problem with 3 broadband on vista?

optiplex_2

Dear all,
If anyone can point me in the right direction I would be so grateful...

OH and I have been running mobile broadband dongles from 3 for about a year. Mine is a Huwaei E169 and his is a ZTE MF627 (purchased after me). We have had no problems running these, first on XP then on Vista.

We came back from holiday 2 weeks ago and suddenly neither dongle will work on our HP laptop (running Vista). The dongle is recognised and will connect to the internet (at HSDPA speed), but we cannot browse any web pages. I have tried IE, Mozilla Firefox and Safari but none will work.

After a frustrating phone call with 3, (I have tried all advice on the website troubleshooting section) I took mine into the store and they have sent it away, but yesterday I rang 3 again whilst trying the OH's dongle, and they admitted that there is a known conflict with Vista and these dongles. I presume it is a recent update that has caused this, so I restored the laptop back to 6 August and managed to connect and browse the internet for about 10 minutes before it stopped again. By this time computer had started updating back to current date.

I really don't know what to do, 3 told me I have to ring HP for a resolution but admitted that they would probably say it is not their problem. :mad:
I have done some online searches but can't find much, and we are both tied into 18 month contracts on the dongles.

Any suggestions would be really appreciated.

Thanks so much.

fwor

One thing you could try is to first change Auto Update settings so that it tells you about updates but doesn't automatically download them.

If you then do a system restore to 6th August and you should be told about all of the updates since then, and can do some research to find out how critical each one is. You can then choose to decline some or all of the updates and see if the dongle keeps working.

With a bit of patience you may even be able to pin it down to one update, and than you can then concentrate on how important that update is and whether you can live without it. At that stage you can then tell Windows never to try to download that update again.

In security terms it may represent a risk, but overall the risk is probably low, as many of the updates are for vulnerabilities that never find their way into the real world.

S0litaire

Win7 is out in a few weeks and the dongle (and software) works with it fine! ^_^

I've been using the 3 software and a E156G dongle in Win7 RC and i've not had an issue. lol

optiplex_2

Thanks both for your advice, I will try going back again and working through the updates. I like the Windows 7 idea but I don't really want to have to shell out for a new operating system just to make the dongles work!

optiplex_2

Further to my previous posts, have restored computer back to 30 July, (earliest point available) and dongle still won't let me browse the internet, i have turned off updates so nothing has been installed since 30 July. So perhaps it wasn't an update thing.

I am totally at a loss with what to do next...

S0litaire

Have you tried going into "Device Management" and removing all references to your device there, Reboot and plug the device back in..

It should go through the "found new hardware" process again. See if that helps any...

optiplex_2

If the device isn't plugged in, it doesn't show up on the list? (I guess because it's plug and play?)
If it is plugged in, and I uninstall the device in Device Manager, will this damage the software on the dongle?
I have uninstalled and reinstalled the software using Add/Remove programs.

S0litaire

The software on the dongle is write protected (the PC see's the software on the dongle as a CD-ROM so it can't copy over it or delete it).

it's safe to remove it from the device manager it won't effect anything on the dongle.

cassie27

hi a friend of mine is having the same problem and he is tied to an 18 month contract

so any ideas of what i can do will be very helpful
thank you

optiplex_2

Went into the 3 store yesterday with my laptop and you guessed it I could browse the internet with no problems. The guy was really helpful though and said if you still can't browse at home, ring Customer Services again and if they can't resolve the problem within 21 days, you are entitled to have your contract terminated, because it must be to do with your postcode. (Even though it has been fine for nine months).
So... get home, ring customer services, and they tell me that this is not true! They say there are 5 masts in the radius of my postcode so signal should be fine, and that they've told me before that it's a Vista issue so I need to ring HP. I argued that why would the dongle work in the shop, and not at my house. but he maintained it was a known issue that could occur randomly, and out of their jurisdiction to resolve. I wasn't having this, because HP told me to restore my computer, which I have done, and effectively my computer is set back to July but i've still got the same problem. Why should I pay per month for broadband when three cannot meet their end of the contract? At the end of the day, I shouldn't have to buy a new Operating System just because Vista and three can't work it out!
Eventually, the three guy asked me would I like to go through a few steps with him, to try to resolve this. Why didn't they say that the first time I rang up instead they just passed the buck onto HP?
By going into services.msc, he got me to restart a few of the services, and ensure that Telephone is set to Automatic rather than manual.
As if by magic, I plugged in my dongle and when it had connected the browsing speed was back to normal. I tried out a few websites with a lot to load e.g. google maps, facebook photos, and so far it is working fine.
However, he did say to me that when I update my computer the same thing could happen and i'd have to restart the services again. Fingers crossed I won't need to. Will keep you posted...

kwikbreaks

> Went into the 3 store yesterday with my laptop and you guessed it I could browse the internet with no problems.

That makes no sense if you are indeed getting a decent connection at home. Are you sure it was connecting through the dongle and not a wifi hotspot?

===

As it is working again now and you know what to tweak should it fail again it is probably irrelevant but I would suggest that as probably half of the laptops in the UK run Vista and only a vanishingly small proportion are on 3 it is up to 3 to ensure their software is compatible with Vista rather than saying it's up to MS to be compatible with 3.