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Unable to connect when switching users on same PC with K4505

philmuttett
1: Seeker
I have just set up my own business and have bought a new laptop running Windows 7 with a Vodafone Mobile Broadband USB stick K4505.

Although I am the only user of the Mobile Broadband USB, I have set up two users on my laptop - one for personal use and one for my business (for the purpose of being able to access different files and emails more easily).

After installing the software with my business user account, I am able to connect. If I then exit the software, log off Windows and log in again with my personal user account, I'm unable to connect. I get a message that my device may be in use and to try again in a while. I went back into my business user and uninstalled the software, then back into my personal user and re-installed it. Again I tried to connect and got the same message. I logged out again and logged back into my business user. Even though I'd re-installed the software with my personal account I was able to connect when logged into my business user.

I don't understand what the problem is here - I understand that I would need to disconnect before switching users, but given that the software (as with any software) only needs to be installed once to be used by both PC users, why can't I connect under each user?

And why was I unable to connect even after uninstalling and reinstalling the software.

Please could you clarify what the situation is regarding this issue, thanks.
6 REPLIES 6

Retired-Jon_V
Moderator (Retired)
Moderator (Retired)
Hi Phil 169,

Are you logging out of each user account fully before logging into the next one, or using the "Switch User" option within Windows? The latter will keep the previous user account running in the background, along with all open applications, so the Vodafone Mobile Connect software would be locked out, along with the modem, as it would already be in use with the first account.

If that's not the case, and as you say, it's only happening with one account - it sounds like your Personal Account may not have full administrator rights on your machine. In order for the software to function, it must have full admin rights both during installation, and when making the first connection to the internet.

When you tell the software to connect for the first time, it writes a dial-up connection setting and places it under "Network Connections" in Windows. If the dial-up connection is missing, then you simply need to give your personal account full admin rights - tell the software to connect - and after this has been successful, you can lower it back to the original priviledges again.

Let me know if this helps in any way :)

Jon

eForum Team

philmuttett
1: Seeker
Hi Jon

Thanks for your reply. Both the user accounts in Windows have administrator rights and always have done. I have tried various things as follows -

If I log in as user 1, I can connect to VMC and all is fine.

If I switch user to user 2 (user 1 still logged in) I am still connected and can surf internet and download email. However, I am unable to open the VMC software and I get a frequent pop up message headed "Unhandled Thread Exception" and stating "Failed to create an IPC Port: Access is denied" along with a series of other messages.

When I try to open VMC I get a pop up that states:
"Another Windows user account may already be using your mobile device.

The Vodafone Mobile Connect software can only be used by one user account at a time. Exit the software in the other account before using it in this one.

Tip: Always exit the Vodafone Mobile Connect software before fast-switching to another user account."

This makes sense. However, if I switch user back to User 1 and exit the software, or even if I remove the USB dongle, or even if I log out as user 1, whenever I log in as user 2 I am able to open the VMC software and my mobile device is detected and connections are found. But when I attempt to connect I get the following message pop up every time:

"Mobile connection not possible.

Ensure that no other programs are using your selected device, and try again in a short while."

The earlier message that states "Another Windows user account may already be using your mobile device" suggests that what I am trying to do should be possible, as long as I exit the software. However, in reality I'm unable to do this and am getting the above error instead.

The software version is 9.4.5.19931 Huawei and the firmware on my dongle is 11.860.02.04.11 (recently updated).

Any ideas?

Thanks

Phil

Retired-Jon_V
Moderator (Retired)
Moderator (Retired)
Hi Phil,

What happens if you log straight into User Account 2 without ever loading VMC in User Account 1? I'm trying to understand if the issue is unique to one particular user account, or merely related to whichever user account makes the first connection.

Jon

eForum Team

philmuttett
1: Seeker

Hi Phil,

What happens if you log straight into User Account 2 without ever loading VMC in User Account 1? I'm trying to understand if the issue is unique to one particular user account, or merely related to whichever user account makes the first connection.

Jon

eForum Team



Hi Jon

I'm unable to log connect as User 2 under any circumstances, even if I start up my machine and log in as User 2 without ever logging in as User 1. I still get the message saying "Mobile connection not possible. Ensure that no other programs are using your selected device, and try again in a short while."

Another thing of note - you mentioned previously that VMC uses a dial up connection as far as Windows is concerned. But when I go to Internet Options > Connections there isn't a dial up shown. And if I go to Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network Connections the VMC Mobile Broadband connection is displayed under Local Area Connection 2. Is this correct?

Thanks

Phil

Retired-Jon_V
Moderator (Retired)
Moderator (Retired)
Hi Phil,

Our newer modems appear as local area connections rather than dial-up connections, so that's my mistake.

At this point, we've eliminated every possible problem connected to our hardware and software, which only leaves a Windows Error to be to blame. It is my suspicion that User Account 2 has a security priveledges error which is preventing it from having full access to your system, despite it supposedly being an Administrator account.

Ideally you'd want to get a Windows Specialist to look at this further, as it lies outside of our support remit - but my personal recommendation would be to log into User Account 1, delete User Account 2 from the Control Panel, and then re-create a new User Account with User Account 1 as a reference.

I trust this helps :)

Jon

eForum Team

philmuttett
1: Seeker
Hi Jon

Yes it did help. I deleted User 2, uninstalled the software as User 1, reinstalled it as User 1, then created a new User 2, and I am now able to connect as either user, as long as I exit the software on one user before switching. Perfect, thanks.

I'm not sure if I really needed to uninstall but was just trying it for completeness.

Thanks a lot for your help with this.

Regards

Phil