3G issues

Z

zugzug

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2 major issues:

1. Sometimes when browsing I get an error "cannot connect to server" / "page is unavailable" errors. If I hit refresh the page displays fine. I've checked and I still have 3G coverage, no problems. Just sometimes it fails to load pages first time.

Tonight I have had a particularly bad session with about 30% of all the page I am loading not loading up first time. Click refresh and all fine but extremely annoying. What gives?

2. The Vodafone dialer is driving me mad. It is buggy as all hell. Crashes often and then it is a nightmare to get it back working without restarting my laptop or even successfully shutting down without Windows hanging in the shutdown process. Fairly regularly I have to pull out my battery to turn my computer off. This is not good for my poor machine - Windows regularly wants to do consistency checks on my HD when I start up again. I do not want to crash my HD or lose any data as a result of this damn Vodafone dialer.

When is a new version going to be available (I have been waiting patiently for a long time!)? I am running version 4.02.0001.

How else can I connect without using the dialer? I have a very basic Windows 2000 Professional system setup without too many extra clients / dialers / servers installed (work laptop). If there is a better client I will gladly install that though.
 
The issue(s) with the Dashboard is a known problem and has been escalated to Vodafone and the developers of the product. We're expecting V5 of the dashboard shortly.

Have you tried to connect directly from the dial-up connection, without using the dashboard?

Also, can you tell me which 3G card you use? Option or Novatel?
 
I have had problems before where I lose the connection because 3G coverage goes to zero bars. I had the guys out to my place in Jan when I first connected. Back then I had some dropped connections and then this loss of coverage problem.

Dropped connections seems to be fixed / much better but loss of coverage still happens every few sessions. I like to use the Vodafone client so I can see the number of bars if I have problems with pages loading - at least then I can see if I still have coverage or not. I have but maybe the Vodafone client is more of a hindrance than a help.

I will try without it for a while.
 
I've had the same issue since January with the Console freezing up, leaving me to reboot.

I have since used bluetooth to share the connection with others, now I get a complete freeze up ,and errors when exiting i.e.

Vodacom 3G, Will v5.0 solve this and when is it (v5) expect it to arrive?
 
Ok i ran into a strange issue.

I'm atm using GPRS via my cellphone, because i can't get any reception with the datacard. Usually i had 2 bars for 3G and 5 bars for GPRS on the dash, is it possible that cellphones have better reception or something? The dash just sits there going "acquiring" all the time.

On that note : Does weather influence reception? Currently we're having really heavy winds down here in the cape, and i would've assumed that's the reason for not getting any reception...yet my cellphone do not seem to have a problem [GPRS only].
 
Diabolus, I was out your way about three weekends back and noticed the same thing, i.e. that my cell had coverage yet my datacard could not seem to get any. Unfortunatelly I did not yet have the external antenna, so I could not try and see if that resolved the issue. My assumption was, as you said, that cellphone seem to have a better reception which may have to do with how much power they output versus the datacard. But lets see what V3G comes back with.
 
Something I also noticed yesterday - the dash displayed "acquiring" as per usual for a while, and there seemed to be no signal. However I connected without the dash after a while with the normal "dial" connect. Got 3g coverage, while the dash was still trying to figure whos its daddy.
I then resorted to "ctr" "alt" "delete" and closed the process VMconnect.exe. Sometimes when I'm having problems with the dash I need to resort to this method. At times VMconnect forces the CPU to work at 100% and the dash hangs. Killing the process vmconnect.exe frees up the system again.
I notice that when the signal is low(or zero) the dash seems more confused and more prone to errors. After I installed the external antenna things are defiantly running more smoothly :)
As for the wind thing- must admit, I also thought the high winds down here in CT was effecting quality of the signal, 2 weeks ago on a sunday there was no signal and the wind was howling. but I think we should leave that to the r.f engineers...
 
why is nobody getting back to me about the external antenna ... ive sent all the necessary info to the email that voda3g told me too....
 
kvi said:
why is nobody getting back to me about the external antenna ... ive sent all the necessary info to the email that voda3g told me too....
Click to expand...
Send v3g a p.m. & ask if he can chase it up for you...
 
kvi, please forward me the mail you sent to crmoffice. I'll chase it up.

I believe a lot of the funnies you're seeing, for example the phone connecting better than the data card, is due to the stability issue around the dashboard and drivers. It's the same network, so any differences should be with the device on your side.

A new release of the dashboard 4.02.0006 was release today and is being shipped out to the channel as we speak. I still need to confirm the distribution methods but I think the 'official' methos will be to pick up a cd.

How do you guys feel about downloading it? I suspect ~35Mb.
 
My 2pence worth - also allow downloading as 3G peeps might just use "the office network" to download it instead of using up their 3G bandwidth ;)
 
That's what I'm advocating.

We need to ships CD as well as the conspiracy theorists will claim a download only is an attempt by Vodacom to make more money. :)

The fact that everyone else ONLY provide download updates will, of course, be lost on them....

I've asked for an internal (only visible from the data network) as well as an external one, for those 'office downloaders'.

As soon as the URL's are available. I'll post.
 
diabolus said:
I'm atm using GPRS via my cellphone, because i can't get any reception with the datacard. Usually i had 2 bars for 3G and 5 bars for GPRS on the dash, is it possible that cellphones have better reception or something? The dash just sits there going "acquiring" all the time.
Click to expand...

Had the same problem in margin coverage areas. I sometimes cannot get 3G or GPRS on the data card (Pinelands CT) even with an external antenna and my Nokia 6600 has full reception. If I acquire the network 3G or GPRS I seem to hold it.
 
vodacom3g said:
...
We need to ships CD as well as the conspiracy theorists will claim a download only is an attempt by Vodacom to make more money. :)
...
Click to expand...
LOL, although I'm sure there would be such theories :)..
 
Edinetz said:
Had the same problem in margin coverage areas. I sometimes cannot get 3G or GPRS on the data card (Pinelands CT) even with an external antenna and my Nokia 6600 has full reception. If I acquire the network 3G or GPRS I seem to hold it.
Click to expand...

A different theory might be that the data card sits quite close to the pc which runs a CPU at a frequency comparable to GSM 1800 or 3G. Of course, if your laptop is outdated, it will probably run at something below 1 GHz, perhaps then interfering with GPRS on GSM 900.
Of course, if Edinetz is right, it debunks my theory.

I can't test at the moment, but maybe someone put the phone right at the place where the datacard plugs in and check speed/signal?

(In the early 90's, I remember a friend of mine could not watch MNET on VHF frequency if his pc was on in the room next door)
 
Sorry ajax but I was using an old outdated P3 550MHz laptop so I guess your theory has been disproven.
 
Edinetz said:
Sorry ajax but I was using an old outdated P3 550MHz laptop so I guess your theory has been disproven.
Click to expand...

Weren't you overclocking the CPU? C'mon, admit it!
 
Just some feedback. I went to the vodashop [after still getting that "aquire" thing and not able to connect], and they plugged in one of their test cards [exactly same card] and voila it picked up the signal. I was using Dash Ver. 4.02.0001

The connection error message i got was something in the lines of "error 619, unable to open port, ensure it's not in use etc etc". It could download SMS and all that just fine.

After inserting the demo card we still couldn't connect even though it now got past the "aquiring" problem and actually showed 4 bars of 3G ]. The error this time was about 'handshaking' . Did the whole uninstall, boot process , same thing.

So the guy told me he's just going to issue me a brand new card and new software. So we did the uninstall/reinstall boot process and now it's all working fine. Dash ver is now 4.02.0006

There's one thing i did however notice after i did the new card install. When the software asks you to insert your card for the first time, in WinXp it starts popping up the whole "found merlin yadah", "found usb something" etc etc "your hardware is now ready to use". This did NOT actually happen when i uninstalled/reinstalled with my old card . So we believe the problem was both hardware and software related.
 
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