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Install / Enable HUAWEI E156G on Ubuntu
As mentioned in my previous post I bought Mobitel HSPA connection. When I bought the connection, I bought a new modem too (HUAWEI E156G).
Modem is working perfectly fine on Windows with Mobile Partner software but when it comes to Ubuntu it has problems.
My previous modem E220 had almost no issues on Ubuntu. As you connect your modem everything is done on plug-and-play basis, but when it comes to E156G it was not the same case. First I thought the USB Modem is not even recognized as a device, but Ubuntu did find it but didn’t bring up any pop-up as it does for E220.
Did a googling and found out the way. Hope it’ll be helpful as many people are buying Mobitel HSPA these days.
- First right click on the Network icon and choose Edit Connections
- Now choose Mobile BroadBand tab
- Click on Add button and choose Mobitel
- Once you done with the wizard click on Mobitel and choose edit
- there make sure you have *99# as Number and Mobitel3g as APN.
Click on the image to enlarge it
That’s all now you can connect to Internet using HUAWEI E156G. If you’re using a different provider then change the Number and APN accordingly.
Mobitel HSPA Betrayed Me!
I’ve been using Dialog HSPA over last one year. In the beginning they’ve had a nice service but over the time their service became so crap! Most of the time connection hangs at 0Kbps. May be last quarter they started to give more bandwidth as I could feel the improvement in the speed.
Few months back I moved to Dehiwala and my roommate is using Mobitel. As per his openion Mobitel is cool, and they are giving more free bundle (8Gb) compare to Dialog (5Gb). I’m not intended to take Airtel into this discussion as their product got mixed reaction from different places.
Recently (may be a week) I got a promotion announcement from American Express that I’m entitled for Mobitel HSPA connection promotion where I have to pay 500 LKR per month for 12 months (which makes 6000 LKR) for modem and 1280 LKR for Zoom package.
As I bought the SIM and modem in Collupittiya the guy behind the desk told me “Sir, it’ll be activated in 10 mins time”. I was thinking “Wow, 10 mins huh? Dialog takes hours”.
I didn’t realize the pain that I’m gonna get till I came back and plugged the modem into machine. I got E156G Huwawi model HSPA modem, which doesn’t have a user manual attached to it. I had good time finding the slot where we need insert the SIM without the user manual.
I was so confident that Mobitel will work faster than Dialog so I can work at least around 2 MBps speed which I usually get in Dialog. But all went wrong when I found that it works at 0.2 MBps.
I called customer care and they’ve asked me to set the network to WCDMA Only but no luck and I again called the customer care (yeah I’m using Dialog mobile so I need to pay for the calls that I make to Mobitel customer care) and the guy who took the phone recommended me to use manual operator search in the Mobile Partner software.
For god sake I did both and still no luck.
I know it’s nothing to do with the modem as my roomie who used to have good speed also having the same issue now.
Now I’m F-uped here, can’t move away from Mobitel because I’ve a commitment of one year and can’t go back to Dialog as I can’t pay for 2 HSPA connection at a time.
Why on Earth Mobitel letting their customers down??
Dehiwala
Please read Kalinga’s blog too (in Sinhala) on same issue but comprehensive discussion.
All in all, people gonna teach Mobitel good lesson as they’ve done to Dialog. Learn it hard way!
What is PayPal – FAQ
- What is PayPal?
- Is PayPal safe??
- How to add a Credit Card to my PayPal Account??
- Can I add a debit card to my PayPal account?
- What if I don’t have a credit card?
- Can I add any credit card to my PayPal account?
- How long does it take to activate my PayPal account?
- What about commission and other hidden charges?
- Can I open a PayPal account from Sri Lanka?
- Can I receive money via PayPal, if I’m a Sri Lankan PayPal user?
There are several instances where you need to make online transactions. Mostly you need to make some online payment to buy a good or service. In this situation the medium you can use is credit card. But how much you can rely on the seller?? What if the seller gets the Credit Card number and misusing it later on??
PayPal is coming into action in this situation. If you’re buying using PayPal then you don’t have to show the credit card number to the seller.
Hell yeah! Don’t worry about it. PayPal is the owner of Ebay.com. So you don’t have to worry they’ll not cheat on you.
When you sign-up for a PayPal account, by default PayPal will ask for your credit card number.
If you missed to add your credit card when you sign-up later you can log into your account and add a credit card.
Yes you can add a debit card to PayPal but make sure your debit card is international debit card. Most of the debit cards given by Sri Lankan banks are local debit cards you can’t use them for internet transaction.
You can go for Sampath Bank’s Web card. When I was studying in school I used Sampath web card as my primary card to make transactions online. Read more about Sampath Web Card.
As long as it’s a valid credit card you can add it to your PayPal account. It can be a HSBC Visa card, Commercial Bank Visa card, Master card or even American Express.
It’ll be activated instantly. You can use it just after creating the PayPal account.
As a buyer you don’t have to pay any commission to PayPal, but those who receive money via PayPal will have to pay commission to PayPal.
Yes
No, you can’t receive money. You can read my work around to check how to receive money via PayPal and get it down to your local bank.
Still have questions?? Feel free to ask me in the comments section.
Hassle free Rapidshare for Dialog Mobile Broadband
One of the main problems I had with Dialog Mobile broadband is the static IP given to all the users across the mobile broadband. As I remember there were only two IP addresses used. As the result we had enough with sites which block users based on IP.
For example, one dialog mobile broadband user did some automation stuff on Google Blogger and Google sensed it and started to block the IP address. In this case the blogger will be blocked to all the Dialog mobile broadband users as we all share the same IP address.
Another typical example I can think of is Rapidshare. Rapidshare limits the user downloads using IP address. When one users downloads a file from Rapidshare, all other users will be given a error message saying “you’re already downloading a file”.
Fortunately, now dialog mobile broadband is coming with dynamic IP. Every time you connect you’ll have different IP. I believe each broadband users is getting dynamic IP.
Good move from Dialog Mobile Broadband. I’m wondering whether Airtal is giving static or dynamic IP for their users.
You can check your IP at http://whatismyipaddress.com/
New Affiliate Opportunity for Lankans from E-Soft
Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective ways to make money online. Most of the affiliate products are focused towards U.S market. Especially for a site like MAYUonline, it’s very difficult to do affiliate marketing as most of the users of my site are from Sri Lanka.
Now, I have good news for Sri Lankan affiliate marketers. The premier IT education provider is now offering affiliate opportunities for Sri Lankans. E-Soft is a renowned IT institution in Sri Lanka. Even I did my BCS in E-Soft.
E-Soft is undoubtedly the NO #1 IT institute in Sri Lanka.
ESOFT has emerged as the Leader in Professional ICT Education. We specialise in conducting classes for the BCS and BIT Programmes in Sri Lanka and we are undoubtedly Sri Lanka’s #1.
When you sign up with their programme you’ll be given with a unique ID. Ask your friends to refer your ID when they are enrolling for courses in E-Soft. E-Soft will track your affiliate through this ID and will deposit money to your account. You can earn upto 2000 Rupees per referral.
In addition, you will also receive prizes for reaching milestones such as a T-Shirt for 5 registrations, a Flash Drive for 10 registrations, etc. going all the way upto a Return Air Ticket.
To make your job easier, each customer you send to ESOFT will receive a special discount upto Rs. 5,000 to encourage them to participate in the programme!
Once you reach 10, 000 they’ll send you a cheque to your home address. I have started 2 days back already got 3 referrals.
Good luck comrades…! Make use of this Sri Lankan affiliate programme
Vista and Office 2007 in Sinhala
Windows Vista in Sinhala
Microsoft has released Sinhala interface for both Windows Vista and Office 2007. This is the happy news for Sinhala windows users.
I think this is the first time Microsoft offering their products in Sinhala. This pack will help most of the rural area people. Those who don’t understand English, those who can understand only Sinhala can get the benefit out of this product.
Those who already adapted to English interface will have hard time adapting to this Sinhala interface.
PS: Windows XP, Vista and Office 2003, 2007 Tamil interfaces are already available online and users can download it.
iPhone in Sri Lanka
Sri Lankans are very unlucky fellows when it comes to iPhone. Apple has announced about a new version of their iPhone OS which will enable you to send MMS and it’ll also allow you to perform copy and paste functionality.
Meanwhile Apple has released a new model of iPhone (known as iPhone 3GS). This model got much more features such as built-in video camera etc.
You can buy iPhone with an operator contract for about $99 and iPhone 3Gs for $199. Unfortunately iPhone is not available in Sri Lanka and none of the operators are supporting it.
If you see someone with a iPhone, he is either using a iPhone like fake phone or illegally bought iPhone.
Sometime back Dialog came up with the iPhone deal and everyone was talking about it. Later they dropped the plan and the page also went missing from their site. If we can get one of our local operators to support iPhone we can get iPhone with a connection for about 11, 000 LKR, which is far way cheaper than all Nokia smart phones.
Hope to see iPhone in Sri Lankan market soon.
Holly Crap! Dialog First to Pilot HSPA+ at 21 Mbps
People were rumoring about this 21Mbps connection and it’s true and Dialog going to offer this service to Sri Lankans. This happened to be in trial phase right now and later it’ll be expanded to major cities like Colombo, Kandy etc. Most probably it’s gonna cater the demand of corporate sector, not for just you and me 
I’m not going to fall for 21Mbps story as I’ve heard about their 7.2 Mbps and later how it went down to 1Mbps.
Here an excerpt from the article in Daily mirror
Dialog Telekom PLC, Sri Lanka’s flagship telecommunications services provider, announced the pilot launch of its HSPA+ (Evolved High-Speed Packet Access also known as HSPA Evolution), technology in Sri Lanka, becoming the first mobile operator in the South Asian region to employ this next-generation technology. With HSPA+ customers can experience download speeds of up to 21Mbps, and uplink speeds of up to 5.76Mbps. HSPA + technology is currently available on a pilot basis at the Dialog Future World in Darley Road, Colombo 02 and Dialog plans to extend the pilot network across key locations in its 3.5G network over the next few months. Supun Weerasinghe – CEO Dialog Mobile said: “This pilot service is a clear indication of Dialog’s commitment to offer the best in technology to our customers, resulting in a user experience that is unparalleled. Wireless data applications that are smarter and offer greater flexibility will shape the future of broadband, which in turn has become a vital element of the mobile product.
Dialog will continue to be at the helm of this broadband innovation in Asia as we deliver upon our promise of The Future Today”.
HSPA+ offers mobile users faster response and less latency for media-rich applications, including high-definition video streaming, web surfing and other next-generation wireless applications with high bandwidth requirements.
Upon the successful completion of the proposed trial phase, Dialog will progressively expand its HSPA+ coverage across its 3.5G network spanning Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Nuwara Eliya, Trincomalee and other major towns in Sri Lanka. Dialog operates the largest and widest 3G/3.5G network in the country, offering high-speed internet access. Dialog supports a range of cutting edge services for enterprise as well as consumer segments including but not limited to mobile TV, mobile video portals, multi party video conferencing, mobile video surveillance and 3rd Generation roaming across 55 countries.
Another article from Sunday Times
Yet another article from City Hits
Four Sites for Sending Free SMS to Sri Lanka
1. Wow.lk (Whole Sri Lankan network)
This service is powered by Suntel, who is a telecom provider in Sri Lanka. The most reliable web based SMS service in Sri Lanka.
2. sms.mayuonline.com (Mobitel and Dialog only)
This site is running on the concept of email to SMS. I wrote code in PHP for this site.
3. http://sms.kaputa.com/ (Mobitel Only)
Only Mobitel service is working. Dialog service is not working.
4. http://www.iguys.org/ (Dialog, Mobitel & Suntel)
They’ve got suntel too, interesting
Another Reason Why Dialog SUCKS!!!!
Few weeks back I wrote about the innovative feature brought to My Dialog by Dialog where you can track your HSPA usage. Unfortunately it’s NOT very important to bring the feature but keep it running forever.
I wanted to check my Dialog HSPA usage and all I found was it wasn’t updated for ages. Who the hell needs a service which is not updated? Look at the figure; it was last updated on 3rd of March but today 27th of March. Next billing cycle also started but the data is not updated.
Way to go Dialog! You’re the BEST, only if we come from bottom to top.
Lets Make Money Online
