Orange 3G+ modem

Fri Apr 1 10:27:00 UTC 2011

I've tried all of the options so far, (well, not so much celtel/zain/airtel,
whatever they're calling it these days).
Yu is the cheapest, by far. 500/- per month unlimited. It's all the slowest.
Safaricom is the most expensive, and most stable.
I hear Airtel is dropping/revamping their service. I have a friend who uses
it in Masai land, since it had a better connection than Safaricom for a
while, but these days it's rather terrible. (again, second hand info)

I haven't had the Orange Problems that you have... I've been doing the
unlimited weekly. I tend to use all the bandwidth though.. (I can easily use
200MB in a day)

As far as monitoring bandwidth, I have been trying to figure out different
ways of doing this.
One idea I had, is running 'ifconfig ppp0" and stripping the content out
(cut, awk, etc), right when the connection drops (/etc/ppp/ip-down.d). I
never really got a workable solution done, but I could work on it some more
if someone really was interested in this.
The other, if you use the same modem all the time, is to have conky keep
track of the total bandwidth. (or something like conky). Of course if you
switch modems it would tell you the total usage of all your modems, which
wouldn't be so useful. Also, Conky is a "per session" application, meaning
once Conky is closed... you lost your data. Still, it keeps the data alive
longer than something like "bmon" which clears as soon as the connection
goes away.

Personally, I've just gotten in the habit of sending "balance" to "450"
every now and then on my safaricom modem... (since that's the only limted
connection I use)

-Isaac

On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 10:23 AM, David <davehat at gmail.com> wrote:

> This email is from a ubuntu-ke subscriber to other subscribers inluding
> you:)
> Hi Kinuthia,
>
> This started off short, but turned into a rant about Orange. Apologies in
> advance :)
>
> I'm currently ubuntuless, so can't help directly with the "carrier not
> found" issue you're having. However, I can sympathise about your struggle
> to
> find out how much bandwidth you've used...
>
> After a four month honeymoon period with Oranges 3G product, as of March I
> have had a total nightmare regarding data bundles and usage. Unfortunately,
> the issue is across both their fixed bundles and their "unlimited" bundles.
>
> On 14th March, I purchased a 2GB bundle. 9 days later, it expired and I was
> surprised (I'm a heavy user, but not THAT heavy, I expected it to last
> 14-15
> days). I contacted customer care and was told that I'd used it all, so I
> went to the portal page, copied all the data under "Session history" and
> the
> page suggested I'd used 200mb. I was not sure that this was correct, nor
> was
> I sure I had used 2GB, so I asked Orange to check whether there was either:
>
> A. Something wrong with the data on that page; or
> B. Something wrong with the way they are monitoring my account; or
> C. Both
>
> Silly me!
>
> I spoke to about 3 different agents at the call centre and finally found
> someone willing to listen to my issue (I think his name was Kingston). He
> raised an issue/ticket for my problem and advised me to purchase a one week
> unlimited bundle to cover the time it would take them to resolve the issue.
> His reasoning was, quite rightly I thought at the time, that if there was a
> problem monitoring the bandwidth/data usage, then an unlimited package
> shouldn't suffer the same problem as it has no limit...
>
> ... unfortunately, 4 days into my 7 days unlimited, I was cut off again! I
> called again, was passed around the call centre agents, put on hold
> indefinitely, cut off at least twice, but finally made it back to the
> helpful Kingston again and he expressed amazement, added the new issue to
> the ticket and escalated again.
>
> It's now been 9 days since I logged the first problem and 3 days since I
> was
> promised a same day call back because of the new problem. I am not able to
> use Orange's service (I still don;t know if there's an issue), so am
> routing
> all data via my Safaricom mobile. I had been singing the Orange 3G
> service's
> praises for months, but now I don't know what to do. I remember the bad old
> days of Telkom (I got back to Kenya in November last year after 3 years
> away) and had managed to convince myself they had changed.
>
> Looks like I was wrong!
>
> Coming back to your issue about being unable to monitor your usage, I can
> only say I think it is impossible unless you use Windows XP and install the
> Orange branded modem software that comes with the modem. I use Win 7 and
> the
> software does not work for it. As you can hopefully see from my travails,
> their on-line portal seems to be defective and the company themselves seem
> to have to revert to technical staff to get the answer. Not that the
> technical staff then appear willing to let anyone else know the results!
>
> At this point, I'd like to ask the wider audience here:
>
> What other options mobile data options are there nowadays? I'm not here
> long
> enough to sign a long term contract for a service and I don't want to rely
> on using Safaricom as it is expensive and the data contention can be a
> serious issues at certain times of day (it didn't seem to be such an issue
> with Orange)
>
> Are Yu or Airtel any good in Kisumu? Is there anything else
> shinier/newer/faster?
>
> Any tips appreciated :)
>
> David
>
>
> On 1 April 2011 00:48, Kinuthia Muchane <muchanek at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > This email is from a ubuntu-ke subscriber to other subscribers inluding
> > you:)
> >
> > Habari,
> >
> > @Alex you are so abrupt and to the point have you ever read Ludlum's
> >  "Matarese Circle?"
> >
> > Yes, I do have a problem. Not with the configuration on Ubuntu, not one
> > bit.
> > I am using weaver dial aka wvdial. By the way, is there another dialer on
> > Linux?
> >
> > Wvdial is always telling me my modem is down,  but when I switch over to
> Xp
> > it
> > connects immediately, but of course not at the advertised speeds!!
> >
> > But sometimes I get connected on Linux.
> >  Is there a way to overcome the "Carrier not found",  message.
> >
> > I call customer care(the  millionth time?) and they,shame on them, ask me
> > for a landmark from where I am calling from, after a wading though swamp
> > full of crocodiles euphemistically(I learnt the word jana, I have to use
> > it!) known as CC agents!  Hmmmm...
> >
> > Surprise, surprise I bought a 1GB bundle the other day, but 8 days later
> I
> > do not know the chunk of that bundle
> >  I have consumed because their 131 sms number never responds, at least
> for
> > my modem. But when I send an SMS to any other
> > charged number,, *I could swear here!* They charge me and promptly send
> an
> > updated message on my credit!
> >
> > Which, by the way, are two separate accounts.
> >
> > Kinuthia...
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Ubuntu-ke mailing list
> > Ubuntu-ke at lists.ubuntu.com
> > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-ke
> >
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