[H-GEN] Wireless broadband issues.

[Jared Norris]

On 23 March 2011 07:52, Carl Adams <52midnight at gmail.com> wrote:
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> I'd been using Vodafone's USB wireless broadband service for about six
> months with increasingly poor service until it finally quit altogether a
> couple of weeks ago. Each morning I'd wait for the modem to connect, make a
> record of the host and nameserver IPs, ping the servers, and then ping two
> other machines whose IPs I know, one in Oz and one in Singapore. When
> service had not been restored after a week, I wrote a letter to Vodafone and
> took a copy down to their CBD office, where I was told that Vodafone does
> not accept correspondence from customers. This prompted a second letter,
> along with one to the TIO. By calling the company a criminal organization in
> writing, I placed myself in legal jeopardy. A week later a studiously polite
> female phoned and enquired how much refund I wanted. I have just banked a
> cheque for the full purchase price of the modem, AND of the voucher - not
> pro rata.
>
> The letters are available online (technical listings omitted) at:
>
> http://52midnight.com/vodafone/
>
> I am now using Optus. Had the usual hassles requiring a twenty-minute call
> from a lass in the Philippines to correct a parameter that was not given in
> what passes for documentation these days, but could not determine my usage,
> since this is now sent by SMS, to which end Optus supplies a piece of
> software in the modem itself called the "Dashboard" that performs this
> function - Windows and Apple only, of course. The former quick and easy CGI
> page obviously wasn't contributing sufficiently to the company's bottom
> line, and a fee a la the banks can now be charged for SMS advice. I emailed
> Optus and was informed:
>
> 1. Optus does not support plugging the modem into a router (TL-MR3420 in my
> case) "for sharing the connection", but only directly into a computer. So
> now the TNCs are telling how and how we may not use our own equipment.
>
> 2. That Optus does not support Linux. Until then I had deliberately avoided
> disclosing this, knowing full well the consequences, and purchased the
> router specifically to isolate the modem from the OS, which is does
> effectively and reliably.
>
> 3. Optus only supports Windows 7, Vista, and XP, as well as Mac OS X - Tiger
> and Mac OS X - 10.5 Leopard. All of which just happen to be proprietary
> systems. No surprize.
>
> I don't want to open a discussion on the evils of the TNCs and the Oz telcos
> - they're too well known - but I'm concerned that they may eventually
> succeed in forcing Linux desktops off the Net entirely; without doubt this
> is their intention. Does anyone know if the Linux community is addressing
> this issue? I doubt that anything is being done in Oz, but there may be
> action being taken elsewhere, as with Linux in education in the UK.
>
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Carl,

I bypassed this altogether when I went for a wireless option for when
I wanted to go away on holidays by purchasing a home network gateway
from Telstra. Same situation as you putting your modem behind the
router only the home network gateway is the router (has wireless and
ethernet connections on the lan side). When I'm at home I use it as a
failover connected to my wan2 port on my home router in case the cable
ever goes down.

I must admit this isn't a perfect solution as it does require another
power point and isn't exactly as portable as a usb drive. I have a
greater need to connect multiple devices at once (holidaying alone is
boring) than I do to be portable. However, the new devices on more
than one carrier coming out that connect "up to 5 devices at once"
might be more interesting if you need a portable solution. These
appear to cut out the need for drivers or support altogether.

Not sure it will work for everyone but that was my solution to address
the issue.

Regards,

Jared Norris JP(Qual) BBehSc(Psych)
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JaredNorris