...stuff I do and things I like...
Got myself a PHS300
since Friday I own a CradlePoint PHS300 (personal hotspot). The device basically is an WiFi (802.11 b/g) access point that connects to the Internet using a mobile phone or data card/adapter (just some hardware that has a USB connector and supports PPP). The nice thing about this device is that is has a build-in battery. The battery also powers the connected USB device. I just write this because connecting a USB GSM modem to an access point is not really new (access point like these have been around for quite some time now). The battery just makes it portable and that is what I want. My Nokia N810 is the main reason for buying it, well that and the cheap HSDPA SIM form Fonic.
Today I've hooked it up and got it to work with my Huawei E220 HSDPA USB adapter. Besides some small problems it works really good. The speed also seems good (got around 180K/s down stream). The problem with the E220 and the PHS300 is that the PHS300 doesn't seem to detect the E220 when they are plugged in before switching on the PHS300. So you have to power up the PHS300, wait a bit plug-in the E220 and it is working (also sometimes you have to unplug/re-plug the E220 again to have it detected). I already contacted CradlePoint support to tell them to fix this and I'm pretty sure they will do it since I'm not the only person who uses a E220 with a PHS300. See here. Also CradlePoint seems to publish firmware updates quite often so I think there is a good chance.
The PHS300 has an almost complete feature list: custom AT commands, dial-on-demand/autodial/manual dial selection, port forwarding, DynDns, WEP/WAP/WAP2, 802.11b/g/superG, dnscache, ntp list goes on.
Btw. buying this thing in Europe is a pain! I only found one online shop that had a decent price and where I could pay with PayPal since non of them accepted a NON-US credit card. This NON-US credit card thing is soo stupid anyway. Why do I have a credit card that is supposed to be accepted anywhere? Anyway the shop is GeminiComputers.
All in all this device looks really nice and I'll post some more about it after some weeks of using it. It will go into my laptop/gadget bag and I will carry it around with me most of the day.
Chris wrote
Visio Guy
Hi Collin, I brought a PHS300 over to Vienna from Seattle. I've got a Huawei E270 (USB), with T-Mobile's Web'n'walk. When you plug the Huawei into the USB, the T-Mobile software starts, and you click the 'Connect' button. When you plug it into the Cradlepoint, I don't know what happens. Did you have to enter any settings in the PHS300 setup pages, or did it 'just work' for you? Hopefully I can get this thing to connect in Europe! Thanks for any tips, Chris
Chris wrote
Visio Guy
Hi Collin, I brought a PHS300 over to Vienna from Seattle. I've got a Huawei E270 (USB), with T-Mobile's Web'n'walk. When you plug the Huawei into the USB, the T-Mobile software starts, and you click the 'Connect' button. When you plug it into the Cradlepoint, I don't know what happens. Did you have to enter any settings in the PHS300 setup pages, or did it 'just work' for you? Hopefully I can get this thing to connect in Europe! Thanks for any tips, Chris
Collin wrote
PHS300
Does your SIM card have a PIN set? If yes you need to add the PIN (at+cpin=XXXX) to your dial script on the PHS. Or you can display the PIN request of your SIM card. That is what I did (I have a prepaid card). Then you need to plug/unplug/plug your modem several times inorder for the PHS to detect it.
Chris wrote
Ah cool, I see the modem-script page - I kept missing it for some reason. Any idea where one finds the details on a dial-up script? Or did you just need that one line for the pin? I'm a techie, but not so smart with modems and networking. Danke!
Collin wrote
command
I only have: ATD*99***1# this starts a packet data connection (gprs/umts)
Chris wrote
Success! That one line is all it took! (with a slightly different access number) Thanks for your help!
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