If you are a follower of this blog and you are using mobile broadband, then you have probably wondered if you are suffering from the 3Connect or HUWAWEI Mobile Partner excessive logging and hard disk activity.

Well, no need to wonder any more. I have spent some time now making a new simple, easy to use monitoring tool for mobile broadband users, targeting the most popular mobile broadband connection clients core products, namely Birdstep EasyConnect and HUAWEI Mobile Parter. This will, among others, include mobile broadband clients from 3, Telenor, OiSTER, Telmore, Turkcell, t-mobile, Orange, m1, Movistar, Etisalat, O2, just to name a few.

The Mobile Broadband Logging Monitor tool will tell you if you are suffering from the excessive logging and hard disk activity, and it will show which files that are being written to and the amount of writes pr. minute, hour and workday (projected).

Furthermore, if there is a known solution to the logging problem for your particular software it will show you direct link to that solution.

In short, a simple tool for giving you insight on the problems and how to solve it! Here’s a nice picture:

Now, that was a nice picture, wasn’t it? :-)

Download the monitor software (from Microsoft CodePlex). The application is now Open Source (read more about what this means).

How to use
Follow the instructions on the screen. Let the tool monitor for more than 1 minute, as it calculates the changes pr. minute. So, you’ll see the numbers rising for the first minute, and then the numbers should stay relatively stable.

The technical stuff
Mobile Broadband Logging Monitor runs on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. You will download an installer, which in turn will install the software properly when run. The software has a very light “footprint” on your computer, is totally non-intrusive, and, of course, totally respects your privacy. It simply tells you if there is a problem, and, if possible, what you can do about it!

Release notes
1.2: Added support for MWConn (standard location) and user defined locations. (28th Dec. 2009)
1.1: Added support for newer editions of Birdstep Technology EasyConnect.
1.0: First edition. Hello mobile broadband users!

Yesterday, in the context of testing the Telenor “Mobilt Bredbånd” connection client, I also checked up on the latest version of 3's 3Connect. I’ve done that before, so what I saw came as quite a surprise.

As stated in the previous article about this issue, logging to LogFile.txt is still present but is also still possible to turn off.

But when I turned off the logging last night and ran the application with ProcessMonitor on, I saw that there was still a lot of access to the wilog.exe file (the 3Connect application). In other words, not only is the logging still there, but there’s also a new form of disk access. So, it’s more excessive on the hard disk use than ever.

What does this mean to you as a user? Well, it’s basically the same problem and consequences as the Telenor case: it means a lot of excessive use of your hard disk and therefore a performance hit on your computer. In other words, I'm worried by your hard disk, here...

The following Excel file shows output from ProcessMonitor while running 3Connect. One pane is shows output with logging on, the other with logging off (log Errors only). 2009-09-22 3Connect file access 2003.xls (2,81 mb)

This information has been forwarded to Birdstep Technology, creators of 3Connect for 3. 3Connect is based on Birdstep Technology's EasyConnect, which is also used by T-mobile, TMN and Turkcell. Therefore, I presume that these customers are experiencing the same problems as 3's customers.

(File I/O reproduced on two separate laptops, and ProcessMonitor output sanity checked by Björn Johansson.)

Live from Twitter on this subject:

There's been reported severe issues and incompatibilities when trying to use mobile broadband connection software with the new version of Apples operating system for Mac called Snow Leopard.

The error occurring is a hard (kernel) crash of the Apple Mac operating system. In other words, access to Internet using mobile broadband is impossible. The Mac system itself survives, and there are no reports of data loss. 

I have very little information so far, but affected connection clients reported until now are from Telenor (Sweden), 3 (Three) (UK) and O2 (UK).

I'm working on getting more info. Are you affected? Please let us know more in a comment below, and please provide:

* What you experience
* Mobile Broadband provider name (such as Three or Telenor)
* Country
* Operating system
* Computer type

[Update] Vodafone (UK) has problems as well.

[Update no. 2] Virgin (UK) also has problems.