Dashless Novatel

[vodacom3g]

I'd like to ask a few forumites to help test a set of Novatel drivers that will allow dashless operation, by setting up DUN.

This is beta stuff, so PM me only if you're happy you know what you're doing to your laptop and can load drivers, configure DUN, etc.

PM me with an e-mail address and I'll mail it out to you. We'll probably limit it to a small number of testers.

Once again, only do this if you're comfortable fiddling with your PC. Once we're happy with the results we'll make it available to everyone.

 

[grubsner]

Hi v3g

What will be the size of the email? Just to make sure the addie can take the load ;-)

grub

 

[vodacom3g]

It's quite small, around 41K.

 

[v3gout]

Is this testing still in progress? How is it looking?

 

[Pwillmot]

would be very happy to participate - Dashboards seems to the the culprit to most of my connectivity issues (in constrast with the actual dcard driver, which appears to be more stable) - i.e. would be very happy to take dashboard out of the loop

 

[VMS]

Hmmm. weird one again.

My dash just crashed. I am in a usually non 3G zone. Suddenly the blue light came on and stayed on. Perfect comms. Actually posting this message without any dash on a Novatel card.


Any ideas why?

VMS

 

[vodacom3g]

Not to sure if this is what you saw, but I've seen the dash (user interface) crash but the underlying app is still working, thus you stay connected.

 

[VMS]

Here is what I see on Task manager:

VMConnect.exe is still on the list. Yet no matter what I download or do the CPU time stays the same and it shows no CPU usage whatsoever. It is like VMConnect is completely hung up.

I usually don't get 3G in so location, no matter what I do.

So, now I just need to figure out how to make it crash in this mode everytime because this is GREAT!!!

VMS

 

[Pwillmot]

I think the dashboard is only required to get the Novatel model driver to startup / connect. If the Dashboards dies / dumps after connection, the modem stays connected and life is fine - this happens on my Windows 200 Pro client frequently (no VMConnect.exe process running but connected after dashboard dump)

The problem is, when the modem eventually drops / loses the 3G conenction, you need to reboot - i.e. dashboard wont start again to enable the modem to reconnect

 

[Pwillmot]

The beta stuff does not appear - unfortunately - to work with Windows 2000 Pro (can not comment on XP)

I did, however, apply the new firmware and that appears to have made the modem somewhat more reliable (longer connections to 3G) although I can't really substantiate this yet

With Windows 2000 Prof, I get the following:
- Firmware update (as above) seems to be fine
- Dial-up connection setup obviously works as modem driver works with dashboard
- But I get a dial-up connection error stating that the device is note responding (error 629, methinks) - after a bit of "red light flashing" on modem
- Terminal Window does not display, even with option selected for modem

 

[ic]

[post=211373]

I have beta tested the V5 dashboard software now for a week and am happy to say 90% of all my drop connections and abnormal dashboard closing are a thing of the past

1) I have update the card’s firmware and have experience that the card do NOT run as hot as it used to before the update, this help the drop connections a fear bit as I find the drop connections only start and persist when the card are warm.

2) V5 dashboard, I have a number of problems with the V4 as the software just decided to close down after about 2~ hours of use, this I have found are a problem with a memory leak in the software. This are fixed with V5 and find that the software remains stable and open

A small problem I found with the IE and the DUN, that after you open IE it takes about 30sec before you can open a site and the response are bit slow, this are fixed by uncheck the “automatically detect setting ON the DUN connection settings.

One problem I detected with V5 are that after no traffic on the card for about 8~10 min the connect are dropped, can connect immediately without any problem, I have look at all the normal settings but could not find where you can turn this off, Is not a DUN setting or Power settings, will need to look a bit further to resolve this, But at the moment it’s not a problem as when I use the DUN it remains on and stable.

Well I’m much more please with the firmware and V5 and I have no need to reconnect constantly and reload the web pages

Also please bear in mind I use the dashboard as what you would use any other program, open it , connect and stay online, I’m using MS Terminal server, VPN and ASP Apps and It works beautifully.

I believe from V3G that V5 dashboard will soon be released and hopefully have a number of more satisfied users on this forum using 3G.

[/post]With reference to the quoted post above, excuse me for being a tad here, I take it that there are a few betas in the works [I thought it was only the Dashless Novatel via DUN ]:

• a new version 5 of the dashboard
• a Novatel firmware upgrade
• as well as an attempt to run the Novatel dashless via DUN

Is that correct?

 

[Pwillmot]

Correct - the beta includes:

- new Novatel firmware flash
- updated Windows drivers for modem
- instructions on configuring new Windows Driver for DUN in XP

 

[ic]

Ok, so the issue with the DUN not working in W2K(P), is it that the driver is specifically for XP & doesn't run properly on W2K(P), or is it just a minor difference in the DUN instructions for W2K(P)...? I ask bcos it should be trivial to setup DUN in W2K(P), unless there is something else required like PPPoE (unlikely) that XP supports natively while W2K(P) doesn't... There has to be a way of getting a dashless Novatel working on W2K(P) - especially if it can be done in Linux without any Novatel drivers...

 

[rehd]

Anyone have 628 errors on the new Novatel cards?

 

[vodacom3g]

There 'might' be a problem with the latest batch of Novatel cards. I'll clarify in a few hours.

 

[vodacom3g]

I'm going to start a new thread for this problem, so everyone will see it.