Mikrotik device + 3G settings...

[simonfishley]

Hi All

This is 3G related so hopefully someone out there may be able to assist. I am trying to get a new Huawei E630 card working in a Mikrotik routing enviroment. The card is detected fine and I can establish a link but that is as far as I go. What I am trying to confirm (and the callcentre did a good job of sounding blank when i called) is the following:
I am not sure if you are familiar with Mikrotik devices but essentially it sees the card as a USB device and I create a new PPP session using the card interface and I have to give it a whole lot if info.

Info I am trying to confirm: (you'd swear the guy I spoke to at support did not know vodacom even offered 3G)

The number to call : *99***1#
Dial command: ATDT
Modem init string: AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","INTERNET"
Do I need to send a username and password?
The Mikrotik guys have got this working on a similar setup but their provider required that they specify a remote host - do we need to do that with Vodacom 3G?

Any help or advice appreciated.
Thanks
Simon

 

[ic]

You could also try *99***#, and both username & password must not be specified.

PS: Welcome to MyBroadband .

 

[simonfishley]

Thanks for the welcome! Tried your suggestion - no joy unfortunately.

 

[ic]

Thanks for the welcome! Tried your suggestion - no joy unfortunately.

Ok, are you 100% sure that the SIM card has in fact been activated for data, i.e. data enabled? - maybe try the E630's SIM card in an ordinary phone and see if you can connect to the internet APN. Otherwise, if there is definitely a connection established with the E630, get hold of the connection details like upstream DNS server, IP address, default gateway etc, as well as try some ping tests to the default gateway or to speed.vodacom.co.za or smtp.vodacom.co.za.

 

[simonfishley]

Ok, are you 100% sure that the SIM card has in fact been activated for data, i.e. data enabled? - maybe try the E630's SIM card in an ordinary phone and see if you can connect to the internet APN. Otherwise, if there is definitely a connection established with the E630, get hold of the connection details like upstream DNS server, IP address, default gateway etc, as well as try some ping tests to the default gateway or to speed.vodacom.co.za or smtp.vodacom.co.za.

100% sure - the data card works in my laptop, at least until mobile connect crashes but thats another issue.
Any idea where one might get the connection details because I have spoken to Vodacom who seemed shocked that they had a 3G network and I have not been able to find a definitive resouce anywhere!

 

[ic]

100% sure - the data card works in my laptop, at least until mobile connect crashes but thats another issue.
Any idea where one might get the connection details because I have spoken to Vodacom who seemed shocked that they had a 3G network and I have not been able to find a definitive resouce anywhere!

My apologies - I was a bit ambiguous in my previous post about "connection details", what I meant was start by running:

ipconfig /all
ping -n 100 smtp.vodacom.co.za
tracert smtp.vodacom.co.za

from a Windoze Command Prompt window, and maybe post some of the relevant details in this thread.

 

[simonfishley]

My apologies - I was a bit ambiguous in my previous post about "connection details", what I meant was start by running:

ipconfig /all
ping -n 100 smtp.vodacom.co.za
tracert smtp.vodacom.co.za

from a Windoze Command Prompt window, and maybe post some of the relevant details in this thread.

Ah so in other words I now need to turn my attention to this infuriating MobileConnect that only runs for 2 minutes at a time before I get a C++ exception error and it bombs. I am DLing the newest ver from Vodacom now - all 76Mb of it - so perhaps that will sort it out and I get get some info from the connection.

Thanks for your assistance so far.

S

 

[ic]

Ah so in other words I now need to turn my attention to this infuriating MobileConnect that only runs for 2 minutes at a time before I get a C++ exception error and it bombs. I am DLing the newest ver from Vodacom now - all 76Mb of it - so perhaps that will sort it out and I get get some info from the connection.

Thanks for your assistance so far.

S

Not necessarily - I assume that the Mikrotik thing is a router of some sort that has a PCMCIA slot, if so the router's admin pages might have a function to ping and do trace routes etc, and at the very least it should show some of the connection details.

 

[simonfishley]

Not necessarily - I assume that the Mikrotik thing is a router of some sort that has a PCMCIA slot, if so the router's admin pages might have a function to ping and do trace routes etc, and at the very least it should show some of the connection details.

Thats half the problem. The router establishes the connection but goes not further, no ip address, no gateway nada. I am about to try the newly installed VMC so lets see!

UPDATE
The newest version of VMC is even worse, does not even let me connect to 3G before I get the same error:

"Buffer overrun detected!"
Program: ...\Vodafone Mobile Connect\Bin\MobileConnect.exe

I am not the only to person to see this error I can tell from the forums, however the general suggestion of wait for the new version is not helping since this is the newest version of Vodacoms site. Microsoft Support suggests I return the program to the vendor and ask for a refund... really helpful. There was one guy on their forum who was getting the same error only with EXPLORER.EXE and strangely enough M$ did not advise him to return the program to the vendor for a refund?

 

[andrmash]

does the sim request a pin code when in your phone.. just a thought, if the sim needs a pin then find the AT command to send, otherwise turn off pin code request (using a phone or VMC)

 

[Swoosh]

Are there any messages on the sim card's inbox?

 

[simonfishley]

does the sim request a pin code when in your phone.. just a thought, if the sim needs a pin then find the AT command to send, otherwise turn off pin code request (using a phone or VMC)

A good idea - I did disable the request for SIM so it should not be that that is causing the problem.

 

[simonfishley]

Are there any messages on the sim card's inbox?

It is a new SIM so I did not check the SIM but it is not inceonceivable that there is a welcom message or something on there. I am doing a fresh XP install to try and get VMC to work - will check the SIM then and see if there are any messages.

Thanks!

 

[Swoosh]

I got the same error. I then moved my messages in my inbox to a different folder and started it up again. No error as yet!

 

[threegee]

The number your card should be dialling is *99#

You have a bunch of extra ****'s in your number which is not correct.
username and password = blank for both

Not sure if that is your problem, hope it helps.

 

[Gerry]

What version of RouterOS are you running, is dhcp package installed on your routerboard ?

 

[Rukicc]

Hi All

The number to call : *99***1#
Dial command: ATDT
Modem init string: AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","INTERNET"
Do I need to send a username and password?
The Mikrotik guys have got this working on a similar setup but their provider required that they specify a remote host - do we need to do that with Vodacom 3G?

Yes you need this address, without addres didn`t work. In wiki sample this is wap gateway address.

I have problem with using huawei e630 in mikrotik(In windows all is OK) in places where is only GSM 900 MHz network .... with GSM1800 MHz no problems all is runing.