June 12th, 2010 by jde

I bought my N900 knowing that it has no support for MMS. But what the h…, I rarely get any MMS messages anyway.

But a few days ago I talked to an intelligent person (another N900  owner), and he told me about fmms/fapn. These two applications in conjunction, makes it possible to send and receive MMS. Nice!

How to install and use: http://wiki.maemo.org/FMMS
Configuration for various providers: http://wiki.maemo.org/MMS

As of writing, the above pages are a bit out of date, so this is what I did:

Maemo 5, version 10.2010.19-1
fMMS, version 1.0.3
fAPN, version 0.6-1

1. Install fMMS and fAPN. Both applications are found in the “Internet & Networking” category.
2. Find your provider in this list
3. Run fAPN and select “Add new APN”. Name it (e.g. “Telenor MMS” or “TDC MMS”) and then press “Add”
4. Go to “Settings” -> “Connectivity” and then “Internet connections”.
5. Click the “Connection” button. Highlight your newly created APN and edit it.
6. In the first window that appears, just click “Next”
7. Fill in the access point name (and remember it, since we need it later on), and then username and password (if necessary according to provider settings)
8. In the next window select “Advanced”. Put a checkmark in “Use proxy” and then fill in HTTP-proxy IP and the corresponding port number.
9. “Save” and then “Finish”

Your APN is now configured, and the next step is telling fMMS about your APN:

1. Run fMMS
2. Select “fMMS” at the top of the screen, and the click “Configuration”
3. Click the “Configure” button next to Access Point.
4. Fill in the access point name from step 7 above.
5. Fill in MMSC
6. Click “Save”
7. Fill in “Your phonenumber”, “Resize image width” and “Connection mode”
8. Click “Save”

The wiki page say that you may have to connect your APN prior to sending an MMS – That is not necessary. Just hit New MMS and do your thing

If you get “Connection refused” errors, you have to check your configuration. Also be aware that the information for your provider at the wiki-page, may not be correct. I had to Google a few places to get the correct settings.

I have to wonder why MMS was not build in from the start. It seems that many people have been missing the MMS feature… But the good news is that they are working with the the author of fMMS to integrate the application in a future Maemo version.