Problems with 3G Internet & Unlocking Huawei E220
Recently my 3G mobile internet has begun to fail at an increasing rate. Basically, it doesn't fetch a IP and hangs at "Authenticating". I enabled verbose logging (OS X - System Preferences - Network - Huawei - Advanced - PPP - Settings: Configuration - Verbose logging)
And checked the logs (Application - Utilities - Console - /var/log/ppp.log) and found:
Mon Jun 29 19:06:22 2009 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:25 2009 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:28 2009 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:31 2009 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:34 2009 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:37 2009 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:40 2009 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:43 2009 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:46 2009 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:49 2009 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:52 2009 : IPCP: timeout sending Config-Requests
Mon Jun 29 19:06:52 2009 : sent [LCP TermReq id=0x2 "No network protocols running"]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:55 2009 : sent [LCP TermReq id=0x3 "No network protocols running"]
Basically, timed out. Talking to support they didn't see any problems. They thought it was a drivers related problem. But since I couldn't connect on Windows either (via parallels) I thought it might be a hardware problem.
Here's the tricky part: I have a spare Huawei E220, but locked on another provider. Thus I needed to unlock it to even try my hardware problem thesis. Turns out unlocking Huawei E220 was quite easy, a lot easier that up to date cellphones from Nokia or Sony Ericsson.
I won't go into the deails of unlocking here (not sure about the legality about describing the process) but it's pretty clear-cut and can be found on Google.
Turns out I was right, hardware indeed. And now I can connect again.
And checked the logs (Application - Utilities - Console - /var/log/ppp.log) and found:
Mon Jun 29 19:06:22 2009 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:25 2009 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:28 2009 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:31 2009 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:34 2009 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:37 2009 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:40 2009 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:43 2009 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:46 2009 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:49 2009 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 10.11.12.13> <ms-dns3 10.11.12.14>]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:52 2009 : IPCP: timeout sending Config-Requests
Mon Jun 29 19:06:52 2009 : sent [LCP TermReq id=0x2 "No network protocols running"]
Mon Jun 29 19:06:55 2009 : sent [LCP TermReq id=0x3 "No network protocols running"]
Basically, timed out. Talking to support they didn't see any problems. They thought it was a drivers related problem. But since I couldn't connect on Windows either (via parallels) I thought it might be a hardware problem.
Here's the tricky part: I have a spare Huawei E220, but locked on another provider. Thus I needed to unlock it to even try my hardware problem thesis. Turns out unlocking Huawei E220 was quite easy, a lot easier that up to date cellphones from Nokia or Sony Ericsson.
I won't go into the deails of unlocking here (not sure about the legality about describing the process) but it's pretty clear-cut and can be found on Google.
Turns out I was right, hardware indeed. And now I can connect again.
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