. It can be changed by setting a new name for the access point from the operator in the smartphone settings.
Why might an APN change be required?
APN change is not available for phones tied to a specific operator, but it serves as a tool for connecting to networks of other operators. Such a switch may be necessary for someone who, for one reason or another, decided to connect his device to a network different from the one that was originally registered in the phone. Apart from simple curiosity, this may be required if the settings for some reason stopped working properly. Let's see how you can change and add APNs on your smartphone.
What is APN?
Access Point Name (or APN for short) is the name of the settings that allow your phone to establish a gateway connection between your carrier's network and the public network.
Your carrier reads these settings to create an IP address, connect to the correct secure gateway, and detect when the carrier needs to connect you to a personal network such as a VPN. Most of the work takes place on the operator's side, but we need to make sure that the necessary settings have been received and we are connected to the required network in the way we want.
Different settings may be required depending on the network device of a particular operator. In most cases, it is sufficient to change only a few parameters, but you still need to keep the existing settings from your operator. The majority of users will never need to manually change the APN, since several standard APN settings are preloaded into each phone, so the device in most cases will be able to configure itself to make calls automatically. This is very convenient if you suddenly need help from the operator's technical support, if some network settings in your device are not working correctly and you have to set the APN manually.
But it's not that simple. Operators can change the standard smartphone software in such a way that it becomes impossible for the user to change the APN settings, even if the device is not connected to the operator. You can find these settings, see which ones work, but you can never connect to another network.
How to change APN settings
First you need to find the correct APN settings for the network you want to connect to. Most often they are publicly available on the operator's technical support pages. They look like this (using the example of the Mint Mobile operator):
- Name – Ultra
- APN – Wholesale
- Proxy – (leave blank)
- Port – 8080
- Username & Password – (leave blank)
- Server – (leave blank)
- MMSC —http: //wholesale.mmsmvno.com/mms/wapenc
- MMS Proxy – (leave blank)
- MMS Port – (leave blank)
- MCC – 310
- MNC – 260
- Authentication Type – (leave blank)
- APN Type – default, supl, mms
The values must be entered in the corresponding fields of the new APN, after which you can use the network connection for data and MMS transmission. But it's nice to know where the input form is.
And this depends on which company made your smartphone, but it will always be in the same settings section where all other wireless settings are located. Next, you need to find the section for the settings of the access point name, as a rule, located in the section of the operator's network connection settings. If you are not a very experienced user, then don't worry, nothing will happen if you just find this section and look into the settings. Just don't save your changes if something is clicked.
If you find the 'Access Point Names' section, tap on it to enter.
You should see a list with at least one set of APN settings. If changing APN settings is not available, then you will need to add a new profile. Do not delete or change the settings already saved on your phone. Instead, it’s better to create a new APN so you can choose. At the top of the screen, press the plus sign to enter the hotspot change screen. It is on it that you can enter the settings taken from the operator's website. Two important points:
- Not every field on the Change Access Point screen needs to be completed. Values need to be entered only in those fields for which they are specified by the operator. The rest remain as they are.
- Enter everything exactly as instructed by the operator. For example, 'default, supl, hipri' is not the same as 'default, supl, hipri', because in the second case you put a space between the characters. The operator's system will not be able to read or count incorrect information and will not function correctly. It doesn't matter how small the difference was.
Once the values provided by the operator have been entered, you need to save your APN settings. To do this, click the three-dot symbol in the upper right corner of the screen and select the 'Save' option.
After saving the APN data, return to the list screen you saw earlier. On it, you need to tap on the new settings to make this profile active. If within a few minutes after activation the connection has not been established, then restarting the phone can help you.
In rare cases, an operator may have two APN profiles that are required to operate. This happens if a separate gateway is required for MMS or other data, different from the gateway used by your data package. In this case, all detailed explanations will be on the operator's website indicating which APN is used for what. But more often than not, all the same settings for everything.
That's all! Now your phone is ready to receive calls, send SMS, MMS and data packages. And do not turn off the alert settings for the amount of traffic used to monitor the volume and not accidentally use up more than necessary.