Vodafone Mobile Broadband - Unable To Find / Connect To Network For Over A Week

[tamsinlucie]

Please help, I've had a Vodafone dongle since 27th august and was able to use for just 2 days before it suddenly loosing connection and not being able to find any network at all. Before I was able to connect to both GPRS and 3G, now nothing at all!! I've tried calling customer services and have been left on hold for so long that its getting to be costing a me a small fortune calling from my mobile phone (i don't have a land line). I was told to reboot by removing the sim while the device was still plugged in but nothing changed. I went into a Vodafone store and they said that the network may be down as others were complaining that same day, I've waited for over a week and I'm not happy having a device which is completely unusable and being stuck in a contract with it!!!! I use the internet for my home business at its causing me no end of problems. Can someone please contact me and help. :excl: :excl:

[Retired-Lee]

Hi tamsinlucie,

I'm so sorry to hear of your problems here.

I've checked the masts in your area that serve the postcode in your profile and can confirm that both have been working perfectly for the last couple of hours.

Site number 12021 is in the South over the park at Clarendon and is fine, as is site number 32551 at Spinney Hills.

Can you do me a favour and try the mobile broadband SIM in your handset and try browsing a few webpages? If that works then we know you can successfully connect to the network, and we need to check your dongle as this could be the problem.

If the SIM in your handset works, then I suggest you completely uninstall the modem and reinstall.

Let me know how this goes on. I'm sure we can get a resolution in the very near future.

Cheers,

LeeH
eForum Team

[LSB]

We have been experiencing exactly the same problem in the Kent area for well over a week. We have had no problems with our previous dongle but all of a sudden and without any warning we were unable to connect to the internet. We tried over the next 3 days with no luck. First of all we thought we had a problem with the laptop itself but then my other half was experiencing a problem with his "work" laptop which uses a Vodafone Air-card and he was unable to connect to the internet too over the same period of time. We then called Vodafone, who tested the coverage at that time and was told it was "patchy". After trying over the next couple of days to connect and having no luck we called Vodafone again. This time we were told we need to upgrade our dongle as "Microsoft had made some changes and that's why we were unable to connect". We were then sent a new USB-type stick with a new SIM card (but keeping the same number).

Due to not being told some information by Vodafone, we had problems installing this. Finally managed to sort that all out last night after another few calls to Vodafone. On trying to connect for the first time we noticed we had a GPRS connection which is VERY slow and we didn't have this before, so we called Vodafone and they changed it to 3G and were told that everything would now be OK.

On then trying to connect, we still found that we cannot get onto the internet!!! So after nearly two weeks and numerous phone calls to Vodafone we are back where we started. What is going on??!! :angry:

[Retired-Jon_V]

On then trying to connect, we still found that we cannot get onto the internet!!! So after nearly two weeks and numerous phone calls to Vodafone we are back where we started. What is going on??!! :angry:

Hi LSB,

Just so I can get a better understanding of your issue, when you say you're unable to get onto the internet, do you mean you can connect to 3G but not load any web-pages? Or are you unable to connect at all?

If you're unable to connect, we'll need the exact error message that Vodafone Mobile Connect is giving you, and your full postcode so that we can check basic troubleshooting and cell faults in your area

If however you're getting connected but no web-pages are loading, this could be down to a known fault with a particular model of USB modem.
Please see our sticky threads here for more information on how to resolve this.

We're always looking for feedback on how we're handling queries for customers, so if you want to leave any on how I've handled your query today, then if you want, you can go here and complete the quick form. Any feedback is appreciated and helps to ensure that we're offering the best service we can for our customers.

Jon

eForum Team

[John.R]

Ok I thought I’d just jump on the back of this thread rather than starting a new one. I’m having the same problems as these guys. I have a PAYG mobile broadband dongle and a few weeks ago I had it up and running. Now I tried to use it again yesterday and it won’t connect to the Vodafone Network. I’m getting the following error message, see below.





I only use my dongle when I’m away on business, I have WIFI access via a different provider at home so have been unaware of the problems that have developed. On my netbook I have disconnected my built in wireless connection from the WIFI access point at home just in case there was any conflict going on, but still no joy.

I also thought there might be a problem with the VMC software so have uninstalled it and reinstalled the latest version (v9.x). The software is also crashing my netbook too and I have to force my machine to shutdown by pressing and holding the power button, because I can’t access the power down options from the START button.

I’ve brought it into work thinking there might be a reception problem, but the same error is happening here. My home postcode is PE19, my work postcode is SG16.

I’ve been in contact with Customer Services on the phone, but the representative didn’t have a clue what I was talking about and after being transferred to a technical department, I was kept on hold for 10 minutes.

Hopefully the forum will be more useful?

[Retired-Dave]

Hi John R,

No problem - we'll be happy to look into this for you as well.

The fact you say this is happenoing at home and at work certainly points to something not specific to the location. From that error message, the key part for us is the "RAS Error Code 633" at the bottom. This points us towards a few likely causes, so let's cover them first.

The first thinmg worth checking would be whether an application has misidentified the dongle as a mass storage device. If you move your mouse over the icons in the "sandbox" on the toolbar to see if any of them suggest a connection to mass storage, then right click any that you find and end the connection to free up the dongle.

You should also look to disable any internal modem in case this is conflictting with the dongle when it tries to connect.

Another likely cause could be the ports - by allowing these to be set to default, it does run the risk that something else may try to use the same, as applications will always default to the lowest available ports. Iffor any reason these clash, the dongle's ability to connect will be affected, so it's a good idea to manually set these to a higher number:

- Select Control Panel > System > Device manager
- Select Modems and locate the dongle
- Highlight the modem, right click and select Propeties > Advanced > Advanced port settings
- Set COM port to a high number, for example something around 240
- Close this window and go back to Device Manager
- Select Ports (COM + LPT) and check for the dongle (look for any Huawei reference)
- Highlight the modem, right click and select Propeties > Port Settings > Advanced port settings
- Set COM port to a different high number (to avoid conflict with the first setting)
- Reboot the computer
- Check device manager again to ensure listed under CD ROM drives (as USB Mass Storage device), Ports, Modems and USB controllers

Finally, when you load VMC, please check what connections the dongle can "see" before trying to connect. Remove any connections which are not the required Vodafone connection (whether 2G or 3G depending on your location's signal and then manually set the device to connect to this one.

If these steps do not resolve things, can you also confirm for me what lights you're seeing on the dongle when you try to connect.

I look forward to hearing from you

DaveN_Vodafone

eForum Team

[John.R]

Dave, Many thanks for your reply,

If these steps do not resolve things, can you also confirm for me what lights you're seeing on the dongle when you try to connect.

When i start up VMC, it as there is no device found, at this point i insert the dongle into my USB port, it then pulses green, after a short period this slows down to a flashing blue and thats it, nothing else.
When I click on connect i'm just getting the 633 error mesage, but i can stil see that my laptop ois seeing the usb dongle as a storage device.

[Retired-Wayne]

Hi John.R

Thanks for coming back to use here. I'm sorry to hear that this still isn't working.

The only other thing I can think of this being is that that the telephony services on your PC are disabled. To check this, go to :-

Start> Control Panel> Administrative Tools> The 'Start Up Type' setting for the 'Telephony' service should be set to Manual.

Please give this a try and let me know how you get on

Thanks

Wayne

eForum Team

[John.R]

Wayne,

Thanks for your input. I can confirm the Telephony service is set to Manual and it is currently running.

Any other ideas?

[Retired-Jon_V]

Hi John.R,

I have a few more steps to try for you.

Firstly, I want to make sure that we're starting from a clean slate, so perform the following:


Unplug the modem.
Go into the Control Panel. Open "Phone and Modem Options" and click on the Modems tab.
Remove all listed modems.
Next, from Control Panel, go into Manage Network Connections. Delete all VMC-related dial-up connections.
Uninstall Vodafone Mobile Connect.
Delete the VMC user data directory (C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\Vodafone\Vodafone Mobile Connect\UserData)
Reboot the PC.

Once rebooted, plug the modem in, and allow the software to automatically re-install from the modem itself.
Re-test the connection.

If this still does not resolve the issue, we need to know if the problem is likely to be related to a software conflict, or a driver issue.
Troubleshoot this using the following steps:

Close Vodafone Mobile Connect.
Open Task Manager (ctrl+alt+del) and make sure no VMC-related services are running.
From the desktop, right click on the My Computer icon and choose Properties.
Select the Hardware tab
Click on Device Manager
In the Modems group, locate the modem which is returning the error. Right click on this and select properties.
Select the diagnostics tab.
Click on the "Query Modem" button. If the device is functioning properly, the Diagnostics tab will now display a series of commands and responses.

Receiving an error that states the modem isn't responding and another application may be using the port, indicates that another application has most likely locked the device. Any other error, or no responses displayed, indicates that the driver may need re-installing, or their may be a hardware fault.

If it looks like an Application has locked the device, perform these steps below to resolve the conflict:

Shut down all other applications that are running on the computer and try to connect again. Re-test the connection.
If it's still not working, load the Task Manager (ctrl+alt+del).
Close each application that appears in the Applications tab, by highlighting it and pressing "End task". Repeat as needed.
Select the Processes tab.
Use the "End Task" button to shut down all processes except explorer.exe, taskmgr.exe, and any process for which the username is listed as "SYSTEM".

Try to connect again.

If this resolves the problem, restart the computer and try to connect again. If the error pops up again, repeat the above process, but this time re-test the connection after each time you "End Task". Whichever program you "End Task" on when the connection starts to work again, is the culprit, and will need to either be uninstalled from your system, or otherwise configured not to take over the modem.

I trust this helps, and if you have a spare moment, please take some time to fill in a short survey about your forum experience today.

Jon

eForum Team