After purchasing an E272 modem to be able to get higher speeds I finally got around to installing it this morning on my existing Windows Server 2003 which has been successfully running my E620 datacard for well over 2 years without a single glitch.
Sadly installation of the E272 on Server 2003 was not to be and in the process of installing a multitude of different drivers, not even my older E620 will work now. Fixing this will require some time manually deleting drivers and registry entries. Vodafone's answer to all of this is of course "Server OS's are NOT supported".
Just for a laugh I thought I would plug the E272 modem into my laptop which runs Windows Server 2008 Std Edition, voila ... within 2 minutes, the drivers and software were installed and I was connected at HSUPA. So for anyone thinking of buying this modem and wondering will it work with Server 2008 .. YES IT DOES WORK. Keep in mind this is on Server 2008 Standard Edition so I cannot vouch for it working on other editions of Server 2008, 64 bit versions of Server 2008 if anything might be problematic but I guess any 32-bit version of 2008 would work. But even though it works, Vodafone/Vodacom will not support it.
What I cannot fathom though is why Vodafone refuses to support Server OS's, it does not require any rocket science writing drivers for them, just look at how easily it installed onto Server 2008 yet according to Vodafone they don't support it, I wonder if they even know it works flawlessly on Server 2008?
On Server 2003 nothing would install, not VMC Lite, Not VMC Heavy, Not the Huawei Software, Not the drivers ... nada. Server 2003 is 5 years old already and still not supported by Vodafone and by my reckoning will NEVER be supported by them either. But at least without their even "seemingly" knowing, it works on 2008.
So that's at least something positive but for me I have a complete server reinstall ahead of me. Luckily I am connecting through my laptop until I have time to do the reinstall, it's quite honestly work I do not need right now, nor feel like doing.
Hope this helps others contemplating using this modem on Server 2008.
Sadly installation of the E272 on Server 2003 was not to be and in the process of installing a multitude of different drivers, not even my older E620 will work now. Fixing this will require some time manually deleting drivers and registry entries. Vodafone's answer to all of this is of course "Server OS's are NOT supported".
Just for a laugh I thought I would plug the E272 modem into my laptop which runs Windows Server 2008 Std Edition, voila ... within 2 minutes, the drivers and software were installed and I was connected at HSUPA. So for anyone thinking of buying this modem and wondering will it work with Server 2008 .. YES IT DOES WORK. Keep in mind this is on Server 2008 Standard Edition so I cannot vouch for it working on other editions of Server 2008, 64 bit versions of Server 2008 if anything might be problematic but I guess any 32-bit version of 2008 would work. But even though it works, Vodafone/Vodacom will not support it.
What I cannot fathom though is why Vodafone refuses to support Server OS's, it does not require any rocket science writing drivers for them, just look at how easily it installed onto Server 2008 yet according to Vodafone they don't support it, I wonder if they even know it works flawlessly on Server 2008?
On Server 2003 nothing would install, not VMC Lite, Not VMC Heavy, Not the Huawei Software, Not the drivers ... nada. Server 2003 is 5 years old already and still not supported by Vodafone and by my reckoning will NEVER be supported by them either. But at least without their even "seemingly" knowing, it works on 2008.
So that's at least something positive but for me I have a complete server reinstall ahead of me. Luckily I am connecting through my laptop until I have time to do the reinstall, it's quite honestly work I do not need right now, nor feel like doing.
Hope this helps others contemplating using this modem on Server 2008.