Installing Huawei EC168c USB Modem (Reliance NetConnect)

Friends,

I've finally got my Reliance NetConnect-3g modem EC168c working on my laptop.

Background -
I had an issue with the USB modem not being "detected" on completion of the installation. I have two laptops, one official and one personal, both running WinXP SP2. My personal laptop detected the USB modem without any problem, but the official laptop detected only the USB storage and doesn't detect my USB-modem after installation.

I suspect some Registry entry changes. I browsed through Google, without any results so far.


Symptoms -
This issue is known to occur when the USB storage devices are disabled in certain laptops due to company policies, or by restrictive software. Even though, they are enabled manually by editing the registry, this issue about not detecting the modem persists!
So, Only the USB storage part of the NetConnect modem is detected; and not as a USB modem.

Solution -
1. Plugin the Reliance NetConnect Modem and allow it to be detected as a USB storage device.
2. Complete the installation with the CD or through the software provided in the USB storage. Ensure that you dont have any other USB storage devices connected. If so, remove them now.
3. Now if the 3G-modem is not detected, then read on...
4. Open DeviceManager (MyComputer-->Properties-->Hardware-->Device Manager)
5. Expand the branch Universal Serial Bus controllers. You will see USB Mass Storage Device.
6. Right-click on the device and choose Uninstall and confirm the message by choosing OK. The device will then be uninstalled.
7. Now click on Menu: Action-->Scan for Hardware changes. The modem and the storage should now be detected!

Verification -
Once completed, you can start the Reliance NetConnect software and then you should see the Signal on the left-bottom corner on the main-screen.




Tested Configuration -
HP Compaq Core2 Laptop running WinXp SP3

Known Issues -
* Once installed - works only on the same USB port that you installed on!
(Can you believe it! Anyway, it works consistently on the same port, hence, no worries)

Still face issues? Comment on my blog.

Let me know if this sorted out your issue, so that this can be useful for other folks.

Abacus Rapid-Mathematics

Been quite long since I added something here! Although I've been doing many interesting things around. There's a wonderful academy called ABACUS which trains young minds to master the art of logic and rapid-mathematics. Sadly enough - the older lot are deprived out of the fun it can be!

Recently, there was a contest in my city which had about 7000 participants in and around the city. This was the Abacus rapid-addition contest. Rules were simple: 150 questions, 2 marks per right answer, 5 minutes and the bombshell 100+ questions (a score of 200) is minimum to qualify! There were batches and batches of people - why? - simple, one round was only 20 mins. 5 mins warm up, 3 mins break, 5 mins actuals and the remaining time to packup! This thrilled me.

Thanks to a colleague of mine who courteously brought me a couple of the question papers as her daughter had been to the test. Me and my wife tried it one Sunday afternoon and I was aghast - I cracked only 58 and her 65. We tried again - Still we scored only 60 & 68. Soon, it caught the attention of the people around. In about 15 mins; I had almost 12 people solving the paper - we were timing it. Interestingly - all elders (50+) had answered between 88-98 questions, while us the younger generation <30 could only do 60-75. In the next round - an uncle and my mother-in-law qualified by hitting 100 answers. That was astounding!

Alright - they are better at this! But - I can do something which probably they cant! Write a Generator for the Question Paper - Spread it around. I spent thinking about it for 1 day in the background. The first version came through in about 4 hours in an Excel Sheet. But I couldn't get the macro working in OpenOffice at home - shucks. So, the next day replicated the logic in a Javascript; why didn't I think of that in the first place - thats portable & convenient!

So, here it is - Generate Abacus Test