Force UMTS on Huawei K3772 Modem - Possible?

[Ho3n3r]

Short and simple: I have been using a cellphone as our 3G modem as on Vodacom it almost never picks up GPRS, never mind EDGE/GPRS.

Now, with 8ta, I have been getting much better signal. Now I want to force the connection somehow to only use 3G, as I am doing on the cellphone. On the phone it's easy as I just set network mode to UMTS.

I am just using the normal network connections dialling *99# on Windows 7 - no fancy software/dashboards or anything, as they are redundant to me.

Any advice would be appreciated

[eshwar]

You know where the modem init commands are? That's one place you can set it, without a dashboard I mean...

[Ho3n3r]

You know where the modem init commands are? That's one place you can set it, without a dashboard I mean...

Thanks, do you know what I must set the init string to?

[eshwar]

AT+COPS=0,0,"8ta",2

The network name always in quotes. If you want to force 2G, put a 0 instead of the 2 at the end.

I usually put this before the init command that does the access point.

[Ho3n3r]

AT+COPS=0,0,"8ta",2

The network name always in quotes. If you want to force 2G, put a 0 instead of the 2 at the end.

I usually put this before the init command that does the access point.

Late reply I know.

Actually I do not know where to put the init strings at all, can you direct me to where please? This EDGE/GPRS connection is driving me insane!

I have gone through all thinkable modem settings through connection manager etc, but nowhere do I find this. Also, I even went as far as installing the Vodafone and the silly 8ta dashboard, which doesn't have this setting either.

Any help is appreciated.

[eshwar]

Sorry man, lost track of the thread.

Do you know the modem device that shows up in your device manager as a result of plugging in the USB dongle? Right so you will find that device in Modems (Sorry I don't use Windows often so I'd say that's where it is in control panel)

Under Modems, select your modem and there should be a section that has an option to specify an INIT string. Or something like that. That's where this goes...

Now, Windows sucks at devices. So sometimes it installs modems twice for devices that were unplugged and plugged back in. So the above you might have to repeat for every device it says is the modem.

[chrisc4290]

The program MDMA will let you choose UMTS

[eshwar]

The program MDMA will let you choose UMTS

Much better idea !

[Ho3n3r]

The program MDMA will let you choose UMTS

Much better idea !

Thanks guys, sorry for the late reply Works like a charm, but for one last little thing, which would be awesome if it could be solved

While playing online games, some people complained that my movements(racing) was weird at stages. Obviously I didn't believe them :P So they showed me videos of disappearing temporarily or going off track and swerving back again.

So I have gone through doing Ping and Speed tests, and trace routes, and it seems that when I have selected '3G Only', sometimes it still varies between '3G' and 'HSD+UPA'. When it switches back down to '3G', my ping increases to 300ms or more, and down to 50-100ms max when on 'HSD+UPA'.

So, is there a way to force my Huawei K3772 to stick to 'HSD+UPA' only? Apparently the '3G' is for idle state, and 'HSD+UPA' is for when data is being transferred. But while playing games etc. you do not stream data 100% of the time, and then erroneously it switches down for longer periods to '3G'.

It also affects my browsing, as I sometimes open a page, and see MDMA showing it's stuck on 3G (this could last for like 30 seconds at a time) and as soon as it switches back to 'HSD+UPA', it loads the page very quickly.

You would make my year if you can help me solve this

[sajunky]

So I have gone through doing Ping and Speed tests, and trace routes, and it seems that when I have selected '3G Only', sometimes it still varies between '3G' and 'HSD+UPA'. When it switches back down to '3G', my ping increases to 300ms or more, and down to 50-100ms max when on 'HSD+UPA'.

Not sure it is true. Ping should be the same, as amount of data transfered is very small. Falling back to 3G when idle is normal - there is nothing to worry about. However if you want to experiment a bit, you should perhaps try HSPA+ modem. With HSPA+ standard even if data channel is idle (3G), modem is still using high speed control channel and other mechanism to wake up quicker. Look for at minimum for Huawei E367, E352, E353.

Having said that:
1. I didn't see such improved on 8ta when using E367, but it was difference on CellC.
2. Variable ping time is typical problem on 8ta (when idle and also during transfering data).