Travel Technology - UMTS randomly disconnecting




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graraps
Feb 25, 08, 7:40 pm
For the past couple of days, I've been the proud owner of a Huawei UMTS modem (with SIM from the Hutchinson "3" network in the UK if that makes any difference).
I am in what seems to be a well-covered area, the signal is showing as 5-bands, my speed tests always show acceptable speeds (consistently around 1.6-1.8 mbps down, 0.35 mbps up) with a less-than-excellent but still fair ping (200ish milliseconds), but the thing just disconnects itself from time to time. It used to do crazy things such as being unable to find the modem, deciding the SIM was locked and having an error along the lines of "write failure in registry" (or something in equally incomprehensible English). I've reinstalled the drivers, and it seems that I don't get these funny problems anymore, but it still goes off after any amount of minutes (let's say between 4 and 27), without the computer or modem being moved or disturbed in any way. While it will reconnect when asked, I am finding this very annoying.
Any ideas about potential sources of the problem and/or course(s) of action for troubleshooting?


graraps
Feb 26, 08, 1:54 pm
Got it!
Got the barsteward!

The culprit was... ZoneAlarm (even if the modem had been on perm authorisation). Once I shut it down, the connection's been working fine.

Anyone know of any decent, FREE, firewall?

griffinj
Feb 26, 08, 2:32 pm
Got it!
Got the barsteward!

The culprit was... ZoneAlarm (even if the modem had been on perm authorisation). Once I shut it down, the connection's been working fine.

Anyone know of any decent, FREE, firewall?

Windows Firewall. It's built into XP.


sbm12
Feb 26, 08, 2:39 pm
Windows Firewall. It's built into XP.

There is also a version built in to Vista, and I'd give it credit as "decent" but definitely wouldn't go so far as to say that it is actually good. The XP version doesn't have any control over outbound traffic, and both versions are a PITA to manage.

jason8612
Feb 26, 08, 3:06 pm
Hmm
I had a similar problem with my UMTS card before same as OP. Could never figure out what caused it.



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