Solved: Cannot connect on PAYG Mobile Broadband

Anonymous · ‎07-10-2013

Hi,

I'm using a DELL D620 notebook which has an integrated SIM slot. I'm running Windows 7. I've fitted DELL's 5540 mini PCI-e WWAN card, and inserted my o2 PAYG mobile broadband sim. I've put £2 on the SIM, giving me 200MB for up to 24 hours, just so I can test this thing out. I've got DELL's Mobile Broadband Manager software installed, the SIM is recognised, I can, and have, recieved SMS messages on my laptop through the sim, as this is how I received confirmation of my topup. However -- I cannot connect via mobile broadband! Every time I hit the "connect" button, it tries to connect for a while, before stopping without giving a reason why it failed to connect.

If I try and connect via Windows rather than through the DELL software, it says "Connection failed", and if I view the troubleshooter, it tells me that "The mobile broadband network connection operation (context activation) failed with error code 0". What does this mean?

Any ideas on how I can get this thing working?

Anonymous · ‎10-10-2013

Thanks for all your help on here, much more helpful than the live support people, who insisted the sim would not work in anything apart from an iPad...

The APN that worked was m-bb.o2.co.uk, username "o2bb", password "password". These were not the settings being pulled off the sim by my laptop though. I've stored all the possible APN's as alternative settings, and just made the m-bb.o2.co.uk profile the active one.

It was a mix of things that prevented it from working... incorrect APN and settings pulled from the sim, a requirement to activate the sim in a phone before putting it into the laptop (I guess dongles are capable of activating sims, whereas laptop hardware is not), and also a reboot required, as there is a quirk in the hardware that doesn't allow it to "wake up" or change settings without a reboot in between.

View solution in original post

Anonymous · ‎07-10-2013

Have you configured the software to connect to O2?

Anonymous · ‎07-10-2013

It configured itself from the sim. APN, username and password are all there.

Anonymous · ‎07-10-2013

Did it put the correct APN in? Sometimes it can pull the wrong ones.

Anonymous · ‎07-10-2013

APN is mobile.o2.co.uk

Anonymous · ‎07-10-2013

Having a quick search around it seems people are using the below on the same card:

APN: wap.o2.co.uk
Username: o2wap
Password: password

Anonymous · ‎07-10-2013

@Anonymous wrote:
APN is mobile.o2.co.uk

I think that is for pay monthly only

Also try:

APN : payandgo.o2.co.uk
Username : payandgo
Password : password

Anonymous · ‎07-10-2013

Just tried those settings, no joy.

Anonymous · ‎07-10-2013

Just tried both o2wap settings and payandgo settings, no luck with either.

Anonymous · ‎07-10-2013

Strange, do you have a mobile you can try the sim in? Seems very likely the data is somehow not active as one of those APN's should work.

O2

Cannot connect on PAYG Mobile Broadband

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using phone abroad

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Phone use abroad

Pay may existing bills