FAQ Discussions - please read the sticky FAQ thread first

[vodacom3g]

Will do. Any specific reason? (Outside of perving at small, tight plugs? )

[VMS]

What is wrong with soldering? Some good flux, magnum soldering iron and 3 brandy and cokes to stabilize the hand and you are ready to solder a 50 ohm link. I am actually going to desolder a 240 pin FPGA and resolder another with 0.5 mm pitch in about 30 minutes (with a 50 watt iron and a big tip). Maybe I should post pictures of that?

Seriously I agree with the photos. The connector on the Novatel card is a beauty. Easy to insert and remove. But the little rascal on the Option card has given me endless trouble removing on other systems.

The people at the Vodashop gave me the wrong antenna because to them an antenna was just an antenna. Maybe they should get a few pictures.

VMS

[Radimpe]

It seems a little concerning that the software and firmware upgrades only refer to Novatel. Why cant I find the same for my option card. It seems that the option card is not that well supported.

[vodacom3g]

Could have sworn I put the link in the FAQ. It's there now.

Most of the software is available via ftp from omnisol.co.za. Note there is no HTTP support. This is a temp place I'm using to make the software available to the forum while the Vodacom FTP servers come online.

FTP as anonymous and cd to pub/download.

[Sidelong]

I just had the same issue with the antennas from Vodashop - they gave me a Novatel one instead of the Option one. I think those pictures of each antenna would be v useful. Perhaps they could be on the FAQ and sent to the shoppes

[vodacom3g]

These actually are DUN error numbers: 619 means : "Port disconnected"

Although the description is correct, it's not very helpful, as a fair number of problems could have caused the disconnect, so we need to debug all the steps along the path to a successful connect.

[Newb-lite]

Hey folks ... whats our upload and download speeds? i cant find it on vodacoms site , and i dunno the exact figures.

[vodacom3g]

The current 3G speeds are 384Kb/s down and 64Kb/s up.

GPRS depends on the Coding Scheme but could be up to about 70Kb/s.

[Newb-lite]

Many thanx v3g

[jbad]

Thanks IC - so if I understand you correctly, I must put my 3G simcard into my cell phone and then the cell phone will display the 2G or 3G siggnal

[3g_rox]

Your 2G cell phone might be set to not display the cellid, if you have a Nokia cell phone, look for a setting similar to:
"Cell Info Display"
and make sure it is enabled.

Both Motorola hides their Cell Broadcast under Messages | Info Services. Jbad, if you need info on setting up a Motorola phone to display Cell Broadcast, let me know and I will post info here.

[rpm]

Hi V3G and others

After testing V3G for a while at my work and home I am thinking of getting it for personal use, but am hesitant to purchase it now since the new HSDPA cards are due soon. To the best of my knowledge these cards will also be EDGE enabled.

Any feedback on this? Should I wait?

Regards,

RPM

[vodacom3g]

The HSDPA cards will support EDGE. If you want to wait, maybe pre-paid bundles (days now!) and a 6680 or other 3G phone as a modem?

[rpm]

Hi V3G and IC

Thanks for the feedback.

I don't like to use mobile phones for connectivity I will wait for the HSDPA card...worth the wait I hope.

Regards,

RPM

[vodacom3g]

Think you guys are advocating different scenarios here.

Scrnscrm (and ic) advocates using a phone as a modem while rpm (and myself) prefer a dedicated datacard. Each to his own.

I don't think we'll see HSDPA handsets soon, or at least we'll see HSDPA cards first.