usb mobile broadband internet disconnecting

[xiz0r]

So, I've got a Huawei e1831 (with videotron) and I consistently get diconnected if I'm inactive.

I've seen some DC after ONLY 20sec of inactivity (multiple times!!). But most of the time it takes between 5 to 15 mins before I get a DC (record time was around 1 hour maybe 1.5 hour)

When I get a disconnect I hear the usb sound telling me that a device has been unhooked and 2-3 sec later the usb sound for a plugged in device is played and the connection manager will reconnect me.
At 1st I tough it was a usb power problem so I've set my power plan to never shutdown any usb device (to save power) and in the device manager I've found 9 entry for the huawei dongle and of those 9 there was 6 of them with "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" and unchecked those 6 boxes. It didnt changed anything and I would still get DC'ed for inactivity. I also created a new power plan, just in case, but it did not helped.

Their tech support is useless, they made me exchange the usb dongle 2 times already with no success and they claim they have never heard of anyone having this problem but me. They also claim that it has nothing to do with videotron disconnecting me, they say they do not disconnect people for inactivity

Now I say I get DC'ed for inactivity because when I run ReloadEvery (a firefox addon that let you refresh any web page after a given time) on google.com (or another website) every 10 sec and I will not get disconnected (I've been doing this for about 4-5 days) and I was able to keep my connection active for 7h+ doing this each times. I tried to increase the refresh timer to 20 sec but I'd get the occasional DC and same thing at 15s but so far not one DC when set at 10s.
I've also tried to just ping a website but it is not enough to keep my connection active (even every 5 sec)

I've ordered a 3g antenna thats compatible with my huawei dongle but their tech claims that should not be the problem since I usually have a signal of 3 bars.
I use the dongle with a usb extension cable (to get better signal) but I get dc'ed just as much without the extension.

Another weird thing is that when I try to see my bandwidth usage with a connection from the usb dongle at the videotron website I get timed out about 9 times out of 10 (it either work on 1st try or not at all no matter how many times I try to refresh the page) but when from my home connection it works every time. Again their tech had no idea how to resolve this (not that I care much about it but it is weird)

The network in my area support up to 42mbps but the e1831 dongle only support up to 21mbps. When I run a speed test I get between 10 and 13 mbps down and ~2.5mbps up and ping are great and generally under 75ms, often in the ~45ms range (with 3 bars).

Any idea what could cause this and how I could fix it ?
thx for any input guys !!

edit: using an Alienware M17x R2 with i7 620m, 4g 1066 ddr3 ram and 2 ati hd4870 in crossfire

[zazz]

Hi! boy I'm I happy to see that I am not the only one with this issue.my story is exactly the same as yours and Videotron is not being too helpful!!

Please could you tell me what,if anything fixed this issue??

Thak you so much!

[xiz0r]

I have not found a permanent solution ...

I keep firefox open with ReloadEvery (firefox addon) to reload this web page every 5 seconds
(any page will work but you want a near empty page to keep bandwidth usage low and I have to use 5 sec or any higher and I still get the occasional disconnect)

I also have to set firefox to always check for newer version :

if you want firefox to always reload the page then type this into the address bar:
about:config
type this into the filter:
browser.cache.check_doc_frequency
change the value to: 1

more info:
3 - only check if it seems outdated
2 - always use cached version
1 - always check for newer version
0 - check for newer version once per session

With those setting I'm able to stay connected for 8 hours +.
It might not be ideal but its a lot easier then trying to get videotron to make it work !!

[zazz]

Thanks! Do you know how I could make that work with internet explorer 8?

How do you find the reception with your 3g antenna?I get 2-3 bars without on and was considering getting one myself?

[xiz0r]

I'd give a try to http://www.pagereboot.com/ website that does what reloadevery do and it should work in any browser.
Along with forcing IE to refresh page from the server and not cache
like this :

and it should work (click on "settings" near browsing history and select "every time I visit the webpage")
*this may slow some webpage loading but should not be a big deal

And I have not received the antenna yet ... ebay ... china seller ...

[zazz]

Thank you so much for your help!! I was having a horrible time with this.I just switched from Telus and their service was excellent and their customer service was great too.I was a bit nervous about dealing with Videotron again as their best advice is usually "unplug it and plug it back in" LOL!! Which I was told more than once.

The antenna you ordered was it the small magnetic one for $19.99 or one of the bigger ones? I'm still not quite sure what to get.

[xiz0r]

this is the one I bough but I'm not too sure what would be best. I do know you want a crc9 connector to be able to plug it in the huawei dongle though.

I'm not sure if it'll make a noticeable difference, since I found the "5 sec workaround" I'm quite happy with the service even with only 2 or 3 bars.

[zazz]

Thanks I might order one too.I'm actually watching the Videotron guy in his truk right now "testing" the signal strength.What a joke! I jumped online hoping it would bump him off so maybe they would find a solution to their issue LOL!!

He stayed for all of 15 minutes!

[xiz0r]

I got the antenna today, I'll post back my impression on it in a few days after I get some use of it (not before friday night).

[xiz0r]

The antenna I got seems worthless, I do not even get one more bar with it.
Its probably not a real 12 dbi gain ... I do not recommend it!

[zazz]

Thanks so much for letting me know! I spoke with Tech supposrt from Videotron again and they don't seem to have any answers other than to return it and see if the next one does the same thing.Not really any help seeing as you have already been there and done that.

[datastick]

had same problem but downloaded tcping.exe
http://www.elifulkerson.com/projects/tcping.php

and i do `: tcping -t -n 5 www.google.ca and it works for now. I'll try with a higher delay (10 seconds like you) if it still works. Seems like a tcp ping is working but not a classic ping (not tcp)

I would like to know how much a ping really takes in bandwith (not much i know but i could calculate for over a long period)

I ll add this in a shortcut to windows start

[xiz0r]

^^ interesting, I've moved away from firefox (flash video would often cause some long hanging of firefox) so I moved to chrome with a similar addon and it works just as well.
The bandwidth for reloading http://www.this-page-intentionally-left-blank.org is rather small and does not impact me at all so I'm quite sure you dont have to worry about bandwidth with a ping as it should be much lower that way then reloading a web page.

I might just try it with tcping.
Personally tough a 5 sec refresh is needed otherwise I might still get some occasional DC but maybe 2 or 3 per days instead of 2 or 3 per hours