PDANet Crashes

[N|A-Orion]

I can make my PDANet lockup and/or drop my connection pretty much on command. Here's what I sent to support, but I figured I'd post it here to see if I could get some better help.

I am running a registered copy of PDANet for windows mobile on a Treo
700wx to tether to my laptop running Windows XP with the USB cable.
Every time I attempt to download a decently sized file (more than a
couple of meg's), one of several things happens, but they happen
without fail.
1. My connection simply disappears and I have to press reconnect.
2. My connection seems to remain active, however, I am not receiving
any packets. Upon further investigation, I find that PDANet has locked
up on my phone and I have to either close/restart it, or soft reset my
device.
3. my connection disappears and PDANet on the computer locks up and I
have to manually kill the process through task manager. Occasionally
this causes the modem to lock up, and I have to reboot the entire PC
to fix it.

Sometimes 2 and 3 happen at the same time, but something goes wrong
EVERY time I try to download something either through a web page or
through an application such as Steam.

I'm looking for some help getting the connection to be more reliable,
as I am in love with the software and the way it allows me to browse
the web and IM on the go.

[eclair]

N|A-Orion, Welcome to Treonauts. I use PDAnet also when travelling and love it. Have not experienced the problem you've mentioned (yet, anyway) so don't speak from personal experience. Here is what the PDAnet guys said at the junefabrics site, maybe some of it will help:
"LAN connections on your computer might send data packets to the cellphone connection and cause the network to drop. You should go to Network Connections on the computer then right click and disable any LAN or Wireless Network connections.
Some applications on your phone might attempt to periodically connect to the Internet every few minutes, this will cause the PdaNet connection to drop. Examples for such type of programs are GoodLink, Wireless Sync, Trillian and Pocket Outlook. You need to change their settings to stop doing the auto connection when PdaNet is in use.
Certain network programs on your computer might also cause this to happen, for example VPN software that installs extra network service over the connection. Another example is Microsoft Groove and IBM Connect. Try to install and connect PdaNet on a different computer and see if you get the same problem."

Is there any error message? How large are the "decent sized files" you are looking for.
I have heard that phone companies get leary when they notice really large downloads onto cellphones with unlimited data plans(again second hand info)
and no "phone as modem plan".
Another consideration is, do you have enough of a Phone signal when the crashes happen?
Good luck and welcome to Treonauts

[skoenig]

They're large I'm guessing, several hundred meg to a couple of gig. Steam is Valve's digital distribution solution for their [very good] games.

@N|A-Orion what if, as a test you do several smaller downloads (say, 100M each) does it give up after multiple of those or during the first one. What I"m asking is if there is a counter of sorts that somehow clocks itself...

Watch out for Sprint logging your massive downloads, depending on the plan you have 'phone as modem' isn't included.

~ Steph

[eclair]

good advice about sprint. I was wondering the same thing about the game file sizes maybe being too large.

[N|A-Orion]

it seems like anything over 1mb will randomly set it off. YouTubing will kill my connection just about every time I try to load a video. Anything more than a simple page refresh, IM, or IRC session is a "cross fingers and pray". I already have all other networking devices disabled, and no programs on my phone that are looking for net, the only thing in my Pocket Outlook is my Text Message account. Signal strength is at max, and I am running a fresh install of Win XP sp2 with no VPN or remote admin software installed.

[skoenig]

1MB seems perfectly fine, I was thinking you were going for 600MB+ in a single connect. So something is definately up.

You can give TCPOptimizer a shot on your connection on the PC side just to clean up some of the Windows mess. Don't forget to the MTU test, it really does make a difference to get that set right.

Give it a shot and let me know how you get on.

There's not much that I know to tweak on the WM Treo side unfortunately.

~ Steph

[N|A-Orion]

Thanks, I'll try that out when I break it all out here in a minute. In the meantime, this is what I got back from June:

We have seen a few similar reports that only happen to Treo 700x/wx users but not other Windows Mobile phones. It seems to have something to do with problem on the phone's hardware or firmware. I am not sure why it doesn't happen to the majority of Treo users though. The problem could either come from the USB end or the radio end. In case it is the USB end, could you try the following and see if it makes any difference: on the phone open File Explorer and go under \My Device\Windows, look for UsbSwitch.exe and run it. Now soft reset the phone and connect again. See if this works better. If the problem comes from the radio end there is really nothing we could do about it unfortunately.

Thanks,
June Fabrics PDA Software Support
June Fabrics PDA Technology Group

I had already tried the usbswitch thing

[skoenig]

Thanks for posting the response from June Fabrics!

Lets hope it's the USB not the modem.

~ Steph

[N|A-Orion]

as I said above, I had already tried the usbswitch thing, and neither usb option fixes the problem. Also, I tried the program you suggested, but youtube still breaks it just as fast.

[skoenig]

wow.. I'm outta ideas

Know anyone else with 700wx you can try it on?

~Steph