Comments on: 3 MiFi mini review redux

By: Chris Swan

Chris Swan — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 12:59:38 +0000

It’s a while since I did this, but as I recall it’s just a matter of plugging it into the machine that you’re running the firmware update from once the unit is in maintenance mode.

I do recall that it took a few goes to get this to work through to the end, so it’s worth persevering.

By: Janusz

Janusz — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 12:51:16 +0000

Hello,
Can someone tell me steps required AFTER the maintenance mode is set ? Am I supposed to get the battery out while the lights are on ? The Chinese/Japanese guide is not clear at this point. I understand that the cold restart is necessary.
thanks, J

By: Jonathan Denison

Jonathan Denison — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 07:25:12 +0000

Does anyone know how to make the MIFI autoconnect when attached to a PC on a USB port? I use on a train and it drops out but doesn’t auto reconnect. I think I have now made it autoconnect when not connected to a PC, but not been able to make it work when connected.

thanks,

jon

By: Chris Swan

Chris Swan — Sat, 15 May 2010 07:34:28 +0000

Adam,

I know from first hand experience how awful it feels when you think you’ve destroyed a costly new purchase, which is exactly why I put so much detail into this post.

I’m glad it helped :)

By: Adam K

Adam K — Fri, 14 May 2010 21:47:28 +0000

thank you so much for writing this blog, you saved me going out and buying a new mifi device after i thought i bricked mine!!!

did a quick google on “bricked huawei e5830″ and this site came up, and i learnt about getting access via the maintenance mode, then i managed to re-flash my device and all is working fine now.

thanks again!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 09:08:14 +0000

As an update, my Vodafone SIM arrived but when I tried it, I found that the device was indeed locked to 3 so it wouldn’t recognise the SIM. I tried the code unlock utility with a code generated by the yobbgsm tool but it wouldn’t work as the code was invalid. I did manage to unlock the device using dc-unlocker (after several attempts and paying 15 euros) but it still wouldn’t work with the Vodafone SIM. I reflashed the firmware to the latest version (same one as yours) and it now does work on Vodafone after I had changed the APN in the desktop app. This version of the firmware does not allow you to change the APN through the web app but this isn’t a problem for me as I’ll be sticking with VF.

I’m now very pleased with the device, as it’s cheap to run (on Vodafone no-expiry) and I’ve configured it to auto-connect to the 3G network on demand which makes the thing a lot easier to use as you only need to turn it on or off now and not fiddle with all the buttons just to get it to work.

By: Chris Swan

Chris Swan — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 10:43:20 +0000

The 3 WiFi manager (which in my experience works fine on Windows 7) only works when the device is connected by USB.

By: eco-friendly

eco-friendly — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 12:22:31 +0000

hi im a novice could someone explain something about mifi to me.its working fine through my own wireless manager (win 7) but i when i open the actual 3 wifi device manager its says the device has been disconnected or is unavailable. i have swapped the sim over to another i had with credit on.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 19:46:25 +0000

You can send and receive SMS messages through the 3 Wifi Manager desktop app. Unfortunately I can’t get the desktop app to work at all on my Windows 7 PC. I also flashed to the web enabled firmware which was painless and the web interface (different version to yours) seems to do pretty much everything that the desktop app does apart from sending txt messages.

I also downloaded the CardLock_Unlock.exe utility and the yobbgsm Huawei unlock code generator to unlock it but found that it wasn’t actually locked to the 3 network which was a surprised. I’ve ordered a no expiry Vodafone SIM which hopefully should be cheaper to run than the 3 PAYG.

Regards

Andrew

By: Chris Swan

Chris Swan — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:33:13 +0000

SMS never really crossed my mind – it’s something I barely use on my main phone never mind my data only device. I fear that you’re right in thinking that you need the WiFi Manager app for that.