Re: huawei e585 - what does the SD card slot do?

Peter <occassionally-confused@nospam.co.uk> wrote:
> However there is no (usable) manual and google doesn't reveal what the
> micro SD slot does, or what the USB port does (apart from charging the
> unit).

Some dongles have a micro SD card slot, which is accessible via the USB
connection. I'm not entirely sure why (because they can?), but it's quite
common. If you view the MiFi as a dongle with added screen, wireless and
battery, it's possible that the micro SD slot acts in the same way as on a
dongle.

Theo

Peter <occassionally-confused@nospam.co.uk> wrote:
> I think you are saying that the micro SD slot appears as a windoze
> block device via the USB cable, which would be OK since that doesn't
> require the installation of any external drivers.

Yes.

> But, IMHO more likely, the 585 will appears as a 3G USB modem, and
> that installs a few MB of garbage including 2 or 3 COM ports, 2 or 3
> different "modems", etc. I have a Huawei USB 3G radio of the "stick"
> type and that's what that did.

Usually dongles come with multiple devices. A USB mass storage device or
virtual CD device that contains the drivers, and another mass storage device
for the SD card slot. Both should be accessible without drivers. If you
have a problem with the Windows software autoinstalling, can you not disable
autorun in Windows?

When the drivers are run, they make the first device 'flip' from being a
mass storage device to presenting a number of serial ports, which are the
actual connection. Often these are standard USB-serial ports, and might not
need a driver in themselves. Indeed you can configure the standard Windows
dialup networking to use them.

Sometimes 'flipping' is achieved by unmounting the mass storage/CD volume.
Or by sending a magic USB command. On the ZTE dongles you can permanently
disable the fake CD so there's no need to flip. I don't know if Huawei has
a similar switch.

Usually the SD card device stays put while the device is flipped, so that
it's never anything but a standard mass storage device.

Theo

Peter <occassionally-confused@nospam.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Peter <occassionally-confused@nospam.co.uk> wrote
>
> >It works with Voda, but (like the factory-unlocked Iphone 4 on which
> >this is a right bl00dy process) it fails with T-Mobile. It works with
> >Virgin...
>
> Correction: the Huawei 585 does not work with T-Mobile or Virgin. It
> says SMS ONLY on T-M but shows a string of digits on Virgin.
>
> There is a lot of config on 192.168.1.1 but not for the APN!

I have some experience with a Huawei B220, which is a traditional-style
router box (4 ethernet, wifi) but with 3G WAN instead of ADSL. On those
there are some hidden functions:
http://caliston.livejournal.com/18765.html
that includes setting APNs.

It's possible the E585 comes from the same product group and has similar
firmware.

It's just possible that the E585 presents as a standard USB dongle via the
USB port - the B220 presents as a standard E220. In that case I figured out
a free unlock solution:
http://caliston.livejournal.com/18980.html

Not sure if that's applicable, but worth a try.

Theo

occassionally-confused@nospam.co.uk wrote:
> Jesus christ, this man is a real hacker

That was the result of traipsing around African mobile network shops,
trying to get any technical details out of them as to what their offering
actually was and how it worked. (Websites are mostly useless, salesmen
either knew nothing or made it up as they went along, and there was little
product on display). And what they might feel like charging for it.
Including such tricks as writing down the IMEI on the back of a box in a
shop and looking it up to try to guess the real model number of the router.

So once I actully bought one I dissected it :-)

> Having to do all this to change the APN is totally mad.

Yes, though you have to remember these boxes are intended for deployment by
networks. So in theory all this stuff should be preconfigured, and the end
user shouldn't need to worry about it.

If I google 'three e585 apn' there are various guides to change APN... do
those not work, or does the automatic APN guessing override them?

> Which locally purchased SIM cards, apart from the Voda which I know
> works, and T-M which I know doesn't, are common around Europe (incl.
> Croatia) for *cheap* 3G?

Difficult to say, as it's country-specific and changes from month to month.
The forum on http://www.prepaidgsm.net/ is the place I'd go to look.
(the static country pages are a little out of date)

Theo