Crashing card??

[Harley79]

Can it be that crashing cards has something to do with the tower that you connected to / your location

I am in CPT at the moment and have had 5 card crashes in 24 hours. In JHB I have not had a card crash in ages and have sometimes been connected in excess of 12 hours, so I am not convinced about the heat story.

I am not running the dash, straight networking connection.

P.S. Drove along M3 CPT last night with laptop on the passenger seat and talking on Skype to the UK, so coverage along M3 appears good.

[vodacom3g]

Harley79,

This is interesting feedback, tx! Could be all the oxygen...

I assume you're getting both the lights flashing indicating the card crashed? How did you recover from this? Once it's crashed, do you still have an IP addr. on the PC? (Check with an ipconfig in a DOS box)

How long are you going to be in CPT? Maybe we can get you in contact with a local support person.

Your own observations as to what is different in the way you use the card vs. back home? Lower signal strength, more mobile, etc.

The GSM network is driven by different vendors north and south, so we sometimes pick up subtle differences. The 3G network is the same across the country, so no real difference I can pinpoint. Let me chat to the local guys.

Can anyone else, who've used the network north and south, comment on this?

[Harley79]

Yes, getting the alternating blue and green.

I await the next crash.... did not take too much notice before, simply removing the card, waiting a few seconds, inserting again and I was back on the road.

I am here until 16/3, unless there is some testing Vodacom guys want to do don't worry about the local support, not downloading alot etc etc so not much of a hassle, just basic email and msn and skype.

Have not been running the dash so not sure about signal strength. All occassions have been stationery, when I was driving last night my battery died before the card crashed

Will provide more feedback after the next crash (providing Murphy allows it to happen again! ) tonight/tomorrow if it continues I will try plug in the external antenna and see if it helps or not.

[Alan_old]

I am using a Vodafone 3G card in a Mac PowerBook. In my area of the UK there is no 3G signal but the card works perfectly on GPRS. Was in Germany the last couple of days and no problem getting a 3G connection BUT..After about 2 minutes connection the card crashed - alternating green and blue flashing lights. no problem stoopping the card and re-connecting but after 2 mins it would crash again. I tried this in 3 different locations with the same result. It is just not possible to keep a connection longer than a couple of minutes. Now my question, is this normal? or does it indicate a faulty card? any advice would be very welcome.

[Diago]

Actually I have been experiencing the same problem at home at the moment. Already happened twice tonite. Suddenly no connect and reset card and connection is fine again.

v3g any comments ? BTW. Still no antenna after a week and no coverage in Sandton central

[ic]

Hi Alan

AFAIK we have 2 type of Vodafone/Vodacom branded 3G+GPRS PCMCIA cards, if I recall correctly they are Novatel & Option. Does that sound familiar?

[Alan_old]

Yes it does. My card is made by Option.

[ic]

Ok, I'm gonna leave this question for v3g to answer over the weekend, but in the meantime I will try to anticipate v3g's next question - do you use the Vodafone dashboard s/w or do you use a manual dialup method for connecting? Also, what OS are you running, service pack level...?

There was also a recent M$ patch that seemed to improve dashboard/PCCard stability for forumites - you might want to check through vodacom3g's recent posts or google for more info on that in the meantime...

[Alan_old]

My operating system is Mac OS 10.3.8. Dashboard is PC only so the software I use to connect is that supplied by Vodafone. This is the package from Novamedia in Berlin. It actually works very well and connection is painless. The signal strength was shown as good. When the card crashed it had been loading pages quickly until there was suddenly no activity. The display in the menu bar showed as still connected but both LEDs were flashing alternatively and the page had stopped loading. To get out I chose "Power off Card" from the menu. Removed and re-inserted the card, ran the set-up and re-connected. After about 2 minutes I had the same thing happen and this continued to happen the whole time I was in Germany. I cannot report if this problem is happening in the UK as I am not in a 3G covered area. As soon as I am I will check to see if the connection holds. Connected by GPRS I have no problems.

[diabolus]

I am using a Vodafone 3G card in a Mac PowerBook. In my area of the UK there is no 3G signal but the card works perfectly on GPRS. Was in Germany the last couple of days and no problem getting a 3G connection BUT..

This is actually part of another thread about sim-locking, so i guess it's probably good to ask it here since i'm going to europe in a week too. Are those Vodafone cards network/sim locked? Can you use T-Mobile/Orange/KPN sims instead of Vodafone on the same card ?

[Alan_old]

Some suppliers do lock their phones to cards only on their Networks. Don't know about the Vodafone data card though. I did use a SIM from Voadafone DE in my UK card and that worked fine. Easiest way to check is just put a different network SIM from any mobile in your datacard and see if it is recognised before you go. If it works at home it will work internationally as well. Make sure you check that International Roaming is enabled before you go. I did but when I arrived I found that it wasn't. This cost me a call back to the UK to ask Vodafone to switch it on. They did, in ten minutes, so full marks for quick action to correct a mess-up.

[Alan_old]

Update. I just tried a T-mobile and O2 GSM/GPRS card in my Vodafone data card. I was able to enter the PIN number and both cards showed a signal reading. To connect I would have needed the correct dial-up number for T-Mobile and O2 which I don't have. My feeling is that the data card is not locked to a particular SIM and with the right connect information I could have connected. The Vodafone supplied connection software only had Vodafone connect details stored in its database. Hope this helps.

[Alan_old]

My card is made by Option. On the connect software it reads as Option Wireless Technology *129. I guess that is the version number. I am not using Dashboard as the connection is through MAC OS X. The supplied software by Vodafone is Novamedia, there is no version number in the "About" info. Locations in Germany were Ulm and Stuttgart. Ulm is about 75 km from Stuttgart in the direction of Munich. 3G signal strength in all locations was good.

[Daveogg]

So skype works on 3G??????........................

[Harley79]

Yes, skype works very well in my opinion. I personally do on average 30 minutes of skype out per day to the UK, somtimes even around 2 hours, and a bit of Skype to Skype to Dubai.

3G skype much better than on iBust. But there again I could hardly ever connect to anything on iBust faster than 10k/s.