Desperate for help or advice on 3G problems

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Adriaandt

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Hi all

My apologies if this is in the wrong forum or something; I found this forum after doing a google search and I am absolutely desperate for some help to get my internet connection sorted out since my income is affected by the lack of a stable connection. Please if someone can give me some input on the possible cause or perhaps just confirmation that this is a known issue and how I can sort it out. In case I didn't make it clear enough... I am DESPERATE for help!

I live in Tamboerskloof, Cape Town and I've been a vodacom 3G subscriber for two years now. I have been largely satisfied with the service when at my home, but I find that the stability of my connection is affected when in other areas - like Pinelands or Rondebosch, where I sometimes work.

However, about 3 months ago everything changed. My connection is incredibly unstable, with various things happening. Sometimes the connection is randomly dropped completely, some times the connection remains, but it switches to 2G and becomes unusable, and other times there's just no data transfer happening at all, despite the software saying that a connection is maintained. Stable data connections rarely last longer than 15 minutes. You can imagine my frustration.

The first thing I tried to do to fix the problem was to update my modem's firmware and the software itself. I did this at the Vodacom shop in Green point. It seemed to work for a while (or maybe that was just a coincidence) but it soon went back to its uncooperative ways.

I then tried the modem on my girlfriends laptop... same problem. Obviously it was the modem.

I then went to the vodacom 3G shop in Canal Walk and was told that it was in all likelihood a modem problem and that a new modem would solve it. That made sense to me. Fortunately my contract had come to a close and I signed another contract and got a brand new modem... the one with a retractable USB socket/jack/whatever. Big mistake for me, big win for vodacom - they get another 24 payments from me but nothing has changed for me... if anything it's even worse now.

In tearful desperation I backed up all my data, formatted my laptop's hard disk and reinstalled windows. No change.

I got some advice from a boffin mate of mine and he recommended refreshing the drivers for all my USB ports. Did it... no change.

Please broadband boffins help me! I can't take this anymore. It's not just a convenience issue - my livelihood is affected here.

Thanks in advance
Adriaan
 
Why dont you try a MTN sim card in the modem , purchase 10meg of data and try it and see if it is more stable .
 
Tried the '3G only' solution. Didn't work. Disconnected after about 10 mins.
V3G - I have contacted the Vodacom Support before. No solutions offered aside from suggesting a firmware/software upgrade and modem swap.
 
As a matter of interest, what modem do you have, and what is the firmware version that you updated the modem to, also what version of Windoze are you running and what service pack is loaded [if any]?
 
K3715 Modem
11.104.05.00.00 Firmware
XP Home
Various service packs on my and my girlfriend's laptop
 
robass said:
Why dont you try a MTN sim card in the modem , purchase 10meg of data and try it and see if it is more stable .
Click to expand...

I 2nd that. Not that I think MTN is necessarily a "better" connection. But if it works, then we know for sure that there is a Vodacom problem in your area.
 
I'll try another simcard. Hope that works. What I find kinda amazing is the fact that i have to come on this forum to get this type of input. Would have been great if the several Vodacom support people I had spoken to made these suggestions. I'm really very despondent about this whole issue. Sad that I have to pay so much money for such terrible service :(
 
Robass and Ajax.
I have now bought an MTN simcard and 10Meg data bundle. But when I put it in my model it says 'no sim found'. Can i use an MTN simcard in the modem that I got with my Vodacom contract? If not, how do I use it?
 
Apparently it can be done , My modem (MTN) can take vodacom sims as well . I am not the one to help you configure the modem to allow the MTN sim to work , but I am sure one of the forumites should be able too .
 
Adriaandt said:
I have now bought an MTN simcard and 10Meg data bundle. But when I put it in my model it says 'no sim found'. Can i use an MTN simcard in the modem that I got with my Vodacom contract? If not, how do I use it?
Click to expand...
You should be able to, Vodacom modems aren't network locked.
Try using another dashboard instead of the Vodafone one that came with your card, MDMA and Huawei Mobile Partner come to mind.
 
Yea in a case like this, first thing i'd recommend, get sims from other providers [MTN,Virgin and even Telkom if they're there] . Also you might want to look into your actual signal strength [i did not see you mention it] in these areas...believe me it can change from 5 bars to 1 bar for no apparent reason.

I don't know if Vodacom and MTN exchange towers, share towers or even move them, but i've noticed this phenomena in my last 4-6 years of being a 3G user often. The most likely event is this "word of mouth" effect where someone would say "Vodacom is crap in my area, MTN is great " and then everyone in said area go for MTN until the tower is totally congested/dysfunctional making the MTN solution horrible...and then some bright spark decides to try Vodacom and realise he might be alone on the tower and getting absolute amazing speeds.

This is exactly what happened with me where i stay: MTN was amazing, 3 bar 3G signal and all, Vodacom incredibly unstable [and everyone in the area would also tell you this]...18 months later? I can barely pick up a MTN signal anymore whereas Vodacom now got 3-4 bars signal coming through.....
 
Last edited:
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=152481

Nothing will happen.
The problem is your own to deal with.
I have tried and tried to get this problem solved for a LONG time now.

At some point a Vodacom tech responded to a 9 month old ticket i logged, saying they adjusted some threshold and the problem is now fixed... uhuh, try convince me of that 20 minutes later when the same kept on happening.

There is nothing wrong with your modem. There is nothing wrong with your settings. There is nothing wrong with your laptop.

Somewhere along the lines, it has something to do with applications that need a constant open, yet unused, TCP connection. That open port is usually for security and authentication, and for example, on World of Warcraft, this port is used each time you "change" something about your character (pick up an item, gain exp, gain rep, change equip, throw something away, etc).

If you were to stand still somewhere and just chat to a friend, in about 10 minutes you will be cut off. For an even stranger reason, at that same time, your connection just entirely stops receiving data altogether.


If it makes you feel any better, I also make my living off my internet connection, and have just learned to patiently try and accept it... or move to MTN.
Havent had any of this problem with my MTN sim.
 
Unfortunately Vodacom/MTN or any cell provider does not have equal Signal quality everywhere.

I know in Pinelands the cellphone reception on VOdacom is also bad. U get calls on your phone and the phone doesn't ring. Yet you get a sms saying missed call etc. Same with the data packages.. 3G sometimes work, mostly GPRS. and even on that its very slow and the connection drops on a regular basis.


Best is to add extra Antenna (maybe on roof etc, or Get a desktop OMNI to increase the signal that is available.

My 2cents
 
wheunis said:
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=152481

Nothing will happen.
The problem is your own to deal with.
I have tried and tried to get this problem solved for a LONG time now.

At some point a Vodacom tech responded to a 9 month old ticket i logged, saying they adjusted some threshold and the problem is now fixed... uhuh, try convince me of that 20 minutes later when the same kept on happening.

There is nothing wrong with your modem. There is nothing wrong with your settings. There is nothing wrong with your laptop.

Somewhere along the lines, it has something to do with applications that need a constant open, yet unused, TCP connection. That open port is usually for security and authentication, and for example, on World of Warcraft, this port is used each time you "change" something about your character (pick up an item, gain exp, gain rep, change equip, throw something away, etc).

If you were to stand still somewhere and just chat to a friend, in about 10 minutes you will be cut off. For an even stranger reason, at that same time, your connection just entirely stops receiving data altogether.


If it makes you feel any better, I also make my living off my internet connection, and have just learned to patiently try and accept it... or move to MTN.
Havent had any of this problem with my MTN sim.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what happens to my connection as well! Was fine for about 2 years... now, when I am online, the data on the connection just stops after a while. Sometimes it works for hours, bu very often it dies in about 5 minutes. I'm going to try MTN.
 
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