new 3331 modem with ext cord

[mwill]

A couple of my friends have been getting indifferent reception from Vodacom using their red 100MB free/month modem. I happened to hear about the latest Huawei 3331 modem with high praise so decided to buy one and try it.
I must admit I can't say the 3331 bests the Red modem, but by using a 1metre extension cable it gave me full on 3G as opposed to 2G plus occasional 3G. 2 photos attached.

 

[Terencek]

There are a couple of recent threads running here on this modem which might also be of interest to anyone with an R205/K5331 (see 'Advice on a replacement for an R205...' in the Mobile Broadband thread, for example). The R205 is Vodacom's branding of the generic Huawei K5331, which is the modem you are referring to, I assume.

Given that this is a portable modem, perhaps instead of tethering it to your computer, which restricts you to what may not be the best area of reception in your home or office, why not use the supplied power supply to position it somewhere better (e.g. higher which is often better). That means using it via wifi of course, rather than simply as a standard USB modem which seems like a bit of a waste of its wifi capabilities.

Officially, with the supplied charger it has a wifi range of 100 metres, though in practice I often find it to be a lot less. That's a lot better than the 20m or so it will reach when running off a computer USB socket.

If you can persuade someone to help you, why not open the Huawei dashboard and have that person read out the signal strength bars as you try different positions in your home to find the optimum placement?

 

[Terencek]

Oops, as you were. Looking more closely at the photo it seems it is indeed a standard USB modem and not the Huawei 'personal wifi' one. Apologies to all for the unwarranted diversion, my bad.

 

[sajunky]

To make possible longer USB cable, use self-powered USB hub with 2A power supply.