Vodafone Huawei E220 USB Modem - first impressions

Status
Not open for further replies.
K

kaspaas

Expert Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2003
Messages
3,732
Reaction score
6
Location
Home: Wapadrant Office: Lyttelton
I received a Vodafone Huawei E220 USB modem yesterday.

Some first impressions:

Installation was straight forward on WinXP: Follow the manual and expect a large number of new hardware items to be installed. It does not install the PCMCIA Dashboard, but installs a Vodafone interface called Vodafone Mobile Connect Lite (V 1.0.10.1061 in my case). It seems as if the modem acts as a USB memory stick and the application is run from the modem itself.

The manual is however slightly vague on when to use the short cable with the single PC USB end and when to use the longer cable with 2 PC USB ends. Does the longer cable provide a better signal/ more powerful transmitter?

Once connected, the download speeds are excellent compared to 512k ADSL - obviously because of HSDPA availability.

I immediately wanted to check my available bandwidth by sending the "MM" SMS to 31050. Unfortunately no such function is available from the Vodafone interface. Huawei however states that the unit has SMS capability -http://www.huawei.com/mobileweb/en/products/view.do?id=282.

V3G - any indication when Vodafone will add SMS functionality to the software?

Next option to monitor bandwidth: Register with Vodacom4Me. Unfortunately somebody at Vodacom decided that the 64k Simcards will be issued without the cellphone number printed in the Simcard pack. This called for SIMcard shuffling to another cellphone to obtain the cellphone number to be able to register on V4Me.

The manual does not provide clear instructions on disconnecting the modem from the PC.

Right clicking on the Vodafone blob in the system tray and closing it, followed by clicking on the USB remove safely icon did the trick.

When inserting the modem again after removing it, it is real slow to connect to the PC - it takes almost 40 seconds. This is a real baddie!

The manual refers Mac users to www.vodacom.co.za for more information. I could not find anywhere such info. Not for Mac, Linux or Windows. It seems as if this modem is not yet supported on the web by Vodacom. Which leaves the question if there will ever be software upgrades from Vodafone.

To summarize:

The good:

Easy to install and use.
Excellent for use as an office pool 3G internet access unit due to the software being on the modem

The bad:

No SMS interface
A long delay between plugging into the USB port and being ready for use.
 
Great feedback, thanks. I nowadays only use this modem and never use the red cards anymore.....;)

I believe the cable with the two USB connectors will be for older systems (USB V1?) where you need to pick up power from 2 connectors. I normally use the short cable or if the signal level is low, the longer cable (or any other longs USB cable)

I still use the original Huawei dash and this does have SMS capabilities. I'll check up why the Lite dash does not do SMS. Silly, I know. In the mean time see if you can download the Huawei dash. It's called 'Mobile Connect'

I just close the dash and unplug or plug the modem in, does not seem to bother the system (Sony Vaio) and it's picked up within seconds. Maybe something on your system first scan the USB device before allowing it in?

The modem is fully supported by the Mac 2.06 version of the Vodafone dash.

Have a look here: http://www.vodacom.co.za/services/3g/downloads.jsp

You'll notice there is a placeholder for the E220 but no software yet. That is because we've not yet receive an updated firmware for the modem.
 
kaspaas said:
I received a Vodafone Huawei E220 USB modem yesterday. Some first impressions:

....Once connected, the download speeds are excellent compared to 512k ADSL - obviously because of HSDPA availability.
Click to expand...

Are you in an area where Vodacom has HDSPA (3.6 mbps) coverage? Or are you just getting 3G speeds?
 
atomcrusher said:
Are you in an area where Vodacom has HDSPA (3.6 mbps) coverage? Or are you just getting 3G speeds?
Click to expand...

I'm getting HSDPA connectivity according to the LED on the modem.

Downloads are lightning fast!

I can recommend this modem - provided VC smooth out the rough patches such as no SMS in the standard installation software.
 
Yes, kaspaas is correct.

The first, unbranded modems shipped with the Huawei dash, but subsequent ones ships with the Vodafone software.

Kaspaas, one of the things you can try is the full vodacom dashboard, I believe it does support the E220 and will thus support SMS.
 
vodacom3g said:
I still use the original Huawei dash and this does have SMS capabilities. I'll check up why the Lite dash does not do SMS. Silly, I know. In the mean time see if you can download the Huawei dash. It's called 'Mobile Connect'
Click to expand...

I downloaded this from the Huawei website. (I think it is the right stuff...:rolleyes: )

Before I attempt to upload it to the modem, what is the backup and recovery procedure in case something goes wrong?

Or should I rather wait for the genuine Vodafone software update? Will it be released soon?

Thanks
 
vodacom3g said:
Yes, kaspaas is correct.

The first, unbranded modems shipped with the Huawei dash, but subsequent ones ships with the Vodafone software.

Kaspaas, one of the things you can try is the full vodacom dashboard, I believe it does support the E220 and will thus support SMS.
Click to expand...

I love the fact that the E220 software is stored on the modem itself. It makes issuing the modem to various people for ad-hoc use so easy...

Using the full dashboard will make things just more complicated.

Thanks for the idea anyway.

Any timescale when Vodafone will have the connect dash fixed?
 
ic said:
That is very strange - my E220 installed dashboard s/w called Huawei "Mobile Connect". Are you sure that it's a Vodafone dashboard?

Does it look anything like this?:
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/2294/captured20070110102818pft2.png
http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/866/captured20070110102805pvf7.pngBest to use the generic Huawei E220 Mobile Connect dashboard [you should be able to download it from Huawei's site] bcos that does have SMS functionality, but unfortunately no support for USSD commands, so no ability to *111#.
Click to expand...

Must admit - Huawei has a much better sense for visual appeal that Vodafone.:D
 
kaspaas said:
I downloaded this from the Huawei website. (I think it is the right stuff...:rolleyes: )

Before I attempt to upload it to the modem, what is the backup and recovery procedure in case something goes wrong?

Or should I rather wait for the genuine Vodafone software update? Will it be released soon?

Thanks
Click to expand...

The Vodafone Lite software with SMS support is larger than the Huawei memory stick (10Mb, I think).

A newer version of the modem with more memory is the planned solution.

You could probably just copy the files of the memory stick onto your hard-drive, as a backup, delete them and replace with the Huawei software.

When you plug the modem in, it acts as a normal memory drive and your PC will autorun the software.

Not an official reply!, but I strongly suspect the above will work. If you want, I can test it on my modem. Just need to get an image of the Vlive Lite software.
 
kwmf said:
Last I knew, the card was 3.6mb READY ... the network was still 1.8mb
Click to expand...

That's what I was getting at in my post - you just put it far more clearly:)

So, what's the answer .... although the E220 card is capable of 3.6 mbps, what can we realistically expect in a coverage area that has 3G coverage @ 1.8mbps? And when will all 3G towers be upgraded to handle 3.5G @ 3.6mbps?
 
ic said:
AFAIK [at least with this E220] the USB memory stick pretends to be a read-only USB CDROM, it isn't necessary to copy new dashboard files onto the E220 - after downloading them just install into Windoze heXPee.
Click to expand...

ic, I think kaspaas wants to give these modems to his (non-IT literate) clients and want it to be as painless as possible. Basically plug and play but with SMS capability.

Thus my idea to roll the units back to the Huawei version. Then his clients would not need to install anything.
 
ic said:
George, is that you? :p :D.

There is probably some USB driver s/w that Huawei created to load OEM s/w distributions with the E220, IOW to put the Vodafone "Lite" dashboard on, would require special s/w from Huawei...
Click to expand...

Looks like the 'CD Rom' service is started when the modem is inserted by this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\USBSTOR\CdRom&Ven_HUAWEI&Prod_Mass_Storage&Rev_2.31\7&76780dc&1\Service

If I change it to 'disk', it wants to reformat the disk (I assume to the right format for memory disks).

Should I / should I not? ......:confused:
 
vodacom3g said:
OK, no joy so far, still won't allow me to format.
Click to expand...
You can probably only change contents of the fake CD when you do a firmware upgrade.

Can't you download the appropriate version from Huawei's site directly?
I see there's one called E220 HOSTB105D01SP01C03 (Normal) and one called E220 CD1HOST46V100R001B104D01SP00C19 (Vodacom).

I've only used the MTN one, I have just checked now and the ISO image of the fake CD is embedded in the firmware upgrade EXE. So, by modifying the EXE it would be possible to have anything you like appear on the fake CD.

Just checked again and I think the upgrade EXE you get from Huawei is too small to contain the actual firmware for the E220 and the ISO image of the fake CD, so all it is doing is copying the ISO image of the host software to an area of the E220 flash memory in a process very similar to a firmware upgrade.

Huawei probably won't make the E220 firmware available to the public, like they have done with the E620.
 
Last edited:
I got the usb modem recently, but now I have to go to the UK for a while, and was wondering what would the best option with this new usb modem? Firstly, can I use the modem over there, and then, would it be best to purchase a UK sim card to access the internet??
 
leelee said:
I got the usb modem recently, but now I have to go to the UK for a while, and was wondering what would the best option with this new usb modem? Firstly, can I use the modem over there, and then, would it be best to purchase a UK sim card to access the internet??
Click to expand...

Yes, it'll work.

Do a careful study of the various costs involved including the local (UK) roaming charges. Probably best to get a local SIM when you're there.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X