FAQ Discussions - please read the sticky FAQ thread first

Just come back from my moon ..er.. roof walk..
Niks nada nothing... no signal .. not even a hint of a signal.. :(
Tried MTN as well... guess I needn't have bothered :rolleyes:

Oh well..
At least I can get EDGE :D
 
redarrow said:
Just come back from my moon ..er.. roof walk..
Niks nada nothing... no signal .. not even a hint of a signal.. :(
Tried MTN as well... guess I needn't have bothered :rolleyes:

Oh well..
At least I can get EDGE :D
Click to expand...

Don't put the ladder away too deeply, I'd check maybe once a month. VC is constantly adding towers.
 
redarrow said:
Just come back from my moon ..er.. roof walk..
Niks nada nothing... no signal .. not even a hint of a signal.. :(
Tried MTN as well... guess I needn't have bothered :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
You don't necessarily have to go up on the roof. Just see if you can get a signal outside of the house. My 3G signal goes down a lot of the time for a few seconds or even minutes. According to Murphy's law this will probably happen at the exact moment you decide to go on the roof. So why even bother.

The only thing that going onto the roof is actually going to tell you is whether or not to mount the antenna on the roof. In which case you lose your card/phone and computer in the event of a lightning strike. I would recommend just leaving your card/phone in the 3G only mode for a few minutes and see what happens. Preferably for longer than 10 minutes at a time if you can afford to be out of touch so long.
 
Agreed, you don't necessarily want to mount the antenna on the roof, but you have the highest chance of getting some signal there. At least then one knows that if you get 1 bar on the roof, there is signal in your area and it is worth it then to get an antenna and the find the best place to mount it.

If your phone or card doesn't show any signal where you are, you have no clue what the actual signal strength is. My phone typically needs more than -100 dBm to work on 3G. If the signal outside without the antenna is -115 dBm, an antenna probably won't help then.
 
ajax said:
Agreed, you don't necessarily want to mount the antenna on the roof, but you have the highest chance of getting some signal there. At least then one knows that if you get 1 bar on the roof, there is signal in your area and it is worth it then to get an antenna and the find the best place to mount it.
Click to expand...
Yes, but a signal on the roof is worth nothing if there isn't also a signal on the ground. That's why I wouldn't even bother trying to get a signal on the roof. Just adds to the risk of injury. Anyway, just my two cents worth.
 
Might be off the topic

I do know the Yaris range of antennas are roof mounted and directional so they can be pointed to a particular tower. I have seen them in action and althought it won't neccessarily boost the signal it will definitly stabilise it and also stop the card to jump between towers.

The antennas work on distance so althought a phone won't get a signal from the roof the antenna possibly would if pointed correctly.

I would highly recommended and external roof mounted antenna especially used in conjunction with the router and v3g would be happy to help in getting it pointed correctly. ;)
 
I have a Novatel U740 HSDPA Card bought today at Vodaworld. Came with V7 Dash and V15 Firmware. When I try to connect in Windows via the Dash I get:
an error with the number 619

How do I find out what error number 619 means?
 
How do I find out what error number 619 means?
Click to expand...

That can mean alot of things. In my case i only get that error when there is a problem with the network. Usually changing my profile from 3G-only to GPRS-only i get past the error, but primarily the only way i got past that error was to wait [hours/next day].
 
diabolus said:
That can mean alot of things. In my case i only get that error when there is a problem with the network. Usually changing my profile from 3G-only to GPRS-only i get past the error, but primarily the only way i got past that error was to wait [hours/next day].
Click to expand...

i usually get that message when signal not to good and card keeps hoping around. Do as Diabolus says try change to a xxx-only and find which works best at the time .
 
web said:
i usually get that message when signal not to good and card keeps hoping around. Do as Diabolus says try change to a xxx-only and find which works best at the time .
Click to expand...

The error is related to connecting to the network. It happens at the authentication stage to my knowledge and some of the reason can be:

:- Network Down / Unavailable
:- Sim Blocked / Locked

Can be fixed by changing profiles, there is times GPRS will still work but 3G has stopped.
 
Have a look in the FAQ for '619' definitions.

As already explained, it typically implies you can't connect to the network.

Do a logical fault-find along the connection path and you should find the cause.

If it's a new contract, I'd first check if the SIM was enabled for data. Don't just assume it was, rather call 155 and let them check.
 
Thanks for all the help. vodacom3g, you were exactly right. I bough a hsdspa card to with prepaid, and they said it comes with sim which i accepted. However, they do not tell you that the sim in not data enabled. He he. Working under windows now. Those interested in seeing it work on Linux watch the Linux HOWTO thread.
 
Ok get this. When working on my laptop in one part of my house (house not big), I get the dreaded 619 error message. If I move to a certain other part of my house (house still not big), I dont get the error any more. This all being on "3G Preferred, also accept GPRS".

If I only choose GPRS, then I dont have the 619 error in either part of the house (tiny house).

Hmmmmmm.........
 
Hoodwink said:
If I only choose GPRS, then I dont have the 619 error in either part of the house (tiny house).
Click to expand...
What happens is you select "3G Only"? According to the Novatel U740 manual, that normally works best.
 
Hoodwink said:
Ok get this. When working on my laptop in one part of my house (house not big), I get the dreaded 619 error message. If I move to a certain other part of my house (house still not big), I dont get the error any more. This all being on "3G Preferred, also accept GPRS".

If I only choose GPRS, then I dont have the 619 error in either part of the house (tiny house).

Hmmmmmm.........
Click to expand...

Nothing strange about it. In my room at my parents home in JHB I get 3G only at the exact place I have my desk for my notebook, however in the rest of that room can't pick up 3G at all but GPRS works fine. However general reception is also dodge. The reason:

I have 4-5 Towers that centralise into our particular townhouse (Please note Roodepoort style small townhouse with 2 bedrooms etc) My room in this townhouse is the central clash point. Keep in mind that the card does not have the antenna or connectivity strength of any of the phones. In the above situation my N90 connects fine everywhere in my room cause it can handle the tower changes better - However any array of phones or cards that I try takes an instant dive.

One reason I love the Yaris since it is directional and can be pointed to one particular tower, stopping the card from bouncing around between towers.
 
If there some kind of PCMCIA to USB adapter that one can use to connect a card to the pc?
 
I have been following this forum for a while and have found many answers to my 3g questions here. So thanks to all who contribute!

To pick up from a previous post (#274) in this thread from v3g regarding a canned solution being offered by Vodacom when purchasing a Linksys 3G router and a HSDPA card. In short the problem is that the Linksys routers require a firmware upgrade to work with the new HSDPA cards, but the firmware is still in beta development and will only be released in June 06. So until then you can't use your router with your HSDPA card.

Unless of course you got your hands on the latest beta firmware for the router, which is exactly what happened. The installation was a breeze and the card and router worked perfectly afterwards. Keeping in mind that I didn't have much time to do an advanced set up or do speed tests.

Drop me PM if you have the same problem and I will dropload you the upgrade. Upgrade at your own risk though!
 
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