Crashing card??

Harley79 said:
Anyone know what the connection string is for Orange UK? Or for that matter any of the UK providers besides Vodafone?
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You should not need to worry about the connection strings. In the dashboard, make sure you create a GPRS only profile. You can then scan for all available networks and select anyone to use. You should be ble to connect no problem. This post is being entered using GPRS on Orange in London.

The only 3G partner is Vodafone, so if you want to connect 3G you have to select Vodafone. It should have autoselected, in any case.
 
vodacom3g said:
Alan,

I'd like to take some time going through your posts. We have people testing roaming in Germany next week, so it might be a good time to check all of this.
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Many thanks. I will get back with what I discover next week. I am in Nuremberg from Friday through Monday so should be able to give it a good work through. Oddly I am having a problem now with GPRS, Signal strength not available which must mean no signal detected. Connection fails at authentification. Had to do this via a dial-up connection on a landline. Beginning to think I have got a flaky card.
 
Ok, here's what we found in the UK:

Both Option and Novatel cards works fine on both 3G (Vodafone) and GPRS (Vodafone, Orange, O2 and T-Mobile).

No crashes with consistent high throughput. Been running for a few hours now.

By the end of next week, we should have similar results for a number of European countries.

Alan, maybe the UMTS radio portion of your card is faulty?
 
That is interesting. Don't know what is happening here. Tried and tried to get a connection and always with the result of the signal not being found (GPRS). Connection initiated but failed at authentication. About to give up but had one last try and suddenly I had a strong signal and connection. I have not moved location one inch. Perhaps the card has a problem but it will be quite a performance getting something done about it for sure. Demonstrating an intermittent fault means that it will be a battle to get it replaced. My UK location is the North West area. Currently I am near Chester, a location which Vodafone claims has 3G coverage. So far I have never received a 3G signal in the UK but I am seldom in the major cities.
 
Ok, assuming there's a Vodafone shop in a High Street near you, ask them to demonstrate with their own card - specifically that they get a 3G signal when your card doesn't get it at all. It might be sufficient proof that the specific card you have is a tad deficient in the 3G department. They might even exchange the thing if you take your original receipt or whatever along with you (I did say might) ;).
 
Thanks for the advice. I did buy the card from a local Vodafone store a couple of weeks ago so they should be helpful. (should!) Have been connected on GPRS now fro 23 minutes with no problem and this is right after not being able to get a signal for two hours. Very strange. I do appeciate the help by the way.
 
Card Crashing

Update as promised. I am writing this from Nuremberg and have a 3G connection. After almost exactly 2 minutes the card crashes. I "Power Off" the card and reconnect. Again after 2 minutes it crashes. This is so exact that I am wondering if it is something that Vodafone are doing deliberately on a "roaming" card. So far tonight I have connected, crashed and re-connected 14 times and every time the connection has held for 2 minutes before the card crashed (alternate flashing gren and blue lights).

What I need to find out is if this is a card fault or a network problem.

Any help will be appreciated
 
for what its worth, i have had a 3g card since Dec, and it hasnt hung once... and i use it everyday, and travel frequently between jnb and cpt. it may be because i have 2 pcmcia slots in my notebook. i am using the top one for the card, and have taken the bottom one's plastic holder out so that the card can breathe properly...
only complaint i have about vodacom 3g is that dbn coverage is really poor... get much better coverage and response using MTN EDGE....
Later -
 
Hi Alan

That's bizarre to say the least (every 2 mins), if there's a Vodafone shop in Nuremberg I would definitely demonstrate that to them & get them to show you one of their 3G cards working in your notebook with your sim card (or maybe 1st their sim with their card in your notebook).
 
Sounds like a faulty card but strangely also sounds like a virus that was doing the rounds a while back..... Not sure how it would have affected the card though.
 
Alan,

There seem to be some disconnect issues in Germany, but not nearly as bas as you're experiencing. In Munich it seems stable and in Düsseldorf the guys complained about being disconnected after 8 hours! They have seen worse disconnects though.

These tests were done with Vodacom test SIMs in both Option and Novatel cards.

It might be that the roaming agreement is not fully in place between Vodafone UK and Germany or that you have a faulty card. The exact timing of your disconnects might imply the former, i.e. the time it takes for the systems to realise your not using an authorised SIM, for example.

The one thing you might try and do is to scan the networks manually and then select the available 3G networks, one by one, i.e. not let the card auto-select.

There is a know issue with the dashboard that it does not always auto-select the correct network when roaming.

If you can put your SIM in a 3G phone and check that it selects the correct 3G network, it might also help.
 
Alan,

Just had feedback from a colleague who returned today from Germany experiencing a similar situation to yourself, but only during the day and not in the evenings and then only on Vodafone. He worked around by switching to T-Mobile.

As suggested before, scan for all available networks and try them one by one.

Good luck!

Otherwise tell the Germans their network is not meeting specification. They'll be horrified being accused of inefficiency. :)
 
lol @ v3g. I tried that with a dev company there once when I was doing a joint development. They fired the lead developer for one mistake in code that held the system up for 30 minutes. Sometimes wonder if we need that in SA ?
 
Thanks for the feedback. Using the card in the Mac I have no possibility to scan for other networks as the only items in the list are Vodafone networks in different countries. (Not the regular dashboard software) Same problem tonight. Spoke to Vodafone Customer Service in the UK. Kept me online for 15 minutes (on a roaming mobile!!!) only to tell me they have no idea. I will return the card to the store and let them sort it out. thanks for all the advice but it seems this has no solution. Vodafone tell me that the SIM is enabled for roaming but that my SIM has not registered with the Network since yesterday. As I have been on line in 2 minute bursts for an hour it does suggest that they have not enabled the card correctly. This would figure because the inefficient so and so's did not switch the SIM on the first few days I had it making me think I had a software/hardware problem because it would not connect. Then I checked they had enabled roaming and it was confirmed only for me to first come to Germany and find out it wasn't. It would make perfect sense for them to be telling me now that it is when in fact it is not. I agree the exact time points to a Network issue with the SIM rather than any hardware or software problem. I will post an update here if I ever find a solution but right now I am not a happy bunny!
 
It would still be interesting to put the sim in a 3G handset or in a PC with the dashboard software and then select T-Mobile. If you then put the sim back in your system it should reselect the last network selected.

You can probably force a selection with the AT commands.

Anyone done this before?
 
v3g - There is some articles on how to do that for the linux setup of the card. Will have a look and paste the link once I rebooted into my linux setup.
 
The only unlocked phone I have with me is not 3G. I put the SIM in that and it locked onto Vodafone DE immediately. The indicator showed full signal strength on GSM and GPRS but I cannot make any phone call on it at all. I dial the number and it will not connect. Dud SIM?
 
It sounds like your SIM was faulty or more likely was not correctly setup for roaming in Germany.

I am an Aussie expat in living in Sindelfingen (car enthusiasts may know the place) near Stuttgart using a Novatel U630 UMTS/GPRS card and I can tell you that both UMTS and GPRS coverage in built up areas is very, very, very good.

In built-up and some not so built-up areas you regularly get 280kps+ download speeds on UMTS and around 40-50kps bursts on GPRS using the Novatel card.

I'm sure the Vodafone radio technicians over here would have conniptions if they heard your story ;)
 
I agree that the cause is due to either a faulty SIM, incorrect setup, faulty card or whatever. I doubt very much that it is anything to do with the network in Germany. To bring you all up to date, I went back to the Vodafone store where I bought the card. Good 3G area but could not detect a whisper with my SIM in the datacard. Putting the same SIM in a 3G phone worked fine. Even so they declared a faulty SIM and gave me a new one. Took a couple of hours to get activated and it works fine on GPRS as did the original SIM. I will revisit the store later this week to see if we get 3G now but I am not holding my breath. It will take another visit to Germany to find out if the crashing problem has gone. In the meantime I installed on a windows laptop to see if I could get more information. Same result so far, GPRS only. I guess I will take both with me to the store to try and decide if it is the datacard or laptop that is the problem. Odd thing is the card picks up 3G in Germany but crashes. Note I say that it does not drop the connection but the card crashes. To me this indicates a card problem but vodafone seem to want to pin the blame on my Mac Powerbook. Really funny the way they react to that as if it was something alien and a little scary. I have pointed out that the card is sold as compatible with Mac and the software is what they supplied. I don't recall getting a discount becasue it might be flaky on a Mac and I don't recall anyone telling me it was likely to not work very well either. We will see but I think it might be a long haul.
 
Hmmm Alan, I think you need to step on their toes in that Vodafone shop - just don't leave until they've given you a replacement card that has been proved to work with both 3G & GPRS in any machine available with your sim card.

If all else fails, demand that the store call up the powers that be & let you talk to them directly.
 
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