Preventing 3 Mobile Broadband from continuously writing huge log files

On my system I’ve noticed that 3 MobileBroadband.exe continuously writes to the following 4 trace/log files:

• ATRecord.txt
• Callbalk_trace.txt  (note the mis-spelling of what I presume should be Callback_trace.txt)
• Func_trace.txt
• trace_0.txt

On my system, the ATRecord.txt file is over 12MB!

There is a setting that controls this behaviour in the RunInfo.ini file.

In the [TraceSet] section of \Program Files\3 MobileBroadband\RunInfo.ini

• Change the TraceLevel parameter from 4 to 0 (zero).
• Change the ATRecord parameter from Y to N

Make sure that 3 MobileBroadband.exe is not running and then you can safely delete the log files in the
\Program Files\3 MobileBroadband\Log folder and restart 3 MobileBroadband.exe

NOTE: When 3 MobileBroadband.exe starts, a zero-byte trace_0.txt file will be created in the Log folder, but the file will no longer be written to.

Access 3 Mobile Broadband with Huwai E160G using Windows 7 dialler

To use the built-in Windows 7 Dial-Up (rather than the supplied 3 MobileBroadband software), you need to initialise the modem with this string:

AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”3netaccess”

The steps are:

1. Go to Control Panel and click on Phone and Modem
2. Select “Huawei Mobile Connect – 3G Modem” {“Attached to COM4”} and click on [Properties]
3. If you are not Administrator, click on [Change Settings]
4. Select the “Advanced” tab
5. Under “Extra initialization commands”, enter the following:
   AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”3netaccess”

Sharing Three Mobile Broadband from Windows 7 to Windows XP

I have a laptop running Windows 7 (RC 7100) and I’m using a Huawei E160G wireless broadband modem to connect to 3 Mobile Broadband.

I wanted to share my Windows 7 Internet connection with an old PC running Windows XP. The PC and laptop are connected with a standard Cat 6 LAN cable.

Here are the steps I used to enable the XP PC to access the Internet using the existing connection on the Windows 7 laptop. These steps assume that you are currently connected to the Internet using your 3 MobileBroadband connection.

1. On the Windows 7 machine, go to the Control Panel and click on “Network and Sharing Center”
NOTE: To see this option, change “View by: Category” to “View by: Large Icons”
2. On that window, under “View your active networks”, click on “3 MobileBroadband”.

3.This displays the “3 MobileBroadband Status” window.

4. Click on the [Details…] button (not the Details tab) to display the “Network Connection Details” window.

4. Record the IPv4 DNS and WINS server addresses (you will need to enter these details on the Windows XP machine in steps 11 and 13) and then click [Close].
5. Back on the “3 MobileBroadband Status” window, click the [Properties] button to display the “3 MobileBroadband Properties” window, and then click on the Sharing tab.

6. Check the “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection” option.
NOTE: An informational message may be displayed, indicating that the user name and password for this connection were not saved for use by all users.
7. In the “Home networking connection” drop-down, select the network that is used to connect to the XP machine. On my PC, this is called “Local Area Connection”. Click [OK]
NOTE: An informational message may be displayed, indicating that settings won’t take effect until the next time you dial in (because the connection is currently active).

NOTE 1: You will probably need to hang up and reconnect the 3 MobileBroadband connection on the Windows 7 PC before the Windows XP PC is able to connect.

8. On the Windows XP machine, go to the Control Panel and click on “NetworkConnections”
9. Right-click on the network connection used to connect to the Windows 7 PC and select Properties.
NOTE: This connection is often named “Local Area Connection”.

10. In the “This connection uses the following items” list, select “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)” and click [Properties]

11. Enter the IP addresses for the DNS servers from step 4.
12. Click [Advanced] to display the “Advanced TCP/IP Settings” window, and select the WINS tab.

13. Use the [Add] button (twice) to add the addresses of each of the WINS servers from step 4.
14. Click [OK] and [OK] and [Close] to close the windows.

NOTE 2: I have noticed that the “ping” command does not show any returns on either machine. I suspect that is because I am running Panda Global Protection 2010 on the Windows 7 machine, or perhaps because I have previously run Microsoft Security Essentials on the same PC.

Autodial Wireless Broadband when using Firefox under Windows 7 [Broken]

[UPDATE 26 Aug 2009] For some reason, autodial has stopped working, even though everything is set up as described here. I haven’t figured out why. I’ll update this post when I find a solution.

[UPDATE 7 Sep 2009] Autodial is still erratic, but what I have noticed is that:
(a) Autodial never works when resuming from standby, and
(b) In some instances when autodial hasn’t worked, I have noticed that Outlook has been trying to dial itself

In order to enable Windows to automatically dial my Wireless Broadband connection when using Firefox:

1. Ensure that the “Telephony”, “Remote Access Auto Connection Manager” and “Remote Access Connection Manager” services are set to Automatic.
   • I’ve set mine to “Automatic (Delayed Start)” as dialup doesn’t need to be started immediately.
2. Set up my Wireless Broadband connection as per my Using Three mobile broadband entry.
3. From the “Connections tab” in “Control panel | Internet Options”:
   • Set that connection as default, and
   • Set to “Dial whenever a network connection is not present”

Based on How to make Firefox automatically dial up at Mozilla support

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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”