Yes that modem is overkill in the present cirtcumstances, but, as you say, it should be good for some time to come. I would have taken a slower and cheaper modem if i had found one, but all of the modems at the shops that had any were priced at 3990 (regardless of the brand), except in one place where they had one for 5990. 
I am sure i could find cheaper modems on the internet, but i was running out of time, since i needed to get the IP phone reliably on line for work.
Now everything is working as it shouldā¦
Wow, thatās a rip off, the modems are normally around 2-3k, although that said itās not like youāre going to have to upgrade until you go 4G or something as despite advances in HSPA technology itās unlikely that Taiwan will get those kind of speeds any time soon even though 40-50Mbit/s is said to be possible.
I guess sometimes itās just a matter of getting it working, but it kinda sucks when you already had a modemā¦
Well, i wouldnāt say ārip offā, and i donāt take the price to heart - this little town here is off the beaten track (Hualien is not Taipei), and there is an opportunity cost to think about. 
Itās a market economy, no?
Anyway, i am happy that i now have a reliable internet connection and i can get on with the work i have to doā¦
An alternative is to get an Android phone with built-in WiFi hotspot features. Huawei makes one for T-Mobile USA, sold as the T-Mobile Comet. In Taiwan they are distributed by Fareastone as the Huawei IDEOS, or āé å³ å°ē²¾é.ā I donāt know the street price in Taipei, but during CNY I went back home and they were sold in prepaid phones at USD$150 apiece.
If you got one of those WiFi hotspot-enabled phones, you can then just tether your laptops to it via your WiFi cards. Makes traveling easier too.
Sure, that works, until you have to use your phoneā¦
Most Android phones can do that, although prior to Android 2.2 youād have to root your phone and install a 3rd party app.
The downside besides not being able to use it as a phone is that the sticks donāt run on battery, so theyāll work as long as your notebook has battery, as the phones tend to drain quite quickly when used as a hotspot.
And for some people itās not really an alternative, as theyāre using their 3G/HSPA connection instead of a wired internet connection as in this case.
OK, now itās my turn to ask for help.
Yuli/TheLostSwede, I bought the router you guys suggested. This one:
mall.post.gov.tw/p693/index.php? ā¦ 5100039505
Unfortunately, so far it sucks. Yes, I can plug my Huawei USB169 into the routerās USB port. I attach my computer to the router with an Ethernet cable. I use my browser to visit the router settings and set it up for Chung_hwa Telecom. The router connects to CHT (though it takes a minute or two to deliver DNS - a bit slow to connect, I thought). But once connected, speed is fast. Now I can surf the Internet. Everything is working greatā¦
ā¦but not for long. After a couple of minutes, the router drops the connection. For about the next five minutes, the Internet might as well not exist. Then it automatically connects again. This, it turns out, occurs repeatedly. Shutting everything down and trying again doesnāt improve the situation.
OK, I plunge further into the router settings. By default it connects āon demandā so I change that to āautomatically.ā But that doesnāt seem to help. I havenāt tried āmanualā yet, though Iām not sure what I would then have to do to force it to connect - any suggestions?
As a last desperate measure, I disabled my Linux firewall, thinking that perhaps it was interfering with my router connection. But that didnāt change the outcome either. Oh yeah, one more desperate measure, I hard-set my DNS thusā¦
ā> primary DNS address 168.95.1.1
ā> secondary DNS address 168.95.192.1
ā¦in the hopes that this will improve things, but it makes no difference.
So, I just unplug the damn router and stick my 3G USB modem directly into the computer and Ubuntu can connect without issues.
At this point, I donāt know if itās just a defective router, or they are all like that. Yuli, if youāre reading this, what has your experience been so far?
I donāt actually need the router, but in consideration for my wife, I wanted it so that two or more computers could be connected at the same time.
Do you think I can get my money back? It cost NT$2000, an expensive lesson if I canāt get it to work.
Did you upgrade to the latest firmware? Thereās a link a few posts back to the firmware download page.
I never tried it with the stock firmware, I upgraded it straight away to the latest version, as the original firmware didnāt work with the modem I set it up with. The new firmware adds a ton of fixes/features and with it you can even keep the pin code of your SIM card which is handy if you take the dongle with you at times.
I had no problems at all with and so far itās been rock solid for my old man.
Working just fine. The modem is online continuously and only goes off line when the paid time on the modem SIM runs out (every 5 days). When the time runs out i have to take the SIM card out of the modem, put it into my phone, dial 535 and go through a voice menu to set the card up for another 5 days, and then put it back into the modem. It seems silly, but i can live with thatā¦
I pretty much use the router with its default settings, except for these ones: iāve changed the access settings, since i donāt have any other way of connecting but by 3G modem; iāve unchecked the checkbox for āEnable Wireless Router Radioā (assuming that meant wireless service to other computer) and donāt have the antenna plugged in; i changed the LAN (subnet) IP address, and i set the address lease time to 2880 (DHCP settings). Iāve also upgraded the firmware to ā3.12.8 Build 110125 Rel.43954nā. None of this should have any influence on how the modem connection timing works, though. So here are some of my routerās settings: under āInternet Accessā i have chosen ā3G onlyā; āWireless offā; āConnect on demandā; āMax idle timeā = 15mins;
One more thing: my provider is Taiwan Mobile (DaGeDa), and I wonder which provider The LostSwedās father is usingā¦
Well, the one I set up was on 3 in Sweden soā¦
Still, I think it might be a firmware issue, so try that and see how it goes, otherwise it might be a defective router.
And yes, you have 7 days to return goods in Taiwan afaik, so youād have to contact the seller, but that could be a bit hard now with the holidays and allā¦
I seeā¦
[quote=āTheLostSwedeā]Sure, that works, until you have to use your phoneā¦
Most Android phones can do that, although prior to Android 2.2 youād have to root your phone and install a 3rd party app.
The downside besides not being able to use it as a phone is that the sticks donāt run on battery, so theyāll work as long as your notebook has battery, as the phones tend to drain quite quickly when used as a hotspot.
And for some people itās not really an alternative, as theyāre using their 3G/HSPA connection instead of a wired internet connection as in this case.[/quote]
Just some counterpoints from my experience. Note, when I travel and there is a local unlimited 3G SIM available, I use my phone as a WiFi hotspot a lot. I use either my iPhone or Android phone for this.
You can use it as a fully functioning phone when itās in hotspot mode. The hotspot just runs in the background.
If using with a laptop, away from an outlet, you can connect the phone to the laptop via USB and power the phone that way
You can connect friends up who are traveling with you to our hotspot and give them internet
When away from an outlet, a portable battery will work wonders. You can get a small, phone sized battery that will charge the phone about 4 times, meaning you could go for several days or even a week without an outlet
[quote=āDogās_Breakfastā]I use my browser to visit the router settings and set it up for Chung_hwa Telecom. The router connects to CHT (though it takes a minute or two to deliver DNS - a bit slow to connect, I thought). But once connected, speed is fast. Now I can surf the Internet. Everything is working greatā¦
ā¦but not for long. After a couple of minutes, the router drops the connection. For about the next five minutes, the Internet might as well not exist. Then it automatically connects again. This, it turns out, occurs repeatedly. Shutting everything down and trying again doesnāt improve the situation.[/quote]
DB, iāve reread your post and have a few questions:
- What do the status indicators (green LEDs) of the router show when you are connected and when not?
- Does the modem have a status indicator? (Mine has one - a light blue LED) If yours has one, what is that showing at various times?
On the status page, in the section ā3Gā, there is actually a āConnectā button that turns into a āDisconnectā button when the modem is online. We havenāt yet confirmed what you see on the status page but should do thatā¦
[quote=āyuliā]I pretty much use the router with its default settings, except for these ones: Iāve changed the access settings, since I donāt have any other way of connecting but by 3G modem; Iāve unchecked the checkbox for āEnable Wireless Router Radioā (assuming that meant wireless service to other computer) and donāt have the antenna plugged in; i changed the LAN (subnet) IP address, and i set the address lease time to 2880 (DHCP settings). Iāve also upgraded the firmware to ā3.12.8 Build 110125 Rel.43954nā.
[/quote]
Thanks to both of you guys. I think Iāve got the problem solved (maybe I shouldnāt say that - could be a jinx). I took your excellent advice to upgrade the firmware. After doing that and delving back into the router settings, I noticed another possible cause of the dropped connections:
Networkā> 3Gā> Connection Mode ā Max Idle Time 15 Minutes (0 means active at all times)
I changed the default ā15ā minutes to ā0ā since I believe the connection should be active at all times. After rebooting the router, I had no further problems, so either the firmware upgrade or the new setting (or both) did the trick.
[quote=āyuliā]The modem is online continuously and only goes off line when the paid time on the modem SIM runs out (every 5 days). When the time runs out I have to take the SIM card out of the modem, put it into my phone, dial 535 and go through a voice menu to set the card up for another 5 days, and then put it back into the modem. It seems silly, but i can live with thatā¦
[/quote]
Interesting. I guess this means youāre on prepaid. May I ask how much that costs you for 5 days? Just to let you know, I have a 2-year contract (now expired, but I just keep paying the monthly fee). Costs NT$850/month (after 2 years some of that is refunded) for unlimited usage. Just wondering how that compares to the prepaid deal?
cheers,
DB
Good to hear thatā¦
For the time being i have no choice but to use prepaid, which costs 2.5 times what you pay (that is about as much as we pay in Ishigaki for our internet connection, so i can live with that, given that it is not forever).
Now I take back everything good I said about this router. Itās doing it again - dropping connections. Seemed to be OK for awhile, but now almost as bad as before. I assume itās defective, so Iāll have to explore how to return it. Need to do so quickly. A week has actually passed, but the holiday messed things up.
defective or not, replacing the router is perhaps easier than replacing the modem. (Reminds me of what i have gone through with my first 3G modem: it wasnāt defective at all but simply not willing to work with much else but Windows.)
I went ahead and returned the router. It took me awhile to maneuver through the PCHome web site (in Chinese) to figure out how to do it, but at last PCHome sent me and email and text message approving the return. Iām glad we had that 4-day holiday, or I would have been past the limit of 7 working days.
My Huawei E169 3G modem works fine with Linux, so Iāll just leave things as they are. At least it was all educational.
I think it is actually possible to use my computer as a router for a second computer, with the two machines tethered together by an Ethernet cable. Iāll have to explore that possibility when I get some time.
cheers,
DB
Good to know it worked outā¦
Like this?
ubuntulinuxhowto.blogspot.com/20 ā¦ outer.html
The reason why i didnāt go that route is that i ned to have VoIP turned on and ready much of time, and i prefer that to be independent from whatever computer i may use, thus the hardware router.
[quote=āDogās_Breakfastā][quote=āyuliā]
Well, with the weather being nice today I went around town and checked computer stores and phone shops until i found a place that had a Huawei modem. Getting online was a piece of cake with that, and now I am connected via the router, and while Iām bsuy with this forum, the netbook is busy updating the recently installed Ubuntu OS. 
[/quote]
Glad it worked, Yuli. Could I ask which router you finally bought? Iām thinking of getting one myself. Iām impressed that you got one in English, a rare find in Taiwan.[/quote]
On most routers itās possible to flash the firmware with an English version. Pretty much all D-Link routers are bilingual English/Chinese once you log in.
I wonder whether our routerās internal web server might be smart enough to recognize the language setting of the OS of the connecting computer. After all, i currently have Ubuntu set to English (with input options for Japanese and Chinese), and i get English ONLY menus from the router. (It would seem odd IF a router made in China and sold in China and Taiwan would not offer Chinese menus at all to Chinese customers.)