New to Android...need advice

[paulb]

OK guys,
So I got my first entry level Android phone at the weekend.
Pretty impressed with it for a cheap starter, but........

This little thing seems to like using up all my credit (pre-paid account)
So I was wondering

1, what monitoring app should I get?
2, what services can I dissable & how do I go about it?

I did dissable google talk as I don't use it, but it just restarts at boot.
My ISP gives me free usage on sites within it's range, so god knows what apps are stealing my usage.

Oh yeah, while I'm at it.
Is it worth rooting my Android (btw this means something completely different here in Oz)
And will rooting enable me to actually connect to my home Wi-Fi as all it does at present is constantly state it is connecting, yet never does.

[Toothcake]

First off, which phone did you get? For most Android devices, your phone will need to be rooted ( :D ) in order to freeze system apps. Gingerbread allows a few exceptions but for the most part that's the rule. If your phone comes with Motoblur I absolutely recommend doing whatever you need to do in order to freeze the apps. Nearly all of the included services regularly push to online servers and that can seriously affect your battery life and data usage. Rooting won't matter when connecting to a home network. That sounds like it may be an issue with your network security. Do you use a MAC filter or something like that? I'm not really sure what you mean by a monitoring app.

[paulb]

OK, by monitoring app I meant something like this (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.aob.android.mnm&feature=related_apps), but if rooting will allow me to stop apps connecting then that's even better!

The phone itself is, as far as I can figure, a ZTE Racer as it just has generic brand (http://dicksmith.com.au/product/E6847/) info on it itself.

As for my home network, it's a NetComm wireless router with WEP enabled.....or was it WAP ^.^
It is passworded though, better check my pw hey.


Right....of to figure out how to root my phone then hey

[paulb]

So I want to be able to enable/dissable internet connections on this phone.
Is there an easier way than going into the APN names and editing them?

I would rather an app that lets me do this on the fly like I can with Wi-Fi if possible

edit: NVMD found what I was looking for (https://market.android.com/details?id=net.maicas.android.apnoo&feature=search_result)

[jigsawhc]

Yes, you can get a widget app that lets you quickly switch that sort of thing off/on

[paulb]

Yeah I found it not long after posting ^.^