Is this a normal experience?

[ianh4]

I move around a lot, and end of last year decided to abandon DSL for 3G. I'm on E220 on a MacBook Pro, with all the latest drivers and Leopard.

When 3G and the E220 is working, it's not too bad - disappointing when you've just returned from the US, but usable. However, my modem freezes - the light goes from light blue to dark blue - about 5-20 times a day. I have to unplug and replug it, wait for the flashing to go blue and then reconnect.

Is this a normal experience? I've already had the E220 replaced once. Skype calls are the big bogey - I really can't get through one without it freezing and the connection going down.

I know people report a lot of problems, but is this what I should be expecting?
cheers, Ian

 

[ianh4]

Oh, BTW, I'm on prepaid, buying 2GB of data at a time...

 

[Smurfatefrog]

How much difference do you notice in the performance when the light is dark blue?

Mine changes often but i cant say i notice a difference, if you are downloading something and it needs to be at full capacity then the light blue light will stay on.

And you dont need to keep reconnecting or wait for the light blue light to connect, it will automatically move to HSDPA when it can

btw: light blue > HSDPA
dark blue > 3G
green > GPRS

as long as u dont have extended periods of GPRS you shouldnt have any problems

 

[ianh4]

Yeah, but when it goes to dark blue on my modem it freezes the connection - skype connection goes and if I open a web page it's dead. The lights are indicating that the connection should still be working, but it's all frozen up. This happens a LOT!

Only solution is unplug and try again.

 

[Karmen]

That doesn't sound right... have you considered taking your setup to an Apple Store to have it checked out? Can you test the modem on another computer besides your Mac?
I have a MacBook and my light switches between all colours on the LEDs but I don't really have connection problems. In contrary... my Mac pulls down too MUCH data!

 

[ianh4]

Thanks Karmen. Are you powering the E220 with a single USB cable or double USB? I've had this setup running on a MBP and a G5 Quad with similar problems, and I've been through 2 modems, and reloaded the software many times. My connection hangs up around 10 times a day on average, at a minimum! It's a royal PITA!

Are you not generally experiencing hanging up/freezing problems?

 

[vodacom3g]

I move around a lot, and end of last year decided to abandon DSL for 3G. I'm on E220 on a MacBook Pro, with all the latest drivers and Leopard.

When 3G and the E220 is working, it's not too bad - disappointing when you've just returned from the US, but usable. However, my modem freezes - the light goes from light blue to dark blue - about 5-20 times a day. I have to unplug and replug it, wait for the flashing to go blue and then reconnect.

Is this a normal experience? I've already had the E220 replaced once. Skype calls are the big bogey - I really can't get through one without it freezing and the connection going down.

I know people report a lot of problems, but is this what I should be expecting?
cheers, Ian

The 'light blue' or Cyan colour depicts that you're connected at HSDPA speeds and most likely are busy transferring data.

The 'dark blue' colour indicates that the modem is in the normal 3G (non-HSDPA) state. In this mode (called R99) the transfer speed is limited to 384/64 (down/up).

Switching between the 2 colours is normal as the modem will idle in R99 and only when data transfer starts will it switch into HSDPA mode. So you should see the modem drop into the dark blue colour quite a lot.

From what you describe, I get the impression that once the modem is in R99, it won't come out again? I.e. you can get any data flowing? Is this right?

If so, my top priority would be to get the modem firmware and the MAC software to the latest revisions.

Then see if a 3G-only profile don't make a difference.

 

[Karmen]

Thanks Karmen. Are you powering the E220 with a single USB cable or double USB? I've had this setup running on a MBP and a G5 Quad with similar problems, and I've been through 2 modems, and reloaded the software many times. My connection hangs up around 10 times a day on average, at a minimum! It's a royal PITA!

Are you not generally experiencing hanging up/freezing problems?

I do sometimes get hanging up problems but it is rare though - once or twice a month. What area are you in? Maybe you have signal problems..? When you connect your modem, what does it say in the signal strength bar? I normally get "good" and the green bar is around half way. With that sort of connection I get R1289 bills from vodacom. lol!

Another important thing - on your modem software dashboard, select the "3G only" option. I changed it to that in the beginning and my connection was better.