Dongle Stopped Working - So I Thought

[jarvis1979]

About June I bought a PAYG vodafone dongle to use when I was away from home wich is very rarely. I used it whilst I was away for a few days in July, it was fantastic, a bit slow but just what I needed.

This week I am away again and popped my dongle in to get my work emails..... no signal.... then loads of signal.... then cant connect because sim isnt active..... then please make device default.... then I very nearly threw it in the road after about 3 hours of this.

I called vodafone techincal help - but they dont work late so I spent a night swearing a lot over why I have to work late but they dont. Next day I spent an hour and a half on the phone with a chap who got me to perform all manner of different procedures, non to avail and eventually said - its broken you need a new one. I said "cant you send me one then" he said "doesnt work like that you need to take it to a shop, they will try and repair it, if it is unrepairable you may get a new one".

Angry and fed up - I though bum this I will just buy another dongle for the sake of arguming over £40. So I went and got another today and guess what - SAME errors. cant get it working.

So does anyone have any idea. Because the technical people dont and I am starting to lose what little patience I've ever had. Its a Toshiba laptop, it all worked fine a couple of months ago. Has something changed?

[Ben_H]

Hi Karla,

First things first a very warm welcome to the eForum Family, I only wish it was under a happier cloud

It sounds to me like it may be a firewall or process that is blocking your connection to the internet. Have you had a chance to test the modem in another PC or laptop to see if the original connects ok then? Have you had any service updates or security software installed since the modem was last used? As it sounds like the technical team went through the usual SIM update details to get the network to recognise the card, it would seem like a hardware fault.

I can understand if you didn't have time in this case to let the store look at the original one for you but the Repair Process if it is the modem is always the best route to go; that way they can tell you if there is an issue with the card by trying it in store on devices too.

Cheers, Ben
eForum Team