My New Cat Cdma Internet Connection

[ThaiLife]

For some time now I have been thinking of trying the CAT CDMA system , so after talking to the nearest CAT office

to confirm that if I took my Apple Mac to them , could they set up a MC727 modem on it , so I could see and test it on my iMac , to which they said yes , so I arrived at the CAT office and spoke to the manageress who had originally confirmed that yes they could set up a MC727 modem on my Mac

I then ask if an Engineer could set up a MC727 modem on my Mac, which I had took with me , Sorry but the engineer has not come to work to day, he is sick said the manageress. As its a long way to the CAT office I was not too pleased and asked if another engineer was available to set up the modem on my Mac, no sorry only one engineer knows how to set up a Mac computer.

The managerress then said go and get your Mac and I can try and set the modem up for you , what do I have to loose I thought , so off to the pickup and back to the CAT office carrying a huge box containing the iMac 24 inch , well the whole office went quiet when the Mac was taken out of its box and placed on the manageress desk, I could tell by her look and the large crowd gathering around the Mac , that things were going to get interesting from this point on. I booted up the Mac and loaded the MC727 software CD , it was recognized ok, and the manageress followed the on screen setup , at first the iMac would not connect to the internet, I then thought does the modem have to be activated on the CAT system to allow the internet connection?, I pointed this out to the manageress who gave the normal Thai smile , and she went over to a computer and activated the Modem connection number. Well after trying for 10 minuets to no avail. the manageress picked up her mobile phone and called some one in Bangkok, who talked her through the connection settings , and finally the internet connection was made. I then ask if I could do a internet connection speed test .. Ok no problem , so these are the results of the MC727 modem connected to an iMac 2.8 24 inch running 10.5.5 situated at a main CAT office ( with a very large Tower at the back )

1st test = Down 1049

Up 273

2nd test = Down 1358

Up = 257

3rd test = Down = 1422

Up = 306

4th test = Down 1180

Up = 280

5th test = Down 1371

Up = 281

So I packed up the Mac , and told the manageress that I would now pay for antenna ( 1,800 Baht pre ordered by me ) and return home and install it on my roof , and then return a few days later to collect the MC727 modem for one days try test ( as previously agreed ) , if the modem did not produce good results over the day’s test

period I would return it and be given my money back . The manageress knowing I have to do a long round trip

to the CAT office , then offered a new option, I pay for the MC727 modem , pay for the antenna , take the modem home , install the roof antenna and test out the modem , and if it does not give good results return the modem and the antenna to the CAT office for a full refund and I had '' 5 '' days to test every thing out , I agreed to this offer

Now ive been trying out the MC727 modem on my iMac 2.8 Intel 10.5.5 , the modem is connected to the new external roof antenna , purchased from the CAT office . The roof antenna is well above the roof height of my house and pointing in the general direction of the nearest CAT tower which is I would guess about 3-4 Km away. I first booted up the Mac and then plugged in the modem , remembering to use the same USB point on the iMac as the modem was originally set up at the CAT office, then as arranged I called the CAT manageress to let her know I was ready to try the new modem, She then activated it and asked I telephone her back later to let her know how things were going.

The iMac recognized the MC727 modem settings that had been previously set up in the CAT office, and connected

to the internet with no problem and I did some surfing.

I then decided to shut down the iMac and re boot again , to see if the modem would connect again a second time, this time the Mac again recognized the modem setting , but would not connect to the internet , as I knew that the modem settings were ok , and as I did not want to re set any thing, I thought there must be something else not allowing the modem to connect to the internet other than the set up , so I decided to shut down the Mac again and re boot it , this time the again the modem was recognized by the Mac , but it would not connect to the internet .

so this time before re booting the Mac I un plugged the modem , and then re booted up. I let the Mac start up with out the modem being connected , then once the Mac was up and running I inserted the modem into the same USB socket and tried to connect to the internet , this time the connection was made ok, so it seems at this stage I have to remove the modem from the Mac when its been shut down, and then the next time I re boot the Mac I just let it run , then insert the modem , which then connects to the internet every time, with out a problem.

After working out how to connect to the internet every time , I then decided to do some internet connection speed tests using several international test web sites , this is the results over a 24 hour period , the tests were made through out the day .

Download / Upload

1951 / 297

1827 / 195

1780 / 253

1626 / 266

1559 / 260

1541 / 239

1518 / 247

1513 / 276

1505 / 251

1501 / 277

1453 / 282

1452 / 251

1438 / 247

1429 / 291

1420 / 247

1397 /248

1387 / 320

1351 / 317

1348 / 238

1334 / 225

1025 / 266

giving an average of 1461 / 253

I have tested downloading some large files, and viewing Youtube videos etc with very good results, but not as yet done any Uploading.

I have Tweaked the roof antenna by altering the direction it points to in a 30˚ angled arch , this movement did seem to fine the best position .

At the moment The modem has been connected to the internet continually over 24 hours , and its not as yet disconnected it self in any way, and the speeds have been fairly constant .

So far my only complaint is I will have to un plug the modem every time I switch off my iMac, there may be a fix some where for this problem, but I really don't want to up set the current settings that seem to be doing so well .

The CAT office offers a Month Un limited option , ( No contract ) at 790 Baht + Tax , the bill is sent to your house and you can pay at most banks or post offices. to stop using the service they require you tell them One month in advance.

So at this time I am very pleased , and compared to my past dial up connection speeds I am in internet heaven .

TL

[Gary A]

I'm using a PC so cannot tell you anything about a Mac. I went into settings with the C-Motec software and have the settings to start the service when the computer is started. If you have not looked at the settings, maybe there is something there to help you.

[ThaiLife]

Thanks Gary, It would be nice just to leave the modem plugged in to the Mac all the time , I will have a look in the settings

and see if I can do some thing.

TL

[slackula]

Did you try telling the modem to disconnect before shutting down the Mac? I have a CCU 650 and if I put the MacBook to sleep without disconnecting it needs a reboot with the dongle unplugged before plugging it in again to connect, after that things are usually OK.

I am guessing that something is writing rules that get saved at shutdown and then become invalid at the next start-up, or else the modem is trying to use a lease that expires when the machine shuts down and isn't able to get a new lease without being restarted.

[nikster]

I have the CCU-680 and it seems like keeping the modem in after restart does not work. The "Franklin Modem Status" app doesn't start, and I can't connect until I take the modem out and put it back in. I think this has to do with the driver - it needs to do some magic when the modem is inserted and doesn't work at startup.

Not a problem for me, I never shut my system down, and since this is a laptop unplug/replug the modem quite frequently.

Actually - instead of restarting you could just put your system to sleep?! Macs are quite fine without a restart....

[nikster]

Did you try telling the modem to disconnect before shutting down the Mac? I have a CCU 650 and if I put the MacBook to sleep without disconnecting it needs a reboot with the dongle unplugged before plugging it in again to connect, after that things are usually OK.

Never had that issue with the CCU-650... putting to sleep without disconnect would just work, no restart required... that's a MacBook Pro...