Re: ppp strangeness

[Rick Jones <rick activeservice co uk>]

--On Tuesday, August 04, 2009 12:43:57 -0400 Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com> wrote:
> .....
> Your specific problem could be a firmware issue, it could be bad 2G
> signal coverage at your location, it could be network provider issues
> between your home network (3) and the roaming network, anything.

I suspect it's an issue between 3 and Orange. It's weird, the staff at 3, both in shops and the call-centre, don't even acknowledge that their devices work on 2G at all, they always insist they're a "3G only company". It was an independent retailer who assured me they did, using other carriers, and said 3 had the best service. Only after poking around with the modem did I find that it will only roam to Orange, the other UK carriers are barred. Also, in the list-networks (AT+COPS=?) response, the modem describes the Orange network as "3", although when you connect to it, AT+COPS? returns "Orange". The modem has obviously been hacked to hide "Orange" and make it look like there is a "3" 2G network!

> Unfortunately, it shows up as PPP errors and thus obscures what the real
> issue is.  Are you sure you have the latest firmware on the modem?

I assume so, I've never seen anything from 3 offering an update, and I think the firmware may be customised for them.

> I also now have a ZTE MF627 graciously donated to me, and while I can
> use it for testing modem identification, I can't use it to actually
> connect to anything since it's apparently 900/1800/2100 only which
> doesn't work in the US.

Well done - have fun with it, as far as you can :) See my other message re. ZTE fixes in latest NM git release.

Rick