Trouble sending MMS when Wireless Enabled (Droid 4)
rvdolson
Newbie

Using a Droid 4 in Southern California (usually connected via 4G/LTE) and cannot send MMS messages when I'm connected to Wireless/Wifi.

Did a little tcpdump'ing from my router and found that the phone is trying to resolve the hostname mms.vtext.com when I send the text.  This fails and I'm guessing is ultimately why the MMS message isn't successfully sent.

Obviously, if I could find a way to return the correct IP or IP's for this hostname, I might be one step closer to solving this -- but I guess I'm not sure if I'd even be able to reach the "real" IP either.  I've read elsewhere that Android is supposed to bring up a temporary interface to facilitate the MMS configuration.

Anyone run into this?

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Re: Trouble sending MMS when Wireless Enabled (Droid 4)
SuzyQ
Community Leader
Community Leader

As you've discovered, you need to be connected to the cellular network to send MMS - although the messages are counted as text, they are sent over the data network, and wi fi doesn't work.  It seems to be a big point of confusion, that MMS are sent over the data connection, need the cellular data connection, yet are not counted against your data plan.

And frustrating that they are not sent or received over wifi. 

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Re: Trouble sending MMS when Wireless Enabled (Droid 4)
rvdolson
Newbie

In reading other threads, sounds like this may just not be supported.  Weird that it isn't since at least the DNS piece seems pretty trivial to resolve (no pun intended).

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Re: Trouble sending MMS when Wireless Enabled (Droid 4)
SuzyQ
Community Leader
Community Leader

As you've discovered, you need to be connected to the cellular network to send MMS - although the messages are counted as text, they are sent over the data network, and wi fi doesn't work.  It seems to be a big point of confusion, that MMS are sent over the data connection, need the cellular data connection, yet are not counted against your data plan.

And frustrating that they are not sent or received over wifi. 

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Re: Trouble sending MMS when Wireless Enabled (Droid 4)
pantalanaga
Newbie

I ran into this same issue this evening.  Its actually been bugging my wife and I for a while now.  MMS works fine over cellular but not while on WiFi.  Here is what I've found:

The mmsc is located at: http://mms.vtext.com/servlet/mms

I pinged this hostname from my phone and found the IP address is: 69.78.88.6

I can ping this from my laptop and get a response on a comcast cable connection.

I'm pretty sure I could fix this if I could either edit the APN info on my phone and replace the hostname with the IP (sadly this menu option is hidden in android 4.2.2) OR I could edit the mmsc.conf.xml under /system/etc but I need root and I haven't rooted my gnex OR I could modify /etc/hosts on my gnex but again, I don't have root.

Other options might involve setting up a DNS server on your local network with the proper name resolution.

It seems to me to be a pretty big deal that DNS fails for mms.vtext.com.  I would think Verizon wouldn't want that to be the case.  I personally use the Google DNS server at 8.8.8.8:

PS C:\Users\andy> nslookup

Default Server:  google-public-dns-a.google.com

Address:  8.8.8.8

> nslookup 69.78.88.6

Server:  [69.78.88.6]

Address:  69.78.88.6

DNS request timed out.

    timeout was 2 seconds.

DNS request timed out.

    timeout was 2 seconds.

*** Request to 69.78.88.6 timed-out

> nslookup mms.vtext.com

DNS request timed out.

    timeout was 2 seconds.

DNS request timed out.

    timeout was 2 seconds.

*** Can't find address for server mms.vtext.com: Timed out


Anyone have any luck manually setting your mmsc to that IP?

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Re: Trouble sending MMS when Wireless Enabled (Droid 4)
pantalanaga
Newbie

This also confirms that there is something interesting at that IP.  I don't think its a case of two IPs just happening to be on the same networks (cellular vs. internet)

http://www.iplocationtools.com/69.78.88.6.html

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