I have an EeePC 1015PEM netbook running Win 7 Starter with a k3805-z dongle. I got VMC Lite with the dongle but got fed up with that not working and downloaded 1.10 when the website said it now supports the k3805-z. Not my k3805-z though, clearly.
I travel to and from London each day on the train and would like to use mobile broadband to send/rcv email, read the news, etc. My train journey is about an hour each way through (heavily populated) Guildford and Woking and south west London but I'm lucky if I connect for more than a few minutes. I realise that the train is not the best place in which to try and access t'internet, but when my fellow passengers are happily browsing ebay on their iPads and sending emails to their mates telling them what they've bought I can't help thinking I'm not being unreasonable to expect a little more than I actually get. Here is a sample of the challenges I'm typically faced with in my daily struggle to access a mobile broadband service while actually being mobile (oh, where do I start...):
- the VMC software takes ages to find the dongle, saying 'No device'; in fact, it sometimes refuses to even start looking and sits there saying No device until I close VMC and restart it. The dongle is in the USB slot; unless the train is particularly crowded I can normally see it from where I'm sat.
- Frequently VMC will say it's searching for network when the dongle is happily flashing away with a green or blue light indicating that it is having no trouble at all finding a network. Often, VMC will just do this indefinitely until I get fed up and restart it.
- Even when it fires up according to plan, VMC takes ages to load and then establish there's a dongle in place and then find a network; between a minute and a half and two minutes; my smartphone does this in two seconds after I enable data connectivity.
- This evening I connected easily just as we pulled out of Waterloo station, but after speedily loading one web page VMC suddenly decided there was no device and cut me off and I didn't manage to even connect again until about 40 mins later, south of Guildford, despite the dongle indicating a 3G or HSUPA or GPRS signal during most of that time. This is not untypical of what I have to deal with.
- VMC tells me I have network coverage but when I click 'Connect' it just sits there opening the connection forever...
- ...mind you, sometimes it says it's opening a network connection but in fact it is actually connected so I can happily just ignore that and send some email. Skype is the giveaway; when it starts popping up and telling me who's online I know I'm connected, whatever VMC thinks. The trick is to spot this before I lose the connection again and act quickly.
- Quite often I will click on Connect and all seems well...but then IE cannot load the web page and the Windows network indicator in the toolbar tells me I'm connected to an Unidentified Network (!!) and I have no network access. Even though VMC tells me I'm connected to Vodafone HSUPA or 3G. This is particularly frustrating. This is not confined to the train, by the way. I've had this while sat in someone's house.
I try all sorts of solutions to these tribulations; I disable and enable the dongle using Windows Network and Sharing Centre; I unplug the dongle and put it back in; I move it between USB slots; I restart VMC. Sometimes these tactics work; sometimes not. I can accept that the signal may come and go and may drop out; that's reasonable while on a moving train. But I can't accept so many different difficulties in just connecting to the network in the first place. When I fire up my phone (also on vfone and also on the train) I have a signal immediately and connect to the internet with relative ease; the service can be s l o w, but the connection is easy to establish and stays in.
Incidentally, there is the odd occasion on this journey (once every couple of months?) when the network behaves faultlessly; it connects first time and holds the signal for a good part of the journey, so I know it can be done. I just wish it could be done consistently.
I just don't think VMC is very good at integrating with the dongle. It doesn't seem to have a clue most of the time what the dongle is up to. I suspect the software is....searching for euphimism....no...it's rubbish. Nor is it good at handling connection problems. If it loses connection it comes up with a message 'Unable to connect to the internet' or something, which then has to be cleared before a new connection can be established. What I'd like it to do is just get on with it. If you've lost the connection, fine, just put me on hold until you connect up again; I'll assume from the lack of activity on my screen that you've temporarlily disconnected. I'm on a train; I can live with it. Oh, and stop giving me RAS errors for no apparent reason. There is nothing else using the modem; just VMC.
So I'd like to know if my experience is typical, or if there is something I can do to make it better before I do something I and the train Guard regret with my dongle. By the way, this is my second dongle. I complained about the first one and got a replacement, but it's at least as bad.
Am I alone? Please help.
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Retired-AndyD
