Using Three mobile broadband with Windows 7

I have an Huawei E160G USB mobile broadband modem from Three here in Australia.

Sometimes when I try to connect (especially if I Suspend or Hibernate), I get a message saying that the modem is already in use. To fix this, I’ve created the following command script and placed a shortcut to it on my desktop:

@echo off
echo Removing 3 Modem …
C:\Programs\CmdLine\devcon.exe remove “@USB\VID_12D1&PID_1003&MI_00\6&24106059&8&0000”

echo Delaying …
delay 3.5

echo Rescaning …
C:\Programs\CmdLine\devcon.exe rescan

pause

The devcon.exe application is from Microsoft (see support.microsoft.com/kb/311272).

The delay command is a small C# app that I’ve written which delays for the specified number of seconds. The delay is necessary to give Windows time to handle the removal event. This delay could be replaced with a  pause command.

Running the script causes Windows to re-install the Three modem, after which it works again.
NOTE: The script needs to be run as Administrator.

I found that using the “3 MobileBroadband” app to dial was often unreliable, so on my system, I use Windows to dial the connection.

To allow Windows to dial a Three mobile broadband connection requires:

• Specifying a modem initialisation string
• Creating a dialup connection

Add modem initialisation string

1. Ensure that you are either logged in as Administrator, or have Administrator privileges.There doesn’t seem to be a “Run as Administrator” option for the “Phone and Modem” control panel applet.
2. To see the “Phone and Modem” applet in Control Panel, change the “View by:” from “Category” to “View by: icons”
3. Under “Phone and Modem | Modems | Properties”, set the modem initialisation string for the “HUAWEI Mobile Connect – 3G Modem” to match the APN required by the service provider. For my monthly Three account, the string is
   AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”3netaccess”,”0.0.0.0″,0,0
   * If you have more than one entry, use the one that is “Attached To” COM’n’
   * If you are using prepaid, use 3services instead of 3netaccess

Create a dialup connection

There are at least two ways of setting up new Dial-up connection:

• Using “Set up a dialup connection” or
• Using “Connect to the Internet”

Create a dialup connection using “Set up a dialup connection”

1. Type “dialup” into “Search programs and files” in the Start menu
2. Select “Set up a dialup connection”
3. From “Create a Dial-up Connection”, choose “HUAWEI Mobile Connect – 3G Modem”
4. Set “Dial-up phone number” to *99#
5. Leave “User name” and “Password” blank
6. Set an appropriate “Connection name”
7. Click [Connect]
   NOTE: The first connection will take some time to set up, as Windows attempts to determine the best connection parameters.
8. Click on the Network icon in the system tray
9. Right-click on the connection (as named in step 6) and choose Properties
10. On the Networking tab, ensure that “Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6)” is NOT checked.
    * On my Three account, leaving this checked results in very long delays when registering on the network. I suspect that this may be because IPv6 is not well supported yet.
11. On the Security tab, only allow “Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP)”.
    * On my Three account, leaving PAP and MS-CHAP v2) checked results in very long delays when registering on the network. I suspect that this may be because Windows tries MS-CHAP v2 first.
12. Under “Dialing options” on the Options tab, uncheck everything except “Display progress while connecting”
13. Set your redialing options as required. I use
    Redial attempts: 2
    Time between redial attempts: 10 seconds
    Idle time before hanging up: never
    Redial if line dropped: Checked

Create a dialup connection using “Connect to the Internet”

1. You can access “Connect to the Internet” from either the Control Panel (first item under the “Network and Internet” category) or from  “Set up a new connection or network” (under “Change your networking settings” in the “Network and Sharing Center”)
2. If you are prompted “Do you want to use a connection that you already have?”, choose “No, create a new connection”
3. When prompted, “How do you want to connect?”, choose “Dial-up”
4. Continue as per step 3 in Create a dialup connection using “Set up a dialup connection”