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At the time of writing this FAQ, Vodaphone, 3, Optus and Dodo have been using the Huawei E160 wireless USB modem (USB Stick) on the 3G network. This article is about these modems (not the Telstra Next G ones).
Depending on where you are, signal strength can be an issue and you may need to find a way to boost your signal.
The easy way to increase signal strength is to put the USB stick on a USB cable and hang it up high. Unfortnately these little suckers need a fair bit of power - they will use any last drop of power that your USB buss can deliver. If you use a USB cable over 2m, or a bad quailty cable, the voltage drop is enough to give you unreliable results. I've also tried using powered USB extension cables (5m), however the reliabilty is still suspect. There is only 500Ma avalible per USB2.0 port, and a powered USB extension cable only takes more power away from the USB Modem.
However these modems have a small CRC9 antenna socket on them, so I've been experimenting with attaching various router antennas with them. The common connection on the router antennas is the RP-SMA - so you will need a CRC9 to RP-SMA adaptor.
(Note: This is not an MC connector. The MC plug is smaller again)
RP-SMA connections are confusing. There are the external thread to match, as well as the internal pin. But to keep it simple, to the left are two common SMA threads as found on wifi routers and antennas.
It is good to know about the wireless transmission frequencies and modes when tinkering with your antenna. There are two 3G frequencies - 2100MHz and 900MHz. The 2100MHz is for city centres, 900 for regional.
(Note: 2400MHz antennas are ideally for WIFI, but these still work to some extent for 3G.)
These modems also have several modes. The LED changes colour depending which mode it is working on:
- Cyan: HSDPA - 14 Mbit/s (Fastest)
- Blue: WCDMA - 2 Mbit/s (Medium)
- Green: GPRS - 115 kbit/s (Slow)
If the mode is frequently changing, your connection may become unstable. You can set a preferred mode via the software that comes with the modem.
More Info:
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Female RP-SMA Connector on a Router