Technical assistance / information - N900 and 3G in Cape Town area

I'm using a Nokia N900 in Cape Town.

Last month (April) something changed on the Vodacom network - now whenever I try to connect to 3G it tries for a while and then says "connection failed, try again?" I say yes and it tries again and it almost always connects quickly (though sometimes only on the 3rd or 4th attempt). I think the second time I have to be quick saying yes and selecting the apn for it to work but I'm not sure about that.

My uneducated guess is that the phone is giving up on the connection too quickly / it's taking longer than normal to connect. It may not be a network problem (other phones may keep trying a bit longer). My theory is that it works the second time (if you are quick enough) because on the network side it sees it as the same attempt, in other words if my first attempt kept trying a bit longer it would connect.

So my question is basically, does anyone (VodacomData?) have any insight into what may be going on in the background there?

akkidiss is also in Cape Town using an N900 finds the same thing.
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...ding-in-S.A.&p=3781939&viewfull=1#post3781939

What we have established is that:
a) This is a Cape Town problem - N900 users in Jhb do not experience this problem.
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...ding-in-S.A.&p=3800014&viewfull=1#post3800014

b) It is Vodacom specific - Using an MTN sim card, connection happens first time, no problem.
c) It's a 3G problem - Using 2G, connection happens first time, no problem.
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...ding-in-S.A.&p=3806257&viewfull=1#post3806257

d) I think (but have yet to retest) that when my Data Bundle runs out (I'm prepaid) I connect first time, no problem. Once I purchase a new bundle the problem starts again.

Any ideas?

joelus said:

I'm using a Nokia N900 in Cape Town.

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Hello joelus, I'm jealous.

joelus said:

Last month (April) something changed on the Vodacom network

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I'm glad you've brought this up, I've also noticed that something changed in April. I have a Nokia N95 (waiting patiently for the N900 to be released here) on pre-paid and my wife has an iPhone 3G on contract, both with data bundles. We've both noticed that it is now taking much longer to connect to the internet on 3G than before April. I have also noticed using Nokia Maps on my phone that it sometimes take so long to establish an internet connection for the A-GPS to work that it gives up. We haven't tried connecting without a data bundle loaded.

ginggs said:

I'm glad you've brought this up, I've also noticed that something changed in April. I have a Nokia N95 (waiting patiently for the N900 to be released here) on pre-paid and my wife has an iPhone 3G on contract, both with data bundles. We've both noticed that it is now taking much longer to connect to the internet on 3G than before April. I have also noticed using Nokia Maps on my phone that it sometimes take so long to establish an internet connection for the A-GPS to work that it gives up. We haven't tried connecting without a data bundle loaded.

Click to expand...

That's great! Not than you noticed it but that it seems it is network related rather than N900 related!
Hopefully VodacomData will be able to find something out for us...

I have an old Nokia E51 (Vodacom Data Bundle) that I use as my 3G modem. For me it happens like this.. if the phone has already established an internet connection (whether for Nokia Mail or whatever) then when I try to connect via PC using Nokia PC Suite it connects almost instantly, and works correctly. Alternatively, if the phone is idle (ie hasn't established its own internet connection) then the PC Dial up takes about 30sec to try and connect and then fails. On the second attempt to connect via the PC it generally does connect but then hasn't been assigned DNS servers by Vodacom, so while it is connected, I still cannot browse. If I manually input the DNS servers then it works fine. I'm in Langebaan and this too has been happening since about April.

Oh, and testing the 3G connection using just the phone confirms what you said, it takes long to connect and doesnt always connect on the 1st attempt either

Since before April, I've had a series of customers with Nokia phones. They say before they could connect almost instantly and it worked perfectly since they had their phones. All of a sudden they could connect, but it takes AGES for the Nokia's to connect. When it eventually establishes a connection, there is no throughput at all!

This happens when the phone is set to 3G. When you set the Nokia's to GSM, and connect, it works without any trouble at all. Set it back to 3G, then its broken.

I was advised to input the Vodacom DNS Server settings into the Dial-up connections. This however fixed the issue for the throughput, but the Nokia's still took at least 30 seconds to a minute to establish a connection.

Even just connecting via the phone browser it tooks a nice long to time to make the connection.

So IMO, something has changed. I would also like to know what and why.

I've actually set my E71 to GSM pretty much permanently - 3G is available so seldom, and when it is available, it doesn't always work reliably, so I've basically given up on it.

Can confirm that I have a Nokia N900, I'm in Gauteng, and I don't have this 3G connection delay. Mine connects first time without issue.

As mentioned by joelus I also have the problem.
Happens in Cape Town and only with Vodacom on the N900.
I took the phone to the Vodacom shop, they tested it and confirmed that there is nothing wrong with the phone.
But, they could not give a solution.
I will be traveling to Gauteng next month and it will be interesting to see if the problem still happen there as other people reported they don't have the problem there.
I also want to play with syslogd and see if I can't get logs when the problem occur.

Does Vodacom not have different kit in the two regions? I am pretty sure it was mentioned here somewhere, but with all the upgrades this might no longer be the case.

Here is the dmesg output when I get the problem:

[115249.213378] wl1251: firmware booted (Rev 4.0.4.3.7)
[115251.237060] wl1251: down
[115252.343688] gprs0: attached
[115279.255126] gprs0: detached
[115281.377258] wl1251: 151 tx blocks at 0x3b788, 35 rx blocks at 0x3a780
[115281.392852] wl1251: firmware booted (Rev 4.0.4.3.7)
[115283.244537] wl1251: down
[115283.473724] gprs0: attached

You will see it attach and detach. When I then say yes to the 'Try again' message and connect again it stays attached.
Don't know if this helps much though.

Anybody know what the command is to start the 3G connection in debug mode?

Is it just me or has this problem been fixed? I connected this morning first time, no delay at all! Tried a couple of times and connected first time each time! Thanks to whoever fixed it!

@joelus: You are lucky. I still get the same problem. Did you change anything on your phone, SIM, network?

Strange I have been having the exact same problem in Stellenbosch the whole of May! I thought my nokia E63 had developed a problem but clearly it is a vodacom problem! Mine takes at least 15 seconds to connect to UMTS (on device) and then works fine. If tether via pc suite I also takes a while to connect but then the speeds are really bad. After about 5min browsing the speeds drop to 0 and the only way to fix it is to disconnect the phone and reconnect. Really annoying!!!!

VodacomData when are we going to get aa response on this issue?????

Whoop, whoop! Since this morning my first connection works 90% of the time. I had only one time when I needed to connect twice. Seems as if something changed.
All that I did last night was to change my Vodacom profile to have the N900 as my device. Don't know if this is of any relevance, but since this morning my 3G connections seems fine.
I will test more during the day and just hope this is not short-lived.
If someone did change something, thank you very much.