Travels with a 3 data SIM

culabula

As I have already posted here I recently acquired the 3 datacard and have been very pleased with it; besides its speed, the not insignificant matter of its use outside the jurisdiction without any punitive roaming costs when a 3 network is used, is a postive boon when travelling between Belfast and Dublin as I do several times a week. Owing to the recent loss of my MacBook I have been using it with my Sony Vaio; the speed was fantastic while Windows XP remained as tiresome as ever.

Now that I have a new MacBook I have been anxious to get the connection working with a mobile as the datacard is useless with a MacBook. After some tweaking I have got it working fairly easily with a Nokia 7600, Nokia 6630 and Sony v800, the latter rpoviding a rock-solid connection on the Enterprise and not dropping the connection once in two and a quarter hours. Speed with all of these mobiles was impressive but I hankered for the elan of HSDPA.

Best and most surprising of all was the return trip today: I had the Mac connected to the 6630 and opted to share the connection via Airport. I then fired up my PSP, connected to Airport and between Balbriggan and Dundalk looged into my Location-Free base station and watched TV from home without interruption. Unbelievable! Top-class audio and video.

I bought the RAZRv3xx on Sunday to avail of the HSDPA speeds but this has proved a nightmare. Most of the time it won't connect (I have only enjoyed a single 20 minute connection) and I am inclined to think the bluetooth is the problem. When it did connect it was only reporting GPRS and was no significant improvement on the Nokias and Sony. I couldn't even get it to work on the VAIO with the tools provided for use with Windows. I think it's going back.

Incidentally, 3 tell tell me the following:

They will release a USB modem within "a month".

They will allow 'X-series' to be used as a modem with a laptop (take this with a pinch of salt).

They will update the datacard to the USB for a small consideration.

Now that I am using the data SIM with the Mac I can no longer keep an eye on the amount being consumed as was the case with the clunky Windows software supplied by Huawei; does anyone know if software exists that will allow me to monitor this on a Mac?

(finally PM me if anyone needs an explanation of how I got these different phones to work with the MacBook: most are fairly straightforward but there are a few pitfalls)

Urban Weigl

I'd recommend using the RAZR v3xx with a cable, rather than bluetooth. For one, bluetooth won't give you anywhere near the speed required for HSDPA, and secondly Motorola's bluetooth implementations have, in my experience, been rather poor.

Since 3 have told you they're going to have a USB modem "within a month", I'd return the V3xx and upgrade to the USB modem when it is available.

You may also want to check out launch2net from http://www.novamedia.de/

It's an easy to use application that includes driver software for virtually every phone, data card and USB modem ever made. It also includes and automatically selects the correct settings for almost all cellular networks worldwide. And finally, it lets you easily monitory our usage.

culabula

Urban Weigl wrote:

I'd recommend using the RAZR v3xx with a cable, rather than bluetooth. For one, bluetooth won't give you anywhere near the speed required for HSDPA, and secondly Motorola's bluetooth implementations have, in my experience, been rather poor.

I thought of that and I tried it but it refused point-blank to work even though OSX immediately detected it as a modem. I think you're right that the bluetooth as implemented by Moto is letting the side down.

Since 3 have told you they're going to have a USB modem "within a month", I'd return the V3xx and upgrade to the USB modem when it is available.

You betcha -though I like the notion of being connected wirelessly;both the Sony and the 6630 gave me a flawless BT connection.

You may also want to check out launch2net from http://www.novamedia.de/

It's an easy to use application that includes driver software for virtually every phone, data card and USB modem ever made. It also includes and automatically selects the correct settings for almost all cellular networks worldwide. And finally, it lets you easily monitory our usage.

I did try that -but guess what? It doesn't know of the existence of 3 Ireland and so refused to work. Secondly, it costs quite a bit (but I hadn't realised it monitored my usage).

culabula

Sorry, made a mess of the quotes there -it's late :-)

Blaster99

Urban Weigl wrote:

Motorola's bluetooth implementations have, in my experience, been rather poor.

Motorola's implementation of anything have in my experience been rather poor... The likelihood of Motorola managing to make a phone that can do HSDPA, Bluetooth, and function as a modem would be so small that I don't think it could be measured.

culabula

I just got it to work there by USB cable....once. Just like the bluetooth, it seems to work once in every dozen attempts. Tiresome.

Urban Weigl

Bah. Just return the phone and wait for the USB modem.

On paper it should work, but I guess Motorola ****ed it up (sorry for language). By the way, 3 told me that you can monitor your bandwidth usage online. But they say lots of things.

culabula

Well, yeah, thought I'd give it a lash. It can be returned so no harm done. Haven't seen anywhere on their site where you can monior usage, though.

Urban Weigl

I suppose you could wait for Motorola/3 to release new firmware to fix the issue, but who knows. Could be weeks, months, years or never. Better to return it I'd say, as you might be waiting forever.

culabula

Well, here I am in Italy (Tuscany) roaming on 3 Italy with my data SIM

It don't work.

Since I arrived last night, the SIM (which is in a handset) has continued to function for voice and SMS but all data access is stone dead. Yet, I can connect to planet 3 on my 3UK handset sitting right beside it.

Disaster.

Anyone any ideas? Is there an APN for outside usage? This is a bit crazy that I can't use my mobile broadband on another 3 network without problems 9as was indicated).

(I haven't yet tried it in the datacard in a Windows laptop, but we will).

Urban Weigl

Have you called 3 customer support? It sounds to me like something isn't provisioned correctly on their end, because if it was on your end, it wouldn't be working in the UK and Ireland either.

culabula

Urban Weigl wrote:

Have you called 3 customer support? It sounds to me like something isn't provisioned correctly on their end, because if it was on your end, it wouldn't be working in the UK and Ireland either.

With difficulty as the account is not in my name since they won't let nordies have 3 Ireland accounts. The account holder has got me a special dispensation though and I got through to India last night who were to call me back but haven't. I agree with your assessment but it's very annoying. Hopefully we'll get somewhere today but up here on this mountain top I don't gots 3. Have to wait until I go down to the village.

culabula

Still stuck in Italy unable to access the internet using the 3 Ireland data SIM. Clearly 3 IRL have not enabled this properly as my 2 3UK voice SIMs are working for planet 3 data -but more importantly, a colleague who is also here, is unable to use his 3 IRL datacard with windows XP laptop either. Despite 3's efforts (not their best ones, I might add), absolutely nothing has been resolved.

Can anyone tell me if 3's mobile broadband is working normally in Ireland today/tonight (as they tried to fob me off today with a yarn about problems on the network at home -damn-all to do with my problems since Monday in Italy)?

Urban Weigl

If they cannot fix it, they should at the very least give you a free month of service, since it's not working as advertised. It should work just fine on any 3 network, including that in Italy.

culabula

Agreed -and it's clear that I'm not the only one.