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2 edits | Rocket Stick dropped connnections - alt.connection software? I think I need to replace the crappy connection manager software that comes with the Rocket Stick modem with a freeware utility that can keep the connection when the dynamic addresses switch over. Here's why:
As mentioned in previous posts (»Rogers Wireless DNSs get Blacklisted cause of spambots), I have the Rogers Rocket Stick ZTE MF636 modem. Just plugged into my machine, I get crap speeds and only one bar signal on a good clear day. I found that when I put the modem out the window of my 2nd floor home office on the end of a USB cable, I got a better reception. Being south of Wasaga Beach, I probably don't have direct line of sight to the Stayner or East Wasaga Beach towers because of terrain. So what I did was jury rig a few curtain rods together, with a few 16' active USB cables, with the rocket stick on the end, lashed to the side of my house. This gives me consistent speeds of 1-2 Mbps down/0.5-1.0 upload, always HSPA 3/3 bar signal even in the worst weather, which is good enough until I can get a signal booster.
My problem is that the connection keeps dropping out, sometimes every few hours, sometimes every five minutes, under one of the following scenarios:
1) the connection drops out, but the connection manager still says HSPA 3 bars;
2) the connection is unchanged, but the connection manager drops to 0 bars, and then a minute later the connection drops out and the conn.mgr. says "No Service". But the modem is still showing a blinking blue light showing me to be connected to the HSPA network;
3) the connection drops out, the modem shows "No Signal," but the modem is showing a blue light, and the connection manager freezes, becoming completely unresponsive.
When I try to reconnect, one of the following scenarios occur:
1) the connection is dropped, but the connection manager still indicates that I'm "Connected". When I click "Disconnect", I get a progress bar for a few minutes, and then an error message that says, "unable to connect with remote computer..."
2) sometimes if I force quit the conn.mgr and restart it, it allows me to reconnect, but more often...
3) I force quit the conn.mgr, restart, but still not able to reconnect. All the while the modem is showing me a steady blue light connected to the HSPA network.
4) When force quitting/restarting the conn.mgr. application doesn't work, I actually have to unplug/replug the modem which autostarts the connection manager, for it to recognize the network again.;
5) Sometimes (rarely) even that doesn't work, and I have to go to the command prompt and type "IPCONFIG /FLUSHDNS" and that always works, but forces me to completely restart my system.
Because I've been doing speed tests every five to ten minutes and keeping connection logs, I noticed that when the connection is dropped, or the connection manager freezes, it only happens when the connection switches over to a different dynamic address. Of the three rotating addresses I've observed from Speedtest.net, that is. When I reconnect, it's always with a different dynamic address.
I think that, based on the data, it's unlikely that the connection is dropping out due to an actual signal loss, since it always goes from 3 bars to 0, or 3 bars to No Service, and when I successfully reconnect it's always to 3 bars.
Now, I'm not entirely sure why these exhaustive measures are necessary or why they work when they do and don't, but a more likely cause is that the software that Rogers is using for this modem is not detecting and/or switching over to the newly rotated dynamic adresses. So my conclusion is that the connection manager software is buggy.
It's unlikely that it's the modem, cause initially I had two modems, neither of which seemed to be refurbished, and both exhibited the exact same connection behaviour. I finally returned one when I realized the only way to get a decent signal and speed was to put the darn thing up on my roof.
And upgrading the connection mgr application is not an option, cause there's nothing on the Rogers site, the "Get Updates" button on the conn.mgr sends me to a blank page on the Rogers site, and there's nothing on the ZTE website.
I'm getting a CradlePoint MBR1000 Wireless 3G Router when I can afford it (»Rogers Rocket Stick Shared with a 3G Wireless Router), which has its own connection firmware for the ZTE MF636, which I hope will solve the problem.
But until that time, does anyone know of any freeware or open source wireless connection software that will enable me to replace this crappy Rogers connection manager? I have all the info regarding SIM#, phone#, etc.
That's assuming, of course, that the problem is with the connection software and not the modem firmware, in which case I'm screwed. | |
| I get some interesting results when I do ipconfig /all in the command line:
PPP adapter Rogers Internet:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-53-45-00-00-00
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.141.67.166
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.141.67.166
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 207.181.101.4
207.181.101.5
Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 10.11.12.13
Secondary WINS Server . . . . . . : 10.11.12.14
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled
Seems like DHCP is not enabled for the device or the connection, which I guess means that the modem does not receive the new dynamic IPs when it switches over?
If I go into Network Connections and disconnect/reconnect Rogers Internet (in the dial-up category), it works sometimes, but other times I have to actually force quit the connection manager and physically replug the modem for the connection to recognize the new IP. This only seems to happen, ever, when the IP switches over. Every time the connection drops out, I get a new IP address when I reconnect.
Maybe this is a limitation of the PPP protocol? I'm not an IT guy, I don't know enough about this stuff.
I did find that the autodisconnect setting, located in the registry under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanServer\parameters, was set to 15 minutes by default. When I disabled autodisconnect on the command line with
net config server /autodisconnect:-1
...the connection stability improved, I am no longer getting frequent disconnects, and once I even observed it keeping the connection with the IP switchover, so maybe that's it. But if I leave it connected overnight, inevitably it disconnects. So I dunno, maybe it isn't the DHCP thing, it's an autodisconnect initiated by the Rogers servers. Who knows. At least it's not quite so annoying now. | |
1 edit | I share the computer with my wife, so usually I simply click disconnect in the connection manager, close teh connmgr, swicth profiles, and the conn.mgr will automatically restart.
Problem is, that doesn't always work. Sometimes the app just freezes, or says it cannot contact the server, even though I have a connection), and the solution is to terminate the UIMain.exe process and replug the modem. So I have to baybysit the process of getting my wife online every time she wants to use the computer, which is a pain cause she uses it when I'm asleep in the early morning.
So FYI, I've written a batch script with instructions so she can connect herself. You have to install the SysInternals PSKILL utility for this to work, which you can get here: »technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi···683.aspx make sure you place the pskill.exe app in the C:\Windows\System32 directory for it to work directly on the command line without a file path.
Reset Internet.cmd :
@echo off
pskill UIMain
cls
set /p prompt=1. Please Unplug and Replug the Rogers Modem Cable. After about 30 seconds, the Rogers Connection Manager will restart. 2. Click Connect. Press Enter anytime to close this message.
The script terminates all running Rogers Connection Manager applications, and gives the following instructions:
1. Please Unplug and Replug the Rogers Modem Cable.
After about 30 seconds, the Rogers Connection Manager will restart.
2. Click Connect.
Press Enter anytime to close this message.
Still doesn't solve the disconnect issue entirely, but at least it makes it easier to reconnect. She just clicks on the cmd icon on her desktop and replugs the modem, instead of opening the task manager and looking for the app in the list, which she says is too technical. | |
| I've been playing around with my rocket stick for a while now (down by Lake Simcoe) and I've been having the same disconnect issues you mentioned. i usually just yank it out and reconnect, but it is annoying to do this every 45 min or so. Especially when I'm in the middle of a game/conversation/video/download. As for default connection managers, I've just discovered that when the Rogers connection manager is running, you can connect using the windows manager in vista. Although I believe it is still through the Rogers connection manager, even though it does not actually say "connected". I guess I'll wait and see if it has any effect.
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