Issues connecting to private APN with Dell Latitude 10 / Windows 8

[marklamond]

Hi there,

I have a Dell Latitude 10 tablet, running Windows 8 and have a few issues with a private Vodafone APN.

The Latitude 10 uses a Dell DW5565 Mobile Broadband modem, and is using the latest driver v8.0.8.4. BIOS and all other drivers on the Latitude 10 are right up to date.

The mobile broadband adapter in the laptop appears to Windows 8 as an ethernet adaptor, not as a modem (most mobile adapters appear as modems in Windows 7/XP).

I can connect to the Vodafone “internet” APN without any problems using the Windows Mobile Broadband API. This is accessed by going to the signal indicator in the taskbar, selecting the “Vodafone UK” connection under “Mobile Broadband” and connecting. I obtain an IP address and all is well.

However, when I try to configure a private APN I cannot get connected. To configure an APN you right click the “Vodafone UK” connection under the “Mobile Broadband”, go to properties and enter the APN name, then the username and password used for authentication. However crucially there are no options to set what authentication method is being used and this is why I think it is failing. Normally you can configure PAP/CHAP/MSCHAPv2 as authentication methods. Our private APN with Vodafone only supports PAP authentication, but I have no way of telling Windows 8 this.

Interestingly, i found this (not very helpful though):

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/a386f9fb-c9dc-4fde-9c5c-ed232e59b83d/pap-ch...

So I’m kind of stuck. I have no idea what authentication method Windows 8 is trying to use in the background. I don’t even see an auth request coming from the Vodafone GGSN node over to me for authorisation. This makes me think that the Vodafone GGSN is ignoring the request on its front door because the authentication method is wrong. Or perhaps our APN is mis-configured, and we should be able to use methods other than PAP?

Are there any other private APN users out there who can comment on authentication methods supported by Vodafone?

To troubleshoot issues such as this I would normally create a new “Dial Up Networking” connection manually. This gives me full control over the phone number and init strings being sent to the modem, and choose which authentication method I want to use. However I can’t create a dial up networking connection on the Latitude 10 as the mobile adapter does not appear as a modem!

So I try the route of last resort and install the Vodafone Mobile Broadband software. It displays the signal strength of the mobile connection, so it is obviously communicating with the mobile broadband hardware to some extent. However when I try to connect it says It cannot find the hardware, or another application may already be using it.

Can anyone advise?

Many thanks,

Mark.

[drey_p]

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@brinkruaan wrote:

Hi kalyansiva, Send me your email address I can send you some details from MS and our fix.

I am sure though MS fixed this with updates. Maybe you should update first? But in the meantime I can send you what I have.

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Kalyansiva - In the interest of playing things safe online, I would advise against giving someone you do not know any of your personal information including email address. If you do decide to go against this device, be very cautious of any thing you're asked to install on your computer as you can't be sure what it is. 

[brinkruaan]

Hi, no problem, I can see that someone might take the situation to their advantage...I can attach to the reply below. Let me know if it helps.

The zip files contains the power shell script. if you are indeed worried about running it, please contact Microsft and get the original from them. Alternatively send me a PM.

[Retired-Sarah]

Hi kalyansiva,

Welcome to the eForum.

So we can take a further look into this, please get in touch with us here.

Thanks,

Sarah