Vodafone Mobile Internet PAYG XP 64 bit solution

Well, If like me you were an adopter of XP 64 bit, you will by now, have had your fair share of disappointments where things just have not been designed to run on it. (HP Photosmart C4585 software springs immediately to mind). Even now, more often than not, only the 32 bit variety of operating systems seem to get software developed for them!!

My latest annoyance was the purchase of a Vodafone Mobile Connect Pay As You Go USB stick. It was a K3565 made by Huawei (also known as a E160x I think - but don't quote me on that).

On 32 bit XP or Vista - just plug it in and go - literally. The stick pretends to be a CD ROM and autoruns, loading the software, which in turn, magically changes the stick into a dial-up modem, loads the drivers and software that manages the connection to the mobile network. - A fantastic bit of kit (it really is).

Try that on XP 64 and the software bails out telling you that you need to be an administrator or load a service pack. This is a classic installer "run home to mummy" kind of response when it does not recognise the platform you are trying to run it on.

And that is that. You are left with a feeling of disappointment

Vodafone forums (after a google hunt) provide the "no support now and none coming" message that further saddens the heart of all XP 64 bit owners.

I was so annoyed I decided to find (with Google and the tenacity of a pit bull terrier) a better answer - i.e. how to make it work.

One very long evening later - I found a working solution.

Problem 1)
Find some 64 bit drivers. Technically there are none - even on the manufacturer site, that said 64 bit Vista drivers for a similar modem seemed a likely candidate. A dig around some blogs and forums delivered this link :

http://rapidshare.com/files/98165936/huawei_e220_XP64.zip

Problem 2)
The USB stick thinks it is a CD ROM!! Manual hardware scans reveals no sign of a modem. A focused search delivered the following link:

http://www.mobilebroadbandrocks.com/huawei-modem-utilities

The Switch Port utility is the one turns on or off the CD ROM function of the USB stick. So turn it off with the utility and then unplug and plug back in the stick. Hey presto - the modem is detected and you are prompted to install the drivers. You then manually select the drivers I mentioned and install them - accepting the usual unsigned driver warnings.

Now if you are a techie, you just create a dial-up connection in XP with a phone number *99# a user name of faster and a password of web.

That is it you are connected to the web!!

But you cannot find out your signal strength, credit left, the cell id you connected to etc.

Problem 3)
The Vodafone software just will not load, so what can give you virtually identical (some may say better) functionality? The answer after a relatively short period of searching was this link:

http://www.mwconn.com/mwconn.zip

MWCONN by Markus Weber will give you the functionality you need in a very small application. It gives you network, signal strength, credit enquiry and credit top-up functionality. If you can afford it - give him a donation - a top bloke and a top piece of software!

So thank you to all the people who provided the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. You are all unsung heroes.

What more could a mere mortal ask for? (apart from Vodafone to support XP64?)