Huawei E153 connection problem with version 2

[Olga Joos]

Hi folks!

Last week after realizing we had the wrong ZTE dongle (thanks to your help!) I was able to get my hands on a Huawei E153 dongle that worked with one of the staff members computers using FSMS version 2. We were able to send and receive messages without a problem. This afternoon we tried various times to send messages without any success. We apparently were connected (we saw modem detected and the status button was green) and some messages were listed under pending but others under sent. However we still have not received them. We sent them to ourselves to test the messages before sending them out to the community health workers. The latter is on hold until we figure out the connection problem. I have attached the log files from the two computers which are used for the project. Disregard the messages from 9/14 since they are related to the previous dongle. 

I hope you might be able to help!

Thanks!

Olga (Kate and Kingsley also!)SCREEN%7E1.PNG Untitled.png

[Olga Joos]

Hi Sila!

Thanks for your response. It is a pre-paid account and there was money on it. We have another Huawei dongle (much older) with an Airtel SIM card which is working so we're testing messages with it and having success. I'm just concerned about this issue since the newer dongle with a TNM SIM card worked on Friday but isn't working any more on Frontline. It can be used for internet without a problem. 

When I get back to the US I will go to the Frontline office in DC to purchase a Huawei dongle to send back to our team here. The Huawei dongle that is working is quite old.

I hope you might be able to help.

Thanks!

olga

[Olga Joos]

Hi Sila!

It looks like my colleague, Gunther Baugh, will be able to pick up a dongle on Monday prior to his trip to Malawi on Tuesday. I hope there will be a dongle available for him to purchase. His email address is [e-mail]. Please contact him if there are no dongles or for any issues. If he doesn't hear from you he will go into the office to meet you and purchase the dongle. 

Thanks so much for your help!
olga

[Sitati Kituyi]

Hi Olga (and Kate and Kingsley!)

Please send your full logs and we will have a look into the issue. To do this, go to the FrontlineSMS directory inside home directory (usually C:/Users/YourUsername/.frontlinesms2) and upload the log files, standard.log and stacktrace.log

You can also try updating to the latest version, 2.1.1, and see if you have more luck - there have been a few bugs fixed around modem detection and connection since the release you are using.

Thanks,

Sitati

[Olga Joos]

Hi Sitati!

Thanks for your reply. Kate uninstalled her version of FSMS and installed the one on the website- version 2.1.0. She tried again to connect to the Huawei E157 dongle and it didn't work. She did connect to the other Huawei dongle we were borrowing and was able to use FSMS successfully. I just don't know why the Huawei E157 dongle worked last week but no longer? I've attached the log files you requested.

THANKS so much for your help!

olga and kate

[Sitati Kituyi]

Thanks for the logs. There's no problems loading the required libraries and checking for connected modems, but it seems the software is failing to connect to your modem for some reason.

Could you go to Settings > Phones and Connections, then edit the existing connection for your modem, and send a screenshot of these settings? It is possible that FrontlineSMS had initially connected with the right settings, then auto-detected with the wrong settings later. Usually the baud rate should be 9600, so if it is a different value, try setting this and see if it helps.

Sitati

[Olga Joos]

Hi Sitati!

Ket and Kingsley sent me the screenshots to share with you. They've always had the baud at 9600 so I'm not sure what's going on. I think Ket has version 2.1.0 and Kingsley version 2.1.3. They tried to use the Huawei E157 dongle again this morning without any success. We hope you might be able to help out!

Thanks!

olga

[Olga Joos]

Here is Kingsley's second screenshot. Thanks!!!

[Sitati Kituyi]

Hi again,

The settings seem pretty sensible, except some of the screenshots show a different baud rate in the auto-configured routes. It looks like there are a lot of auto-configured connections for the same devices, which might have come about due to an issue with our auto-detection which we are currently looking into. This can lead to the app 'stepping on its own shoes' as it tries to connect to saved connections, since they are pointing at the same modem.

I suggest you try the following steps to start from a clean slate of connections:

• Remove the modem from your computer
• Delete all of the connections set up in frontlineSMS
• Shut down FrontlineSMS
• Plug the modem back in and wait for the modem software to launch (if it does have auto-launching software)
• Quit the modem software when it starts
• Start FrontlineSMS and wait until it auto-detects and connects to the modem

If the auto-configured route does not work, disconnect from it (by clicking the 'destroy route' button) and edit it to confirm that the baud rate is 9600. Sorry I can't offer anything more concrete than that - we'll be trying to reproduce this bug on our end and investigate the cause of the multiple route issue. It might be worth using the same USB port each time you connect the same modem.

Hope this helps,

Sitati